On Sunday I blogged about Aussie politicians who have taken to You Tube to read out mean tweets that they have been getting from the public and it always pleases me to see politicians try something new on social media. Well, closer to home, one of our local MPs, Naomi Long has decided to share with us some of the gems she has been recieving from the general public on social media. For all of our readers here with all …
This year’s Alliance Party conference was focussed on party members and supporters rather than reaching out to the public at large. Delegates were reminded about the core party values and principles. There were no visiting clerics or representatives of loyalist band forums. No one from the Syriza Greek government. Instead, Alliance heard from friends in the victims, integrated education, science, arts and environment sectors. While Peter Robinson was criticised for making DUP victory in East Belfast his number one priority, …
Well they are all out of the traps as we go into March. If like me you follow a lot of politicians and activists your Facebook and Twitter news feeds have been swamped with pictures of lots of happy people taking selfies, delivering leaflets and telling us how the great people of this place love their candidates (my thanks to those of you who have stopping using the “great night on the doors” line). However, a few things I have …
A bit of a surprise announcement tonight from the DUP .@jonathanfbell will be our candidate in S Belfast. With your help he can win. Every seat will count in the next HoC. pic.twitter.com/AAwlOLDxpV — Peter Robinson (@DUPleader) February 10, 2015 Bell who represents the Strangford constituency has been nominated to either focus the UUPs mind that time is really running out or have they possibly made the calculation that they might be able to unseat McDonnell without a unity candidate? …
Well we have just three months to go until Election Day. Candidates and parties will be launching their campaigns for the Westminster election and will be attempting to set the tone for the campaign to come. Yet, despite this being a golden opportunity for you to set out your stall amongst the party faithful many parties either don’t invest in these types of events or just do them badly. Being the public service that we are here on Slugger I …
Today LucidTalk published their East Belfast poll in the Belfast Telegraph. The poll found that the DUP holds a 6% lead over the Alliance party in the constituency making them the favorites as we go into the final three months of the election campaign. When you exclude undecideds the result is DUP-34.4% to Alliance- 28.7%. When you include don’t know/Non voters you get this; DUP- 21.2% APNI- 17.7% UUP- 9% PUP- 4% TUV- 1.7% SF- 1.1% UKIP- 1% Greens- 0.9% …
I will be writing to BBC and ITV to identify why the DUP is not included in new debate format. More seats than Plaid, SNP & Greens. — Peter Robinson (@DUPleader) January 22, 2015 Peter Robinson will be writing to complain that whilst the DUP has more seats and votes than some of the other parties, it still not be included in the debates. Likewise, Sinn Fein has 5 MPs and the SDLP hold 3 MPs and will not be …
Following the announcement of recent cuts to higher education and the threat of closure for St Mary’s College, the Sinn Fein MP for West Belfast, Paul Maskey writes for Slugger about why we need to save the college from what he calls discriminatory cuts, from a disinterested minister St Mary’s College is facing closure and it has to be saved. Sinn Féin is committed to saving it. Following a meeting I had last week with minister Farry it is my …
This post originally appeared in the Ultonia blog Richard Haass has recently done another interview on the failure of the Haass process. In it he blames Unionism for the failure of the talks. This piece is to make the case that the failure of the process lay closer to home than he presents. It lay in the internal dynamics of those talks. The basis of the article is based on my personal experiences of the Haass talks. My role was …
From the BBC, David Cameron and Enda Kenny go home after talks failed to reach a deal. There was an offer on the table of spending powers that would amount to £1 billion over five years. However, the reaction from Sinn Fein was not very encouraging for Cameron as the Education Minister, John O’Dowd labelled Cameron a “penny pinching accountant” and the party president, Gerry Adams had this to say 2 Govts exiting after most amateurish ham fisted episode I …
This is an odd one, I really cannot say much more than that about this. Alliance Party Cllr in North Down, Andrew Muir has taken a shot at a Green Party candidate who (wait for it) is not standing in North Down or even Northern Ireland. Rather the candidate Richard Stanton is standing in Brighton at the May 2015 general election. (As a local election candidate) UPDATE- Stanton was quoted as saying that the bomb was a “justifiable act of …
It has been the story of the day so far as radio pundits have been debating opposition and whether it is time that we dismantled the current system of government in Stormont. Now, arguments in favour of this idea are We normalise our system of government. The government would be a coalition of the willing. There would be some coherence in policy amongst ministers. Protections can be built in to ensure that no one side can abuse power (Weighted majority …
Earlier this year, Alliance party MLA Anna Lo, hit the headlines for some of the racist treatment she had recieved. Writing for Slugger, Anna criticises the progress being made on the Racial Equality Strategy and argues for people to embrace different diffierent cultures in Northern Ireland. Sectarian politics gets votes in Northern Ireland, and yet sectarian politics continues to fail Northern Ireland over and over again. It is disappointing to see the draft Racial Equality Strategy, after being in the …
You go out put your name on the ballot, get elected and then you are faced with constant critcism from people who in most cases have never done the same thing themselves. This is something that this blog is guilty of too, aside from a few of us, none of us have had the cajones to put our necks on the line, yet we readily criticise those who do. One criticism I regularly hear about our circle of political commentators …
If we could have a term to describe the attitude of some supporters of political parties in Northern Ireland it would be people who like to indulge in “drinking the kool aid.” This term means to simply take the party line without question or any critical comment. The idea that your party is exceptional and that the only way to national salvation is through your leader coming to power is a powerful, if not slightly deluded opinion to hold. It …
As the debate continues on over welfare reform, Sinn Fein MLA and Deputy Chairman of the DSD Committee, Mickey Brady, writes for Slugger about why proposed cuts should be opposed. The Tory-led coalition has sought to sell welfare cuts on the false premise of Strivers verses Skivers. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cuts agenda will affect low-income working families, people with disabilities, those who cannot find employment because there are no jobs available, the young and the most …
We have just gone through an election for our new councils. Little did we know that while we were being talked to about the need for balanced budgets and battling austerity that some of our very own public representatives have been jetting off around the world and it appears for a few money has been no object. Sure, as our friends over at Pantene would say, you’re worth it! Tonight we name and shame some of the councillors and their …
Social media was ablaze last night with the news of an ‘all party’ ALL MALE ‘Pro-Life’ group at Stormont. Chaired by the SDLP’s Pat Ramsey, the group also includes Jim Wells (DUP), Jonathan Craig (DUP), Alban Maginness (SDLP), Mervyn Storey (DUP), Jim Allister (TUV), Mark H Durkan (SDLP), David McIlveen (DUP), Kieran McCarthy (Alliance) and Danny Kennedy (UUP). Despite having no female representation the group give their main point of contact as Bernie Smyth, currently involved in a court case …
Reacting to the most recent political shenanigans and particularly the DUP and UUP walkout from all-party talks [Ed – seemingly with a two page press release agreed and up their sleeves] David Ford says “Stormont needs a reboot”. For too long now public services and the entire community have been held back as a result of the almost complete failure of leadership over crucial issues and the breakdown of functioning relationships between the two main political parties. It is clear …
Last week I sat down with two of the brains behind Loyalists Against Democracy (LAD), Billy and Ron. I was interested to catch up with the guys since we last spoke in February about the group’s foundation and how they approach certain issues. This time, however, I was interested to speak to them about some of the issues that they group has been involved in since we spoke, namely; the departure of Winston Smith, Pastor McConnell and where does LAD …
