Thursday, February 14, 2008

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1. joeCanuck
   I’d call it a bad day for the DUP - a good day for Allister. It can’t be taken as a sign of meltdown as its much too localised a result. However, its not without significance either and the DUP would be well advised to go and analyse what caused the result.

   The visual messages which have went out are probably no small cause of what happened. I don’t hear people crying “lundy” in the way that the TUV claim they are. I do hear people squeaking with some discomfort over the way things appear to be presented.

   Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:50 PM

2. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

   Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:51 PM

3. “Unionists utterly bereft of principle” when your leader is ian paisley, then principle doesn’t come up high on the agenda. The Dupers have reaped what they sowed. and boy isn’t it great

   Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:51 PM

4. Half pint
   that last “ha” just pushed you from reasoned analysis into schadenfreude

   Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:53 PM

5. J Kelly-

   I didn’t say it was negative. I merely said it was interesting. Unless, of course, you think it is negative that Sinn Féin voters appear to favour the DUP over the UUP ;)

   As for your comment about the SDLP, your ability to look for the negative in anything SDLP is only to be commended…

   Posted by El Matador on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:53 PM

6. I’ll hold my hands up and admit that nearly all my predictions where wrong.  Call it over enthusiasm from a newbie to front line politics.

   I will however I point out that it was a good result for The Alliance give that the last time we even stood in Dromore was over 10 years ago.

   I will also point out that this isn’t a victory for the UUP, they struggled to maintain a seat that Tyrone Howe still hasn’t given his reason for resigning from.

   Posted by Pounder on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:54 PM

7. Even the disgusting media consensus around the DUP at this election, the daily appearance of their so called big hitters, and a very significant bye election turnout did not save the hypocrisy of the DUP from the rath of the people.

   To lose 20% of your vote in the Constituency of your biggest electoral asset is quite simply disasterous and if you get a sense of “glee” then you are sensing right.

   The UUP selected a quality local FEMALE candidate who campaigned on local issues. It is also a very good day for the TUV a number of whos voters simply recognised that at least the UUP were honest however much they may not like the new power sharing realities.

   The spin and bluster of the Fair Deal has been exposed and you cannot go into an election with clearly nearly half of your vote believing that you are standing for something at the complete opposite end of the political spectrum of what you have subsequently used their mandate for.

   Stand by for a hardening of the DUP and the “Chucke Brothers” losing their chuckle but the mask has fallen and the people can clearly see that what the UUP did for principled peace the DUP did for personal Power.

   A great day for our Wee Country indeed and the UUP armed with their new selection methods and one member one vote say for all need to go and attract and promote more young, bright articulate candidates like Ms Black and they will be rewarded by a large cross section of the electorate as they have been today.

   Well done to all concerned!!

   Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:57 PM

8. Vote TUV get UUP. Well done Jim

   Vote DUP and you’d still get UUP, whereing Jeffery’s rosette

   Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:58 PM

9. One other thing this should hopefully do is stop the not especially smart arses mouthing off at Jim Allister, a much, much smarter cookie than most of the twerps we elect anywhere. And I’ll drone this again - if Reg had any smarts, he’d start now the year long game of footsie necessary to start undoing Trimble’s most disastrous, seat-shedding legacy to the UUP. Namely, Reg should start getting us traditional (Ulster) Unionists - and our votes - back into the UUP. And there’s no better way to do that (and, by the by, actually hold the UUP seat at Strasbourg next time) than by getting Jim Allister into the UUP, and getting back to having a catholic range of opinion inside the party.

   Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:59 PM

10. Pounder,

    The first one is the best. Its all downhill from then until your first victory, then its downhill again and then the disillusionment can set in and you’ll realise just how much time and effort you’ve wasted. Then’ll you’ll give up for a while and then restart much more cynical than before having the cycle of hope, despair and disillusionmnet ad infinitum until you eventually listen to your long suffering partner and just give up on the whole hopeless state of affairs as you should have done at the start. ;0)

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:00 PM

11. Snaz

    let’s not get carried away. Well done for retaining the seat but don’t kid anyone that this is a UUP revival. Your candidate was elected on an anti-DUP vote not a pro-Reg surge. The tragedy for you would be if this result in anyway helped to keep Reg in post for the next Assembly election.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:03 PM

12. Pounder,
    You clearly do not understand the difference between a bye election and a normal 6 seat council election.

