The saga of whether or not there will be a unionist pact continues with Mike Nesbitt suggesting that he may still be open to an agreement. He stated: “Without a deal, without an understanding there is a real prospect there could be no unionist representing the capital city of Northern Ireland in Westminster on the 8th May,” he said. “With a deal, who knows? Maybe three of the four could be unionist but they can’t all be DUP.” The seats …
To be fair, I nicked that headline from Derek Mooney, a former FF special advisor, so there is an evident and intended spin to it. And yet it contains more than just a grain of truth to it. Having nearly collapsed the Assembly [Aye right! – Ed] Sinn Fein accepted the outline of a deal it had originally co-produced with the DUP with very little clear detail on what extra money would be forthcoming. Courtesy of Gerry Moriarty in the Irish Times, Martin McGuinness …
Late last night the news broke that the DUP have selected Jonathan Bell MLA to stand in South Belfast in the coming election whilst today the Ulster Unionist Party will announce Cllr Chris McGimpsey as their East Belfast candidate. These actions have been deemed by the media to mean an end to the pact negotiations between Mike Nesbitt and Peter Robinson. Should this suggestion be true it places Unionism is a much weakened position going into May. In my previous …
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? …
Curious, wasn’t it? Nelson McCausland’s choice of language to highlight his ‘concern’ over a letter sent to primary school principals throughout Northern Ireland, inviting them to consider including an Irish language study programme in the school curriculum. According to Nelson, this was another effort by Sinn Féin to “weaponise” the Irish language and to use it as a tool, it seems, to entice unionists to be assimilated within an Irish identity. Apart from the fact that the letter was sent …
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% …
During this week’s Belfast City Council debate on the placing of the Union Flag on driving licences (something that the council has absolutely no control over), firebrand DUP Councillor Ruth Patterson decided to enlighten all those present with her interpretation of history and how it relates to the vexed subject of ‘flegs’. Scholars may be somewhat alarmed by Councillor Patterson’s interpretation of history as indeed may some of her creationist colleagues in the DUP who subscribe to the view that …
If I understand him rightly, Newton Emerson in the Sunday Times (£) regrets the absence (subject to expensive legal action if it happens, which I doubt) of the Northern Ireland parties from the UK national TV election debates – if they finally happen. What Newton regrets tongue in cheek is the absence of a national airing of all sorts of vigorous DUP opinions of the subjects of race, immigration, private lives, confessional beliefs etc that put UKIP in the shade. Who …
The President of one of the UK’s most reputable polling companies YouGov, Peter Kellner, was in Belfast at an event hosted by Chambre Public Affairs and Lucid Talk. I began by asking him what we should be looking out for at this point in the parliamentary year? Kellner highlighted a few things to watch out for. Can either Labour or the Conservatives break the dead lock that they are currently facing in the polls? Over the last few months both …
Tonight our esteemed elected representatives in the Northern Ireland Assembly are due to debate driving licences. Good news – I hear you cry – at last some action may be taken to address the disparity in the cost of driving licences between Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Last week there was much consternation when it was revealed that learner drivers in Northern Ireland pay nearly twice the price for a provisional licence compared to elsewhere in the UK – £62.50 …
CON 252, LAB 231, SNP 52, LD 41, UKIP 38, DUP 9, GRN 9, PC 8, SF 6, SDLP 2, Independent 1, Speaker 1 Required for majority: 322 (CON 70 short, LAB 91 short) The upcoming UK General Election has been called “the most unpredictable for almost a century”. There are several reasons for this; the rise of UKIP, the Greens, and the SNP, the collapse of the Liberal Democrats, who nevertheless seem to maintain highly localized popularity in areas where they have sitting MPs, and the fact that Labour and the Conservatives are going in to the election essentially on level pegging. …
A scant few days ago many in the world were united in saying “Je suis Charlie” to identify with the journalists at Charlie Hebdo. Many may regard Charlie Hebdo as frequently insulting, tasteless and at times unpleasant. However, the point was that freedom of speech to say (or write or draw) insulting, tasteless and unpleasant views is a vital tenant of democracy. Unfortunately Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson seems not to have understood the principle. He has now complained to the …
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 …
The DUP’s Robin Newton was today appointed as the NI assembly’s principal deputy speaker with support from Sinn Féin. The appointment was confirmed minutes after the East Belfast MLA was confirmed as a deputy speaker joining the experienced John Dallat of the SDLP and Roy Beggs of the UUP. Last week the DUP supported the appointment of Sinn Féin’s Mitchel McLaughlin as NI assembly speaker and both partys have been accused of a ‘carve-up’ of top positions at Stormont. The …
This is part two of my analysis of the Haass talks and Unionist thinking. This article also appeared on my blog Haass begins with: …there was a feeling that change would disadvantage them. First, Haass fails to notice the change that had occurred in the immediate run up to his talks had disadvantaged them. The design of the agenda was a rather obvious clue e.g. parades and flags. Second, we will deal with the cliché of ‘change’. Change can be …
This week saw Mitchell McLaughlin elected as Speaker of the Assembly. The News Letter pointed to his previous comments refusing to accept that the murder of Jean McConville was a crime. Leaving aside McLaughlin personally there is a certain symbolism in a Sinn Fein speaker being elected just a week before the 34th anniversary of the murder of the old Stormont speaker Sir Norman Stronge. Sir Norman was born in 1894 and fought at the Somme. His election as speaker …
The Stormont House Agreement arrived at as Christmas dawned was supposed to have heralded a new dispensation for Northern Ireland and yet here we are in early January with the same old theatrics. A Sinn Féin Minister proposes a consultation process on the long promised Irish Language Act (2006, St Andrews) and up pops that stalwart defender of minority language (Ulster Scots) and culture (Loyal orders etc), Nelson McCausland. He doesn’t even know what’s in the proposed bill and yet …
Corporation Tax dominated the headlines in 2014, writing for Slugger the PUP Cllr for Oldpark, Julie Ann Corr-Johnston argues for a rethink of the entire debate Corporation tax will probably go over the heads of many in our community, but it has the potential of bringing 50-60,000 jobs into Northern Ireland over the coming years-Peter Robinson If Peter Robinson was Prince John in the 1973 Disney cartoon version of Robin Hood, I wonder which of his DUP buddies would be …
Tony Blair stepped up to the On The Runs Committee today to give evidence about the now infamous letters issued partly under his administration. Between the hard questioning led by Naomi Long and Ian Paisley Jnr, the most important pieces of information throughout the entire day came from a slightly softer approach adopted by Sylvia Hermon and Alasdair McDonnell. Blair told MPs that there was a point in December 2006 where he believed that they almost lost the entire peace …
