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“made Jim Allister sound like the Dalai Lama” when he described Sinn Féin as “scum”.

on 9 May 2011 , 12:21 am 52 | 11 views

Worth a listen.

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  • Mark McGregor

    McClarty is going to look terribly weak and hypocritical when he rejoins the UUP and accepts as payoff a Committee chair by Wednesday!

  • USA

    The body language of the kid standing beside T.Elliot is worth a look. I even feel a bit bad for him.
    He is trying to take his lead from Elliots comments; and even seems to be taking the “foriegn flags” comment in good humor. However when Elliot continues and and then calls people in the room “scum” and murderers, the kids head snaps back to the front and he is again in “politico” mode. From then on the kids face is just screaming “oh god – this can’t be good”.
    Pretty funny.
    Poor kid.

  • orly

    Seems Tom is becoming a bit of a legend.

  • AGlassOfHine

    If the cap fits……………

  • Nordie Northsider

    I’ve noticed that RTÉ are going easy on Elliot and have barely reported it. A big story everywhere but in Tommy Gorman’s world.

    If the SDLP want to avoid giving the impression that they and the UUP are locked together they might have cause to regret Alex Atwood’s rather lukewarm and highly qualified condemnation on BBC’s The Politics Show.

  • “Seems Tom is becoming a bit of a legend.” … orly 9 May 2011 at 3:02 am

    Methinks more a political joke than a legend, orly. And what is one to think of the UUP if they don’t change their leader.

  • Comrade Stalin

    Nordie:

    If the SDLP want to avoid giving the impression that they and the UUP are locked together they might have cause to regret Alex Atwood’s rather lukewarm and highly qualified condemnation on BBC’s The Politics Show.

    No, Alex Attwood hates Sinn Fein, and it’s nothing to do with the Ulster Unionists. In West Belfast the two parties do not get on well.

  • iluvni

    Think I’ll wait until the Queen’s visit to the Republic of Ireland is over before I decide whether Sinn Fein still deserve to be labelled ‘scum’.

  • Framer

    The fact that almost no posts were made on Slugger during the prolonged count suggests that most of those who do post were election workers in some form or other, particularly Alliance, liberal/leftists and SF/nationalist.

    This explains the torrents of anti-UUP/Elliott posts after people got home and had a night’s sleep.

  • Nordie Northsider

    Comrade Stalin: I’m aware that things aren’t rosy between the SDLP and SF, in West Belfast or anywhere. Nonetheless, Atwood gave the distinct impression that he was aplogising for Elliot. Not wise.

  • andnowwhat

    @Framer

    Your theory might work save for the fact that quite a few people post on here via I Phones and such.

    BTW, here and on many forums Elliot has been criticised by people who’s track record as unionists are well established

  • MonkDeWallyDeHonk

    Comrade Stalin

    I have to agree with Nordie.

    I’m a moderate Nationalist of the “old school” SDLP i.e. Hume and Mallon era. Frankly, I’m glad I’m no longer in the North as I certainly couldn’t bring myself to vote for the mess that constutites the modern day SDLP.

    However, I can tell you that Elliott has simply confirmed what very many Nationalists (moderate or otherwise) suspected. Personally, I never fell for his “moderate” act.

    It’s a great pity that Basil McCrea (a real moderate who could reach out to Catholic Unionists – potentially fertile ground in today’s economic climate) – didn’t get elected as UUP leader.

    I keep in contact with very many friends/family from the North and I can honestly say that Elliott has really angered the Catholic/Nationalist community and embarassed himself and the UU – particulary as this has gone global. I’m in Australia and it was shown on the news here as part of the overall election coverage.

    To David Ford’s credit – his reaction was spot on as was that of many decent Unionists – ignoring some of the usual Unionist whingers on here who want the B-Specials back!

    Nordie is right. Atwood’s attitude will be perceived as close to agreeing with Elliott. Frankly, I met Attwood when we were students and he may have the same opinion of Sinn Fein supporters as Elliott.

    Either way, if I were him, I’d redress this impression quickly. A lot of decent people are offended by Elliott’s slur and for him to be almost defended by a so-called Nationalist will certainly not do the SDLP’s already dwindling fortunes any good at all.