    The DUP beat the UUP nearly 2/1 at the last election which Tyrone got elected in. They were odds on to win the seat which is why they demanded a bye election as opposed to the accepted wisdom of a cooption.

    It is quite simply a very bad result for the DUP a very good result for the UUP and TUV and that was despite a scandlous campaign of non reporting on the UUP campaign.

    Do you support the Union or do you not really care?

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:03 PM

13. actually hold the UUP seat at Strasbourg next time) than by getting Jim Allister into the UUP, and getting back to having a catholic range of opinion inside the party.

    Posted by Ahem on Feb 14, 2008 @ 12:59 PM

    yeah, Catholic Unionists.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:07 PM

14. That was a great funny comment, Darth.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:08 PM

15. Snaz aka Mark Cosgrove - DUP spinning? They could learn a thing or 2 from you!

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:08 PM

16. harry

    Note the lower case “c”. Go get a dictionary.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:09 PM

17. Friend Bollers: absolutely, couldn’t agree more. Unionism still has a lot more to do to persuade pro-Union catholics to vote Unionist. Even though, for what it’s worth, at every election since partition, more catholics, both in percentage and absolute terms, have voted Unionist than protestants have voted nationalist. So without wanting to be more than merely a little smug, woeful as our failure to transcend religio-communalism has been, we’re nowhere near as bad as the other side has been . . .

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:10 PM

18. And of course ABL is right, that obviously was ‘catholic’ employed in the universal sense. Plainly the 11+ can’t be abolished soon enough, if even readers of grammarotoole don’t understand that.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:13 PM

19. “All I’m concerned about are the long-term consequences of a Unionist attitude that centres on killing off Paisley… at all cost?”

    What did you reckon to a unionist attitude centring on killing off Trimble at all costs?

    Well done to Carol Black.  A just result in an election which should never have been fought.

    Posted by Chekov on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:15 PM

20. Should Pappa Doc’s special advisor Timmy Johnston not be collecting his P45 for this mess?

    Posted by unionist on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:15 PM

21. Classic, I dont vote for either of the Unionist Parties but this is absolutely classic.

    DUP play bad sports and demand a bi election ‘knowing’ they will walk it.

    UUP get excellent first preferences as does the DUP’s other arch nemisis Allister’s TUV.

    Sinn Fein transfer heavily to the DUP.

    TUV trasfer in favour of the UUP

    Everything went wrong for the DUP, talk about egg on your face! they had egg rubbed in their faces by UUP and the TUV while SF tried to rush to their defence.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:16 PM

22. If you add the DUP and TUV votes together, then TUV took 40% of that block, not 20% as some would put it.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:17 PM

23. Unionists would not risk this carry-on in the Assembly elections as it would put SF as largest party.

    Fair play to Jimbo though - although heartily disagreeing with him he does comes across very well.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:22 PM

24. Similarly, last time round, DUP took 50% of first preferences. This time it was 30%. That is, 40% of their vote went to TUV.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:28 PM

25. So what if SF end up as the single largest Assembly party? It’ll make no more odds than when at the first Stormont poll of ‘the process’ the Stoops polled the largest number of votes/1st prefernces [losing that mantle - biggest popular vote - being yet another Turtle ‘first’ fro the UUP, but I’m being bitter]. And should SF end up as the single largest party, realistically it will only be because of catastrophic failure by the SDLP. Such as could easily encompass a further increase in the Unionist margin at Stormont. Oh, and, such are the debased rules, a Unionist would still be nominal first minister anyway. So bring it on.

    Posted by  on Feb 14, 2008 @ 01:28 PM
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