ae11 – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

#UTV Roadtrip: Fermanagh and South Tyrone beyond the digital frontier?

Mick Fealty on April 21, 2011, 4:28 pm

| Readers 15

Fermanagh South Tyrone have one big thing in common. They are both rural, highly dependent on the health of Argiculture and, as the Minister for Agriculture Michelle Gildernew told us, both struggle with a perceived lack of seriousness with which policy makers treat both rural and small scale urban resources. Listen! But in many other respects, South Tyrone is very different from Fermanagh. Dungannon is at the heart of a thriving agri-industrial life. The huge growth in migrant labour is visible …

Catching up with Paddy Meehan (Socialist Party)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 21, 2011, 12:00 pm

| Readers 127

The Socialist Party are standing on a Fight the Cuts agenda. With local government and Assembly candidates in Belfast and Enniskillen they’re in competition with a whole clatter of small left wing parties. Paddy Meehan is their South Belfast candidate for the Assembly, and is also standing in Laganbank for a seat on Belfast City Council. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and asked what the Socialist Party was offering voters. We want to give the opportunity …

SDLP launch manifesto … flags, symbols, and upping the ante on unification

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 21, 2011, 9:05 am

| Readers 79

It was the SDLP’s turn on Wednesday to launch their manifesto. … make no mistake, the SDLP, an Irish Nationalist Party, desperately wants a better Northern Ireland. We want to see a North which is attractive to business: a North that takes care of its sick and gives dignity and respect to its older citizens. A North which is safe and a great place to work and to raise a family. It was back to their campaign’s central message of …

Eamonn O’Neill: “come out and vote – this is an important election” (#ae11 #sdo11)

Patrick Corrigan on April 20, 2011, 10:36 am

| Readers 56

Eamonn O’Neill is hoping the voters of South Down will return him to the Assembly where he served a term from 1998, only to subsequently miss out in 2003 by the narrowest of margins, just 36 votes. The Castlewellan-based SDLP representative didn’t stand in the 2007 election but has maintained a high profile locally, currently serving as Chairperson of Down District Council, where he has spent thirty-fours years as a councillor. Over the years Sinn Féin’s vote in the constituency …

#UTVtrip in Foyle: How to shift out of the shadow of the past to the future?

Mick Fealty on April 20, 2011, 8:22 am

| Readers 7

There was a strange mix of intelligent optimism and fearful pessimism in the room at Cafe del Mondo in Derry last night. By all reports McGimpsey’s announcement that he had not received sufficient money to build the Radiotherapy Unit in Altnagelvin had caused much of the indignation (not much, says Mark Durkan, quite a bit, says Martina Anderson) there is amongst Foyle voters. However, given the UUP don’t have much skin in the Foyle game (it’s the only constituency where …

Alliance Party launch huge manifesto

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 20, 2011, 12:45 am

| Readers 54

David Ford 2011 campaign launch speech wordle - wordle.net

The Alliance Party manifesto should come with a health warning. Dropping it on your toe could cause serious injury. On Monday, the DUP’s director of elections Simon Hamilton described his party’s spiral bound book of promises as “probably one of the most detailed and most comprehensive manifestos that any party will do in this election or indeed any party in any election in Northern Ireland’s history will have put forward”. A short-lived claim, as the very next day the Alliance …

Green Party manifesto launch – Economy for People and Planet

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 19, 2011, 11:55 pm

| Readers 9

Natty pale green ties were out in force as the Green Party launched their manifesto this morning. Steven Agnew opened by saying: Resources are stretched and we have to prioritise spending on areas that meet a number of policy objectives. There is no sense in squandering money on projects that may be good economically but environmentally damaging. Equally we should not be pushing environmental policies that are not good for people. The Green Party benchmarks all its policies on whether …

In the event of a tie……Alliance Party votes count as double.

FitzJames Horse on April 19, 2011, 5:56 pm

| Readers 45

I have a lot of time for the Alliance Party. Most people have. Forty years of non sectarianism is no mean achievement. Of course they have made mistakes. I think that the “re-designation” fiasco might well have been their biggest and just about every Alliance person I have ever met agrees. It was not their finest hour but they would say…..and I agree….that it was a decision made for the Common Good. Critically they have learned from it. They have …

#AE11 Open Thread: Upper Bann (#uban11)

Mick Fealty on April 19, 2011, 9:31 am

| Readers 61

Upper Bann is one of the more interesting constituencies in a generally dull race. It’s been a cockpit for a lot of discontent on both sides of the communal divide. The long-running Drumcree affair was a running sore in the early days of the peace process, and only last week the sitting SDLP candidate Delores Kelly was attacked in the Kilwilkee Estate in Lurgan. It currently stands at four unionist seats and two nationalist, one of each stripe. On the …

DUP and Sinn Féin manifesto launches

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 19, 2011, 12:21 am

| Readers 90

Sinn Fein Gerry Adams shadow at 2011 manifesto launch

Two contrasting manifesto launches this morning. With light flooding in through the Waterfront windows, the DUP launched their ring-bound (landscape) manifesto. The DUP filmed the launch and have uploaded it to Youtube. Peter Robinson declared: We delivered on well over 90% of the commitments in our 2007 Assembly manifesto. Interviewed at the end of March, Peter Robinson explained that while “the average citizen will not read the manifesto but it is a guide for the party itself. It’s the party …

#UTVtrip: What are the issues in Foyle for #AE11?

