WHAT used to be striking about Sinn Féin-DUP government was that it happened at all. What is most striking about our new, exclusive Sinn Féin-DUP government is its coordinated choice of departments, with the d'Hondt process now just an outline to negotiations. These are two parties that can accommodate their separate agendas, even if they barely have a common agenda. The strong impression of portfolios simply being swapped over is to some extent explained by a slimmed-down executive but it also follows the example of permanent secretaries, the top civil servants in S[...]