Slugger O'Toole

Latest comments from Comrade Stalin (see all)

Comrade Stalin has commented 3,539 times (98 in the last month).

1. Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
   on 18 May 2013 at 1:04 am

   SF would argue that they predate the UUP. It used to say on their website that they were Ireland’s oldest political party.

   These parties have all had their ups and downs. TBH the SDLP have been the most consistent. The DUP were in a death spiral from the 1980s until the mid 1990s. Alliance had its peaks and troughs, and nearly disappeared in the early 2000s.

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2. Comment on UKIP: We’ve proved we can get votes in Wales, England and Northern Ireland…
   on 18 May 2013 at 12:55 am

   Reilly’s showing wasn’t half bad for a councillor in the 2011 Assembly elections. He’s going to make John McCallister’s return in the next Assembly elections even more problematic than it would have been.

   McAllister will be slightly more transfer friendly for nationalists this time, and considerably more transfer friendly than Reilly. Without seeing details of the count it is hard to say but I’d have thought McAllister’s voters would be moderate minded types who refuse to switch to the DUP – and UKIP are likely to present themselves as an alternative to the DUP.

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3. Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
   on 16 May 2013 at 9:40 am

   tmitch,

   A formal opposition is not going to happen as long as the current tribal axis continues to exist. That problem might be solved in the long term (decades) but it won’t be solved in the short term, certainly not in the political lifetime of many of the leading MLAs.

   I don’t rate Basil’s prospects beyond getting some airtime and getting himself re-elected. There’s no party machine there and it will take time to build one, and like I said earlier I’m not sure that he has the patience or organizational skills to do this. I take no particular comfort from these facts.

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4. Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
   on 16 May 2013 at 12:07 am

   tmitch57,

   The only people who can persuade Alliance to go into opposition are its voters and at the moment this doesn’t seem likely to me. People are different, but I find the idea of making the best of a less than ideal situation and using the opportunity to change things in government to be more compelling than sitting outside and carping.

   I’m not anticipating Basil and John putting up a serious challenge to Alliance. As I have often commented before, we seem to go through this every few years. Most recently, UCUNF were going to destroy Alliance through “introducing non sectarian politics” – the arrogance of this notion still makes me wince – and when I pointed out how stupid this was and predicted that UCUNF would win no seats, Slugger sympathizers accused me of running scared. A few years before that we were all told the Women’s Coalition and a couple of other small groups who sprung up around that time would be the final nail in Alliance’s coffin. From memory, Jane Morrice defected. A short time later every single one of them lost their assembly seats, having discovered (as their counterparts on the other side of the political spectrum such as the BNP have done) that once the honeymoon is over and the protest votes have been collected the first couple of times around, running a party and persuading people to keep voting for you is damn hard and involves a lot of work on the ground.

   I am not closed minded about this. If someone has a better idea of how to implement non sectarian politics and get people voting for it, and they end up replacing Alliance – great – please do it. I would be happy to be proven wrong. But Alliance has spent 30 years thinking through all the combinations, building allegiances (especially in London where they are now bearing fruit – witness President Obama and his lecture on the need to build a shared future which Alliance have been banging on about for longer than anyone else) to get where it is now, and with a handful of exceptions most of the members and activists are people who did not come to non-sectarian politics via the scenic route of becoming disillusioned with their role as an elected representative in a tribal party.

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5. Comment on PSNI: “if the NCA is unable to operate fully in Northern Ireland, this will have a detrimental impact on our ability to keep people safe”
   on 15 May 2013 at 11:10 pm

   Read the rap sheet then try with a straight face to justify under any circumstances spooks operating unaccountably in Ireland.

   Locally accountable police are running agents in the paramilitaries right now. What’s the difference ?

   Not sure what you think that’s got to do with the price of butter. My primary interest is in security arrangments in Ireland. The good people of Manchester or Birmingham have had a slightly different relationship with the Crown, I think you can agree.

   What’s different about it ?

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6. Comment on PSNI: “if the NCA is unable to operate fully in Northern Ireland, this will have a detrimental impact on our ability to keep people safe”
   on 15 May 2013 at 9:22 pm

   the ability of (locally unaccountable) spooks

   Firstly, a compromise could almost certainly have been found to make them locally accountable.

   Secondly, what are you talking about ? They’d be as accountable in Belfast as they would in Manchester or Birmingham.

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7. Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
   on 15 May 2013 at 9:01 am

   With respect after dropping the UCUNF banner and Conservative link UUP vote in same seats drops to 78000 in assembly elections similar drop in council.

   Ah yes, the old selective statistics thing.

   The UUP vote share was 17.5% in 2005, it dropped to 15.2% in 2010. In the council elections (a year after dropping UCUNF) the UUP vote share was still 15.2%.

   UUP would be glad of 102000 now ;lets not forget the first past the post meant for every 7 DUP votes UCUNF got 5 DUP got all 9 seats and UCUNF zero.

   Yes, but of course both parts of UCUNF endorsed FPTP ..

   DUP knew it was credible as senior DUP politicians have since conceded.

   Huh ? Which senior DUP politician conceded ?

   They adopted the tactic of trying to undermine UCUNF by lobbing in the Unionist unity card at the Schomberg House and Hatfield House talks.

   Unionist unity in the modern era started when UCUNF implemented an electoral pact with the DUP in FST.

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8. Comment on Increasing numbers of passengers let the train take the strain … apart from a 10 year decline on the Enterprise
   on 14 May 2013 at 10:44 pm

   AndyB, I see what you mean about third party rolling stock being somewhat impractical. But I’m quite convinced that things can be done better than they are done at present. Translink don’t maintain their fleet well; the C3K trains are already looking grotty inside. And they splurge money on rolling stock (such as the Gatwick set and the DVT) and then seldom use it.

   The combined size of the C3K and C4K fleets far exceed the availability of the 450 and 80 sets they replaced, but service frequency hasn’t substantially changed to match so there are a bunch of sets lying unused.

   Bangordub, the online ticket offer with the Enterprise seems to be designed to discourage people from using it. The objective is clearly to optimize fare sales for peak and off-peak services but it’s out of date. The fact that you can’t even print out your ticket (as you can with the airlines) shows how daft it is; and buying a ticket in advance doesn’t even guarantee you a seat. Stupid.

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9. Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
   on 14 May 2013 at 10:37 pm

   JH, same problem everywhere.

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10. Comment on Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”
    on 14 May 2013 at 9:21 pm

    sketrick1,

    The UCUNF entity was not credible. The 102,000 voters were UUP voters. After the 2010 elections, when all that Tory dosh couldn’t win a single seat, the UUP could not ditch it fast enough.

    boondock, I heard her on Nolan a few times, once in particular challenging Jim Allister. She kicked his ass.

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