  • Just spotted this on a ‘numerology of the famous‘:

    “McClarty needs tact and cooperation to keep himself moving forward. There will likely be confrontations with others, requiring a subtle and gentle approach. He will have to stay focused on his goals, yet use intelligent persuasion. Being forceful may work against David while compromises will work in his favor. ..

    McClarty has to be discriminating in his associations and secretive about his plans. He must not talk too much about his ideas; be a bit secretive, and guard himself and his ideas. David McClarty is somewhat vulnerable this year. ..

    May is the pivotal month in 2011.”

    Moving forward? Could this be an omen? Will he go for the DUP’s ‘progressive’ unionism? Would he fit into that DUP mould that the north coast property tycoon, Seymour Sweeney, alluded to during the course of the Ian Paisley jnr hiatus?

    Confrontations with others? Could this instead herald a move into the speaker’s chair?

    So many questions. The answers will appear shortly.

  • oracle

    Ah get over it you pompous melodramatic whinge-bags fair play to Tom Elliott for saying what the vast majority of DUP’s are thinking every minute of the day.

    Why must the SF supporters on this site jump at every opportunity to humiliate the Nationalist electorate by making them appear like drama-queens and shrinking violets?
    Is this the same electorate that suffered sectarian killings, hijackings, bombings, shootings, daily riots, CS-gas, plastic bullets, rubber bullets, house searches, and arrest but are very sensitive to having the flag they are perceived to be associated with described as foreign?

    Nationalist areas are probably laughing at Tom Elliott almost as much as they are laughing at Sinn Feins response

  • oracle

    Jesus now they’re just letting the mask slip completely they’re not even bothering to veil the attack on Attwood.. hell they’re even pretending to be offended in Austrailia

  • sdelaneys

    oracle ‘Nationalist areas are probably laughing at Tom Elliott almost as much as they are laughing at Sinn Feins response’
    have to say that that is close to what I have found and in general people are saying, re Elliot ,’ what a bollocks’, rather than getting worked up about it. Suits the anti SF republicans, though.

  • Johnny Boy

    Elliots outburst is a reminder of where we still are in NI, most of the electorate still vote out of fear and mistrust.

  • nightrider

    Daft as they were, Elliots remarks were pretty tame compared with some of Paisleys stuff from the past or even Mary McAleese, ‘all protestants are nazis’ etc. He had no need to lower himself to that level. The rabble in the counting centre got what they wanted.
    Rangers v Celtic politics.

  • oracle

    ” most of the electorate still vote out of fear and mistrust.”

    I’d think with the clear proof of transfers between the DUP and SF (and not one or two votes guys) that most of the electorate voted at the MI5 base in Holywood as well

  • RepublicanStones

    Agree with Oracle.
    The brouhaha caused by Elliots remarks shows how boring this election was, and how much the media miss the old school sectarian handbags.
    Nightrider I wasn’t aware McAleese said ‘all Protestants are Nazis’. Have you a link to that?

  • oracle

    Well nightrider the Shinners were dressed for sectarian politics
    Enough of them came in GAA shirts! yet not one word of criticism about that!
    What would they have made of the UUP supporters turning up in numbers Ranger shirts to be photographed beside Tom Elliott… why they’d be posting on Slugger from Central America or New Zealand telling us about how they went to school with them…. no wait that’s already been done!

  • andnowwhat

    GAA shirts are sectarian now?

    Walk through the wee provincial towns and villages all over NI and that’s all they wear 24/7 it would seem. Very often they will wear their English premier league shirts. Are they unionists when they wear the latter? Of course niot

  • oracle

    Andnowwhat

    So if you met a dozen guys walking down the main street in say Portadown wearing Rangers shirts you’d approach them to canvass for SF?????

    Away and catch yourself on GAA shirts are sectarian emblems whether you like that idea or not

  • andnowwhat

    O know guys from Leeds who support Rangers and wear the tops. None of them give a toss about NI politics or sectarianism.

    As for saying that GAA tops are sectarian, does that include the ones that the PSNI team wear for example?

  • Republican Stones, the BBC published the President’s comments:

    “President McAleese said the anti-semitism that existed for decades had been built upon by the Nazis.

