Members of the Slugger team who could do the blog title justice seem to be away from the office. In the meantime I hope the following links are a suitable opening for your comments on the passing of Sir Oliver Napier. David Ford pays tribute to party founder BBC obit and some video. Blank
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 …
Alliance have avoided producing a traditional Political Election Broadcast and instead created something novel and modern. No voxpops. No politicians walking towards the camera struggling to remember their lines. No perfect families sitting in showhouse sets. It would be interesting to see the viewing figures for PEBs. Do people stick with them, or do they reach for the remote and channel-surf as they might do during the normal interstitials? It’s a shame that given the effort and thought that went …
Alliance launched their election campaign this morning but gave away little about the specific contents of their upcoming manifesto. The paper copy of David Ford’s speech this morning was titled: “Ford launches Alliance campaign saying the party is leading change”. Certainly it seemed like the party leader was embarking on a record breaking attempt to overuse the word change. If his short speech was passed through Wordle, the word “change” would overshadow all other content. [Ed – by popular demand, …
I’m off on a wee rant below, apologies. While Eamonn’s reproduction of a UUP communication to members has transitory interest, it could open up a broader discussion on the internal democracy of our political parties; how they manage policy setting, media protocols and transparency. A party wracked with disagreement and conflicting messages for nearly two decades like the UUP is long overdue a leader to stamp internal discipline and defined direction for external eyes. The immediate threat of ‘you go …
