Postie Dodds off on his rounds

If your post is late in North Belfast blame your MP! Well for one day anyway, Nigel Dodds is accompanying one lucky postman on his rounds to get a taste of what it is like for the delivery people who are out in all weathers to deliver bills, birthday cards and credit card statements.

We hope that the dog owners in North Belfast are not aiming for their pooches to get a taste for Mr Dodds.  This experience will be an eye-opener for all the MPs taking part across the UK in something many will not have experienced before - a hard day's work.

But it also gave us an idea...what other occupations could our elected representatives do for a day to show them what this weird thing called work could be.

Rather than run down the full list of jobs the 108 MLAs could do, we thought we'd start with some members of the Norn Iron Executive and you can add more as you see fit.

First up there is Minister of Environment Alex Attwood. As the environmentalists main concern is global warming, Mr Attwood could operate a fan across the Assembly chamber to cool down the hot air that normally blows out from it, quickly followed by a shift at the power plants generating some renewable energy resources by talking endlessly.

Then we could have the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Arlene Foster spending the day at a call centre answering stupid questions, but then again that's what she does during ministerial question time. Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Caral Ni Chuilin could get some crayons and colouring in paper to make some pretty pictures followed by a day standing around as an extra for Game of Thrones.

Minister for Regional Development, Danny Kennedy could be digging up roads for a day, facing the ire of motorists, while Minister for Social Development, Nelson McCausland should perhaps spend a day manning the dole office to hear what it is like on the front line. Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Michelle O'Neill could herd cattle all day, just like dealing with an Assembly committee, and Minister for Health, Edwin Poots could put in a day as a porter at an A&E department.

Minister for Employment and Learning, Stephen Farry...well he has our sympathy as he'll soon be out of a ministerial job, so he can spend a day visiting Nelson McCausland at the dole offices and get some help filling in endless forms only to find out that if he doesn't attend three interviews he's losing his benefits.