Full acknowledgements to Francisco Goya. 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/
The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Second Coming – WB Yeats Okay, I do get the flag stuff. As Unionists point out, it is perfectly proper to fly the flag of the jurisdiction we have all, north and south, consented to be part of until there’s sufficient consent to leave. Although the Union flag may – and on occasion for good reason – be seen as provocative, it is still a symbol of …
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] …
The News Letter is reporting Basil McCrea expressing concern about potential bias in the work of the Historical Enquires Team. An FoI request has apparently revealed that all but one of the 71 arrests they have made has been of loyalists. McCrea appears to support the attempts to arrest loyalist criminals but points out that since the majority of the murders here were committed by the IRA, significant resources should also be devoted to the arrest of those criminals. He …
One of the less kind texters to Good Morning Ulster on the day after Tom Elliott’s election described him as a non entity leader. It calls to mind that Churchill is reported to have said of Clement Attlee (though he denied it vehemently): “An empty taxi drew up outside 10 Downing Street and Clement Attlee got out of it.” Tom Elliott seems a modest man, again a denied Churchill quote about Attlee: “A modest man, but then he has so …
Tom 643 (68.6%), Basil 294 (31.4%), 937 votes, 1 spoiled ballot
A Pint of Unionist Lite notes that Paddy Power’s odds on the UUP leadership race have been changing. Tom Elliott was once “as short as 1/5 to win, whereas McCrea was the rankest of outsiders in a two horse race at 3/1”. This morning, the gap between the two horses candidates had narrowed to Tom Elliott: 4/11 Basil McCrea: 15/8 As part of their coverage of the second largest unionist party’s vacancy-filling process, the Newsletter set the two candidates some …
As I mentioned in the first post in this series, I’m not a member of the UUP, nor any other political party. So I’ve no vote next week when the members gather to elect their new leader. (They’re meeting to vote at the Waterfront Hall. Postal voting was too expensive to organise … and voting online like many of us do for union ballots and shareholder AGMs wasn’t put in place.) In deciding to interview the two candidates I deliberately …
Having so far looked at matters internal to the UUP, I thought it would be interesting to get the candidates’ perspectives on how their leadership would impact and benefit wider society, outside the party. Basil McCrea wants the UUP to better support the kind of politics he believes the public desire. [McCrea] I think the people have moved on a lot faster perhaps than our political class. There is a thirst out there for more progressive, more modern type of …
Both candidates agreed that the leadership campaign has been divisive. But what would they do to restore unity after the result? [Elliott] At stages it has been divisive. Clearly we’re all big people. We’re in politics so we have to move on. In past times I have differed with other Ulster Unionist Party leaders. But I’m still in the party, clearly because I accepted the will of the majority. [McCrea] It certainly turned into a more divisive and a more …
Given that it’s a leadership election (and not a beauty contest) it seemed wise to ask the two UUP contenders about the difference they hoped to make as party leader. First up was Basil McCrea who is very much running as the outsider, anti-establishment candidate, making a virtue of the fact that most of the big names in the party machine aren’t supporting him. [McCrea] Well first of all, I thought long and hard before I went into the leadership …
For the second post in this short series based on interviews with UUP leadership candidates Tom Elliott and Basil McCrea I take a look at their leadership pitches and their opinions on the UCUNF link-up. Asked for his 60 second leadership pitch, Basil launched into an analysis of past failure and the need for change, describing the type of party be wanted to lead. [McCrea] The party needs change, needs rapid change. We’ve had a number of pretty disappointing electoral …
There’ll be a series of posts over the next day or so reflecting on Basil McCrea and Tom Elliott as they bid for the leadership of the UUP. Both candidates agreed to be interviewed on camera (videos now available) over the last few days and answered a fairly consistent set of questions to see how that would tease out their different personalities, policies and ideas for taking the UUP forwards. They talked about their leadership pitches, the Tory link-up, changes …
It was the Sun which famously stated in 1992 “If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights.” The News Letter seems to be running a slightly similar suggestion about Basil McCrea winning the UUP leadership race. They are suggesting that many of the current MLAs would refuse to serve with Basil McCrea as leader: thus far only one MLA (John McCallister) has declared for McCrea. Much of this likely to be hyperbole. …
Basil McCrea launched his campaign with a very interesting speech (copied below) yesterday at the Merchant Hotel in Waring Street, outlining)67 his five pledges for the kinds of changes he wants to make to his party’s approach. It’s fresh, interesting and in places thought provoking. Whether it adds up to a viable platform for change, is a matter for the party’s internal electorate. A good and plausible public speaker, McCrea is not popular with his Assembly colleagues. But his own …
The BBC reports that Ulster Unionist MLA Basil McCrea wants party leader Sir Reg Empey to step down now rather than in the autumn as he had indicated. From the BBC report. Mr McCrea, who is viewed as a possible contender to replace Sir Reg, says the party needs to elect a new leader as soon as possible. “There’s a general rule that whenever people decide that they’re going in any walk of life, that if you don’t go soon, …
