BORIS Johnson paid his first visit to Northern Ireland as prime minister and promptly ran into a row by having a private meeting with the DUP before meeting all five main parties at Stormont.
The UUP described this as "unwise", while the whole of nationalist Ireland from the Taoiseach right down to Sinn Féin reminded the government of its responsibility to be impartial under the Good Friday Agreement.
That responsibility is overstated - the government does not have to be apolitical.
Unionists have every right to use their influence and nationalists have no right to dictate who can meet whom.
But a Westminster deal is not meant to cover devolved matters, as is acknowledged in the DUP-Tory confidence and supply agreement.
The DUP-Johnson meeting gave the appearance of breaching that important principle. Why not just meet at Westminster and spare us all the fuss?
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New chief constable Simon Byrne says the PSNI is "revisiting" its recruitment policies to obtain a more balanced workforce.
This could put new secretary of state Julian Smith on the spot over the government's DUP links.
The obvious rebalancing method is 50/50 recruitment, dropped in 2011 to DUP delight but still on the statute books.
Its reactivation is the responsibility of the secretary of state in consultation with the chief constable and the Policing Board.
In practice, if Byrne wants it and the board is split along unionist/nationalist lines on the issue as always, it will look dreadful if Smith turns him down.
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Hopes are growing a buyer will be found for Harland & Wolff, which is just as well, as there is no hope of the business being nationalised.
It is bizarre of unions to pursue this 1970s' notion, along with pickets, protests and occupations, when they should be focusing on professional lobbying of investors.
Whatever happens, the former shipyard's landmark cranes, Samson and Goliath, should be preserved. They were listed in 2003 as historic monuments.
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Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWO), the latest weapon against organised crime, have not been enacted in Northern Ireland due to the absence of Stormont.
However, the National Crime Agency in England has just issued one to a woman from Northern Ireland suspected of paramilitary links, freezing property that includes houses in Northern Ireland.
It turns out UWOs still work here, even if they cannot be issued by the authorities here.
Other UK-wide authorities that can issue UWOs covering Northern Ireland include Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, the Serious Fraud Office and the Financial Conduct Authority.
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The DUP's first openly gay elected representative, Antrim and Newtownabbey councillor Alison Bennington, has voted with all her party colleagues against flying a Pride flag from council offices.
Rather than Bennington making the DUP more liberal, could it be making her more conservative?
Elsewhere, Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O'Neill has been named politician of the year by Belfast Pride, causing much surprise, as the winner was expected to be south Armagh-born Labour MP Conor McGinn, who delivered same-sex marriage for Northern Ireland via the Commons.
While the prize was never going to the DUP, that scarcely justifies giving it to Sinn Féin instead.
Collecting her award, the only achievement O'Neill could cite was reversing the gay blood donation ban as Stormont health minister - three years ago.
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A Lisburn man has been spared custody after punching a traffic warden to the ground then punching him again.
District Judge John Meehan suspended a three-month sentence on 33-year-old Michael O'Doherty in the "hope" there was "a reasonable prospect of you behaving yourself".
Such are the decisions the courts must make but it was unfortunate for the judge to presage his ruling with the words "drivers must know that if they lay a finger on a traffic warden then they go to jail".
Drivers now know the opposite.
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London-based developer Castlebrooke Investments has revised its plan for rebuilding much of central Belfast.
The anchor store has been removed due to changes in retailing, its basement car park has gone, permitting original street fronts to be retained and the tallest tower block has had its height cut by two-thirds.
However, the most reviled aspect of the project - its branding as 'Tribeca' - remains.
In fairness, this gives it a strong local identity. What could be more Northern Ireland than making serious structural changes while still clinging to contentious terminology?
