#EP19 Daily Crack: Will Unionist unity outflank both Alliance and the SDLP for the third Euro seat?

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So, the seventh of our election round ups (if we miss anything important, just stick it in the comment zone, or email me or David on the side)…

Much of the discussion on Slugger seems to assume that the third seat is a shoo in for Naomi or failing that Colum. But last night the DUP unleashed its best PEB to date with Diane’s record carried in the words of colleagues and community groups:

Youtube video

If nationalism has one key fault of self undoing it is in consuming future benefits long before they arrive. Allied with this Northern Ireland’s liberals (including most of the media) habitually write the DUP off as corrupt dinosaurs lurching from overhyped crisis to overhyped crisis.

Whatever I personally think about the folly of Brexit, the endless criticism has made them by far the sharpest political player in the Northern Irish political space. The policy focus and the use of real people (ie, non politicians) is designed to get cut through into wider unionism.

In contrast to Sinn Féin (who’s online activists have spent the last four days attacking Séamus Mallon and the SDLP and are self evidently in search of tribalist hegemony), the DUP is actively petitioning their supporters to “stay within the Unionist family” in terms of transfers.

Wide appeal and transfer discipline could be the secret sauce that gets Danny over the line. Although at 11/1, I will not be discounting a sneaky wee fiver tenner for Jim Allister to come up on the inside rail [Psst, don’t tell Jim!! – Ed]…

What if BBC NI declared a live and televised tribal war, and almost everyone refused to turn up? Maybe that’s why Jim’s so disappointed not to go again on the very last night (ie, tomorrow) of this lacklustre campaign…

In fact the job falls to Noel Thompson (who was given a lie in from hosting GMU this morning) on Spotlight tonight…

As the MSM in Northern Ireland continue to fail in their duty to cover the EP election, at least the BelTel has picked up Robin Swann’s rejection of support from loyalist paramilitaries:

“I repeat what I said in 2017,” he said. “We have not asked for the support of paramilitary organisations nor do we want the backing of organisations still engaged in paramilitary or criminal activity.

“Our position hasn’t changed and remains unequivocal. There is no excuse for the continuing existence of paramilitary organisations in the year 2019 which inflict pain and suffering on families and communities.

“The quicker that they disband the better.”

Oh but a wee word of praise for RTÉ’s Tommie Gorman for taking at least a modicum of mainstream interest in the SDLP yesterday…

 

In a more light hearted vein, someone needs to tell Amandeep (the Conservative candidate) that Naomi Long’s Alliance Party is in Guy Verhofstadt’s ALDE “Bo**ocks to Brexit” group too…

https://twitter.com/AmandeepBhogal/status/1130192800719482880

Oh, and this…

Looking at some of the more impressive material emanating from the south, no one has to teach Fine Gael’s unashamedly cosmopolitan Maria Walsh how to tell a story:

And this from here Fianna Fáil rival Brendan Smith on the importance of the border (just look at the viewing figures on both):

Just remember, it’s probably not going to be as close as we think, it’s just that none of us really know what the voters (in the most collective sense) are planning to do…

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