Mick Fealty on April 18, 2011, 12:00 pm

| Readers 8

Tomorrow the UTV Twitter Road show rolls into the Foyle constituency. I should be on the ground from about 9, with a vo pop in the city centre, followed by a first political interview with Eamonn McCann. It culminates in our Tweetup at the Café Del Mondo in Shipquay Place. The idea is almost exactly the opposite of the traditional hustings event. There is no platform, just a circle. The subject of the conversation is what people who come bring …

Cadogan Enright talks up the Green Party in South Down (#ae11 #sdo11)

Patrick Corrigan on April 18, 2011, 12:35 am

| Readers 76

South Down, along with North Down and South Belfast, is one of the target constituencies for the Green Party, if not for immediate Assembly seats, then at least for growth in its voter base and local council representation. Their Assembly candidate in South Down is Cadogan Enright, already a sitting councillor on Down District Council and the recent runner-up to Steven Agnew for the Green Party leadership in Northern Ireland. I caught up with him while out canvassing in the …

UUP Manifesto Launch and a chat with Basil McCrea about Lagan Valley

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 15, 2011, 8:30 pm

| Readers 34

It was the turn of the Ulster Unionist Party this morning to launch their manifesto. The Assembly candidates huddled in around party leader Tom Elliott as he spoke in Belfast’s Linen Hall Library. The glossy manifesto booklet was available, along with an us-versus-them pamphlet outlining 40 DUP Failures 40 Ulster Unionist Achievements Notably, all the sentences describing DUP “failures” started with the words “Sinn Fein/DUP”. All part of Tom Elliott’s message about reforming and improving “the current devolved government [that] …

Sinn Fein’s (all island) PEB…

Mick Fealty on April 15, 2011, 12:43 pm

| Readers 9

Sinn Fein making a virtue of the new haul of seats in the Oireachtas, with a great crowd shot of their cross border reps on the steps of Stormont fading into silhouette at the end… Your thoughts? Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Stratagem TV: The Assembly Future…

Mick Fealty on April 15, 2011, 10:07 am

| Readers 2

Some insights on the runners and riders (45% turn over in the next intake of MLAs) in the next Assembly… and what they need to get down to next… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Open Thread (#ae11): East Antrim (#ean11)…

Mick Fealty on April 14, 2011, 5:10 pm

| Readers 50

Okay, partly on foot of yesterday’s UTV tweet up in Ballymena, we flip over to East Antrim where the lost Nationalist seat is likely to re-emerge. The open question is whether Sinn Fein’s Oliver McMullen or the SDLP’s Justin McCamphill is the beneficiary. The legal challenge to McMullen currently in train his residency qualification statement that his principal or only place of work is in the Larne council area won’t do him any harm in terms of nationalist sentiment, particularly …

UTVtrip North Antrim: Boundary change likely to be only source of change …

Mick Fealty on April 14, 2011, 3:15 pm

| Readers 7

We held the second UTV Twitter Road Trip in Ballymena last night. Again, of the folk who turned up all bar one said they would be voting. Out on the streets, in Portglenone and in Ballymena itself there were several, mostly older folk who had already sat out several elections and were not planning to return. We talked at length about the issues affecting life in North Antrim and there was a great deal of engagement, particularly around crime. There …

SDLP launch an online PEB…

Mick Fealty on April 14, 2011, 10:14 am

| Readers 11

Interesting departure for the SDLP… LIke the Alliance full on broadcast video, it does not feature faces (one of the few weaknesses in that offering), but then again it’s a strictly internetty thing.. Interesting presentational format… What do you think? Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

#UTVtrip: Social media, young people and the problem of transforming politics

Mick Fealty on April 13, 2011, 10:00 am

| Readers 7

UTV posed an interesting question on what all this apparent commitment to social media on the part of all the parties. Sam McBride of the News Letter noted we are likely to see a fall in turn out and therefore most of the parties will be resiling to core voters even as their publicity shouts out ‘we really do care about issues’. It’s a point re-emphasised by his Irish News colleague Diana Rusk, who poses the question we’ve perennially heard …

The Big Election Breakfast: Morning after the nights before…

Mick Fealty on April 13, 2011, 8:52 am

| Readers 3

As Election Day draws near Slugger will be teaming up with Stratagem once again, to bring you another of our Big Breakfast events on Monday 9th May from 8:00am to 10:00am in the Penthouse at the Europa Hotel where people will gather to discuss and analyse the results that will emerge over the post-election weekend. The Stratagem Slugger O’Toole Big Election Breakfast is once again very kindly supported by the Hastings Europa Hotel. The format will be loose, informal, free-flowing …