    “They gave to their children an irrational hatred of Jews in the same way that people in Northern Ireland transmitted to their children an irrational hatred, for example, of Catholics, in the same way that people give to their children an outrageous and irrational hatred of those who are of different colour and all of those things,” she said.”

  • oracle

    Yeah well this isn’t Leeds now is it? so how does that compare? that’s like saying someone in Hong Kong or New York… it’s plain silly.

    Yes the if the PSNI GAA team start wearing their kit to the shops or to the cinema and not for its purpose of playing on a pitch or training then indeed that is sectarian

    Just to help you here is the dictionary translation of sectarian

    sec·tar·i·an   /sɛkˈtɛəriən/ Show Spelled
    [sek-tair-ee-uhn] Show IPA

    –adjective
    1. of or pertaining to sectaries or sects.
    2. narrowly confined or devoted to a particular sect.
    3. narrowly confined or limited in interest, purpose, scope, etc.
    –noun
    4. a member of a sect.
    5. a bigoted or narrow-minded adherent of a sect.

    ***** CLEAR ENOUGH ******

  • RepublicanStones

    Nevin I think we’ve proved sarcasm doesn’t travel over the web. Being well aware of McAleese’s speech. Care to point out where she said “All Protestant’s are Nazi’s”?

    Simply assuming inference on somebody’s part doesn’t suffice.

  • oracle

    Think the Shinners have more pressing concerns now

    ***** BREAKING NEWS *******

    Word has it Davy Hyland topped poll in Newry and Mourne and got elected 1st count for Erigi

  • Nunoftheabove

    oracle

    There’s no use reaching for a dictionary to help you if you don’t actually understand the use of words and how they come into being in certain circumstances. It is absolutely unarguable that the historical derivation of and historical application of the word to the circumstances in NI pertain very specifically to bigotry based on membership of or identification with one or other of the Christian churches. The Christian churches here ARE the sects to which the word sectarianism refers in this context.

    If you wish to project onto a PSNI GAA shirt the fact that that too is sectarian then that’s up to you to defend your argument as to how you make the connection;
    it doesn’t necessarily make the garment sectarian.

  • PaddyReilly

    Davy Hyland I remember him well. Always getting drunk and shouting “Up the IRA” in inappropriate venues.

    Tom Elliott a similar embarrassment on t’other side. But I think it is worth pointing out that he said “The Scum of Sinn Féin”, meaning these here are the worse part of SF, not all SF voters are scum. Not quite the same thing. (I am a cruel man, but fair.)

  • Zachariah Tiffins Foot

    oracle,

    The police have a GAA team that plays as the police? Not just playing members of other GAA teams?

    Is there a PSNI Orange Lodge as well?

  • sdelaneys

    I don’t think davy Hyland stood as an eirigi candidtate. he stood as an independent, not even an independent republican but just as an independent. If he has taken a seat off Sinn Féin it will be interesting but if it is the SDLP who lose out the shinners will hardly be too worried.

  • sdelaneys

    I don’t think Davy topped the poll either, think that might have been Casey of SF. I think Davy has a surplus of 59, something like that while the shinners may have a few hundred in surplus. Can’t verify any of this yet but Davy is certainly in on first count and fair play to him.

  • oracle

    sdelaneys,

    True but i was onlt reporting the text i got from another interested party.
    All his canvassers were Erigi were they not?
    And little dickey birds are saying that if the Belfast wards return more Erigi candidates then Hyland will re-align

  • oracle

    As you say sdelaneys it will be most interesting who lost the seat, most interesting indeed if it turns out to be the SF candidate.
    would be interesting times for all concerned

  • AGlassOfHine

    Whinge,whinge,glorious whinge,
    Nothing quite like it when your on a binge,
    So follow me follow
    Down to the hollow
    Where we can wallow……
    In glorious whinge !

    I thank you 😉

    Get over it please !! How long can the eternal mopery card be played ?? ( erternally,it seems )

  • Greenflag

    RS,

    ‘Simply assuming inference on somebody’s part doesn’t suffice.’

    It’s not what you say it’s what you don’t say or how you say what you don’t say , that matters 🙂

    Still Mr Elliot can’t be accused of mincing his words eh ) . It must all be part of his reach out to Catholic ‘unionists ‘ strategy to save the Union . Next up Mr Elliot will try the long spoon method of outreach by watching a GAA game on TV and noting how much he enjoyed the Sinn Fein ‘scum’ knocking the bejasus out of each other .

