2008 could bring major changes for the territorial departments representing the devolved nations in Whitehall, as a result of the outworking of the St Andrew’s Agreement in Northern Ireland.
Under the deal agreed in October 2006, policing and justice powers are due to be devolved to the Stormont Executive by May this year.
From my latest piece at OurKingdom, which has also sparked some useful commentary over at Slugger.
Incidentally, I will be in Ireland for the next week or so, so the Christmas hiatus here will probably be extended for a while.