Andrée Murphy is a Columnist with the Andersonstown News Sitting in my living room on Thursday night seeing three women leaders of the local parties and two male leaders on the two fringes made me chuckle. I tweeted it was hard to believe that it was Michelle O’Neill’s first time in the spot as leader, such was her composure and capability. But then I also realised that it was also Naomi Long’s first time in that position too. I suppose …
The Electoral Reform Society has today released findings from their survey of how we voted last May and the findings really blows a hole in the idea that transfers will be flowing from Unionists to Nationalists or vice versa. The study draws on data from thousands of respondents – over 4,000 – to create the largest database of voting patterns for NI. It shows that while only a small number – 4% of Catholics and 2% of Protestants – give their …
This is not a total list but I thought I would begin with some of the main parties running across all of the 18 constituencies. DUP- (38 candidates) North Belfast-Paula Bradley, Nelson McCausland, William Humphreys West Belfast-Frank McCoubrey South Belfast-Emma Pengelly and Christopher Stalford East Belfast- Robin Newton, Joanne Bunting, David Douglas North Down- Gordon Dunne, Alex Easton Strangford- Michelle McIlveen, Simon Hamilton, Peter Weir Lagan Valley- Brenda Hale, Paul Givan, Edwin Poots Upper Bann- Jonathan Buckley, Carla Lockhart South …
What would the Assembly look like if weighted majority voting had been introduced? With the present RHI scandal throwing up another problem with the system there have been some calls for a ‘public conversation’ on future reform. In the (original) Assembly & Executive Reform (Assembly Opposition) Bill John McCallister brought forward cross-community support and the petition of concern would have been removed. He had proposed a minimum percentage of 60% as a weighted majority threshold. First lets see how the …
An SDLP motion to exclude Arlene Foster as First Minister for a period of 6 months has now reached 30 signatures and will be debated on Monday. The motion is backed by the Ulster Unionist Party, Alliance Party, Green Party, People Before Profit and Traditional Unionist Voice. If all MLAs attend, that gives the motion 41 votes in favour, that is a majority over the 36 DUP MLAs. The Speaker Robin Newton cannot vote and Bell is shaky at the moment. Some …
No real surprises here but Naomi Long was officially endorsed by her party colleagues tonight as the leader of the Alliance Party. Long has previously served as the party’s deputy leader under David Ford and was the MP for East Belfast from 2010-2015. She has been credited for her work in building the Alliance party in her East Belfast constituency since she was elected to the Assembly in 2003. Speaking about her vision for the party she said; I am …
An interesting poll conducted by Millward Brown for Amnesty International has surveyed the attitudes of voters of various parties towards abortion legislation in Northern Ireland with some noteworthy statistics Overall the poll found that attitudes in Northern Ireland as whole favour reform. Full details can be found here. David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
Stormont Today will be worth a watch to see a little bit of history. The Assembly held its first ever opposition day which meant that for around four hours MLAs debated topics selected by the opposition namely rural bank closures, public confidence after the NAMA revelations and Impact on Women of Changes to the State Pension. Often critiqued for a lack of cooperation, the SDLP and UUP released a joint statement on the latter topic; The first Opposition Day saw a …
Rory McIlroy may have triumphed at the weekend but can Marlene win the Justice Minister Challenge? Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/
Interesting sidebar to the issue of an ‘official opposition’. The proposed scheme is set out in Appendix F4 on page 55 of the “A Fresh Start: The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan” document (although it still requires some administrative mechanism to formalise it). The first section clearly states that: (i) “Those parties which would be entitled to ministerial positions in the Executive but choose not to take them up, to be recognised as an official opposition. Those parties which choose to …
Well, Slugger hears that the SDLP parliamentary meeting takes place today at 4pm, so it may be that Brian gets his wish in the timely manner he may be hoping for. We’ll really have to wait and see what precisely emerges. As Brian notes, Newton Emerson has a particularly useful piece in the Irish Times today, in which he notes: …yet suddenly Stormont is transformed. In a matter of days, opposition has gone from a potential mutation in mandatory coalition …
The votes are in and the new MLAs have all signed the register. Some of you will remember back in late 2013, I totaled up the ages of the parties in the last Assembly. I managed this time to get the ages of 107 of the 108 MLAs which means that this should be a more accurate reading of the current age profile of the Assembly. Parties The youngest Assembly group is the Green Party with an average age of …
Following the 2016 Assembly Election, there is now an opposition in Stormont (or sorts). But why should a party take it, as the UUP have stepped forward to do. For the last number of years, the opposition to the executive, such as it is, has been unofficial, disparate and unruly. The naughty corner at Stormont, with John McCallister, Steven Agnew, Basil McCrea, Jim Allister, David McNarry & Claire Sugden (interestingly, 3 of those were elected to that last Assembly as …
For the last time, Allison Morris, John Manley and myself sat down to review the results of the 2016 Assembly Election. We talk about the performance of the various parties and what impact a greater number of female MLAs will have in the chamber. David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
The election is over, the results are in, and the signal being sent by the electorate in Northern Ireland is clear and unambiguous. The DUP’s position as the dominant party within a socially and economically conservative administration has been comprehensively re-endorsed, alongside their coalition partner, Sinn Féin. There has, fundamentally, been no change at all in the balance of power in Northern Ireland. No reasonable person could deny that the DUP victory is a remarkable accomplishment on many levels, the work …
It is now an annual election tradition on Slugger that we get a panel together to rank the party election broadcasts of all the political parties. Our panel of broadcaster, Jim Fitzpatrick and MCE Public Relations Director, Chris Brown got together to rate each broadcast out of ten. And the winner is….. SDLP we thought was incredibly well put together, with great shots of the party leader and profiles of the candidates. There was also a consistent theme throughout and …
David McCann has already given his overview of the SDLP manifesto. On delivery, as is usual with these documents, the manifesto strains at being comprehensive without giving away too many hostages to fortune or burdening the reader with costings. And like all parties particularly the smaller ones, the SDLP can indulge in aspirations it knows it won’t be allowed to deliver – and may not always want to anyway. Aiming for (I make it) 26,500 new jobs by 2021, it …
David Ford is to attend an interfaith service for all victims of the Easter Rising at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin. The event will see the unveiling of a was inscribed with the names of all those who lost their lives during the Rising namely members of Irish Volunteers, Irish Citizen Army, British Army, Dublin Metropolitan Police and Royal Irish Constabulary, as well as civilians. Speaking about the decision, Ford said; This memorial is inspired by the International Memorial of Notre …
President Higgins has pulled out of the civic dinner to be held at Belfast City Hall to commemorate the Easter Rising. However according to the Irish News; It is understood the fact the occasion has not garnered enough cross-party support, with a number of unionists declining invitations, motivated the president’s decision to stay away. Commenting about the decision, Lord Mayor Arder Carson said; I am extremely disappointed that the President is no longer attending this event, part of our Decade …
WHAT’S IN A NAME; I always said if I ran for election again I’d change my surname to something beginning with an A or a B. Nicholl is such an unfortunate political surname, especially in Northern Ireland where it gets lost after all the M’s. Because it is a truth generally acknowledged that candidates who are first on the ballot tend to receive a vote advantage compared to those whose names begin with letters later in the alphabet.
