IN the wake of the A-level grading fiasco, SDLP leader Colum Eastwood says now is the time to end the "crazy economic policy" of capping places for local students at Northern Ireland's universities.
The cap exists because Stormont subsidises lower student fees, so Eastwood was effectively calling for higher fees, as the DUP's Sammy Wilson gleefully pointed out.
A more realistic approach has been hinted at by Alliance MP Stephen Farry, who introduced Northern Ireland's current system as a Stormont minister in 2011: places and fees could both increase a bit.
Universities would settle for the subsidy increasing a bit - they say Stormont's £3,500 top up per student still leaves them £1,500 short compared to institutions in Britain.
Students in turn might want to know how much it really costs to provide undergraduate courses.
Whatever the answer, or mix of answers, it is certainly time to have this debate.
Blocking university expansion to help people into university is the sort of thing even an algorithm would not come up with.
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This week's GCSE results in Northern Ireland came from teacher assessments, as eventually did last week's A-levels, producing a record-breaking 10 per cent improvement.
Much criticism of schools and teachers for over-generous predictions misses the point that GCSE and A-level students are not so much graded as ranked, across Northern Ireland or even the whole UK in certain subjects.
A teacher might be able to rank their own students but they can only guess where this fits into a regional or national table, so they will naturally fall back to simply assessing how good a raw score each child might attain.
There is a case this is a fairer measure of individual performance.
However, a 10 per cent improvement in GCSEs can be explained entirely through rounding.
If teachers assess each class as getting the same spread of grades as last year, then round up each pupil falling between each of the nine grades, guess what happens?
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"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson (no relation).
Now Stormont has resumed coronavirus briefings it ought to put this on a sign on the wall, especially with health minister Robin Swann renewing lockdown measures.
The purpose of lockdown is to slow the spread of the virus by any practical means, not to form a set of measures with some higher abstract consistency.
Nevertheless, apparent inconsistency annoys people, confuses the message and reduces compliance.
The reopening of schools is going to increase this dramatically, unless better explanations are given or changes made.
For example, the Department of Education's guidance to schools says use of books "should be restricted", presumably with increased use of IT.
Yet all Northern Ireland's libraries are opening from the end of this month "for book browsing and limited access to IT".
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An uncompromising court verdict against Arlene Foster and Michelle O'Neill over Troubles pensions is a reminder of the difference between law and politics - topics frequently conflated in this part of the world.
Westminster legislated for a pension, Stormont is required to implement it and that is the legal end of the matter.
DUP objections over funding and Sinn Féin objections over the honour of the IRA are beside the point.
The same was true over DUP objections to same-sex marriage and abortion, also legislated for in Westminster last year; and DUP objections to funding Troubles inquests, the subject of another withering court verdict against Foster in 2018.
In this week's case, it is notable that judge Mr Justice McAlinden is a former personal injury specialist.
The pension provisions to which Sinn Féin objects so vociferously are merely the minimum standard qualifications for every similar public and private pension and compensation scheme, including 'conflict-related' schemes, here and around the world.
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Next year's centenary of Northern Ireland is provoking complaints from people who refuse to 'celebrate'.
They should put theirs minds at rest, as no such expectation exists. Since the decade of centenaries became executive policy in 2013, under the Together: Building A United Community agreement, the official term has been "remembrance".
This was reiterated in January's New Decade, New Approach deal, despite the centenary being recast as a gift to the DUP to 'balance' an Irish language act.
Celebration is not mentioned, with remembrance only to be "marked" by "recognition", "awareness" and "an opportunity to reflect".
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The Belfast Harbour Estate is objecting to a proposed £40 million biogas plant in Giant's Park on the North Foreshore, saying it is "incompatible" with plans to expand a nearby film studio.
One objection is noise, although the Harbour Estate's other film studio at Titanic Quarter is one of the most successful in the world, despite being the end of Belfast City Airport's runway.
There also appears to be concern that an energy from waste plant is hardly conducive to the glamour of showbiz.
Yet Giant's Park is built on an enormous, rotting pile of landfilled rubbish, already emitting enough 'biogas' to run a small power plant near the studio.
As this has not stopped Hollywood filming there, will a few bin lorries really make any difference?