    This UUP leader should get the Nobel prize for ‘dynamite ‘ strategy ;( Harry West in retro is beginning to look almost a humanitarian possessed of unbounded tact , diplomacy and common sense . 🙁

  • oracle

    Erigi candidate McCotter got 1400 1st pref votes in SF heartland of upper falls… will not impress the Shinners that 1400 of their percieved voters elsewhere

  • sdelaneys

    oracle; ‘All his canvassers were Erigi were they not?
    ‘ I don’t think so, some were, some were not.

    ‘And little dickey birds are saying that if the Belfast wards return more Erigi candidates then Hyland will re-align’ Surely not? Wouldn’t that be highly hypocritical? Why not stand under their banner in the first place if that’s what he wants.

  • sdelaneys

    that is a good vote for McCotter . what is the quota, do you know/

  • Greenflag

    ‘How long can the eternal mopery card be played ‘

    As long as some Unionist leaders and politicians put their foot in it and react to situations in limbic mode instead of using the frontal cortex .

    So that would be for an eternity or two then assuming there’s another universe when this one wraps up ?

    In response to your meaningful doggerel here’s the original slightly altered for circumstantial impact 😉

    Mud mud glorious mud
    Nothing quite like it cept chewing the cud
    So follow Tom follow Tom into the flood
    And let the UUP stick in the mud
    And elect a new leader
    And not another dud .

  • oracle

    sdelaneys think its about 2000 but not sure all information very patchy.
    But no doubt a very good 1st show for them

    worst covered election in history by both BBC UTV and slugger

  • sdelaneys

    That’s high. just below 1000 in Newry and aMourne. Still a very good first pref. Re coverage, you’re dead on, I can find damn all about the council counts.

  • Alias

    The Shinners are now part of the local British establishment, so it is no longer acceptable to refer to them in disrespectful tones. Hence the media and ilk get all uppity about it.

  • SK

    Yes the if the PSNI GAA team start wearing their kit to the shops or to the cinema and not for its purpose of playing on a pitch or training then indeed that is sectarian

    What about when GAA members wear it to funerals Oracle?

  • AGlassOfHine

    green

    You stick to playing the mope card……………..I’ll stick to making the witty,yet cutting remarks !! 😉

  • Zig70

    when my 9yr old pulls on his GAA top he is part of a sect? Most normal people call it a team. The problem in viewing a Rangers top as sectarian is in the heart of the viewer. The wearer may be sectarian, you won’t know until you interact so all we can ascertain is that the viewer is sectarian.
    Basil showed his potential to screw things up by bringing his posse to the count, came across a bit of a champagne charlie.
    I’d like to see a non sectarian right and left party but I don’t think any link with Irish/English parties that gives control will be endorsed by Ulster folk, there is a healthy dose of mistrust. The problem with the non sectarian thing is it doesn’t motivate people to vote as much as a good dose of tribalism. I would predict that a moderate more central UUP won’t fair any better. If it was up to me I would maybe tap into the church going voter and try to stick a wedge in UUP/COI/Methodist etc against a DUP/ FreeP. Probably daft but just an idea.

  • grandimarkey

    “Yes the if the PSNI GAA team start wearing their kit to the shops or to the cinema and not for its purpose of playing on a pitch or training then indeed that is sectarian”

    Surely its in the eye of the beholder?

    I don’t find it sectarian. You might, but maybe you’re just a bit sensitive.

    Was the wearing of the GAA tops at Constable Kerr’s funeral sectarian?
    Is the wearing of a GAA top in Sligo sectarian?

    I highly recommend that you don’t click on this link. You may be offended…

  • HeinzGuderian

    Is the wearing of a PSNI Uniform sectarian ?

  • grandimarkey

    “Is the wearing of a PSNI Uniform sectarian ?”

    Nope.

    It’s about as sectarian as wearing a GAA top.

  • JR

    Are ulster rugby jerseys sectarian? Are man u or chelsea jerseys sectarian? Next you will be calling the Irish language sectarian.

  • grandimarkey