DUP

Et tu, Sammy? The knifes comes out for Edwin…

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Wow, what a day. The putsch that overthrew Arlene Foster has been met with a counterattack against the new leadership of Edwin Poots. DUP politicians voted 20 to 4 against nominating Paul Givan, but the nomination still went ahead. I understand @duponline reps voted 24-4 AGAiNST nominating — Gareth Gordon (@BBCGarethG) June 17, 2021 A succession of DUP politicians has refused to back their new leader, even the ones who originally supported him. Does Sammy Wilson have confidence in Edwin …

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Stormont crisis averted. Until the next crisis…

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So to no great surprise to anyone, Sinn Fein and the DUP have agreed to fudge the issue of the Irish Language Act. They have run to colonial daddy to implement the legislation for them at Westminster. BBC News: NI ministerial nominations due as Stormont stand-off ends BBC News – NI ministerial nominations due as Stormont stand-off endshttps://t.co/ybxWhPftU5 A Secretary of State intervenes to save the Assembly at Sinn Fein's behest. Now we've seen it all. — Brian Walker (@bwalker347) …

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A departing Lee Reynolds puts the boot into team Poots…

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Lee Reynolds is no more as Special Adviser to Arlene Foster. Writing in today’s Irish News he is very forthright in his views about the current mess the DUP finds itself in. Some choice extracts: Partly DUP princelings coming to avenge their forefathers and claim their entitlement but supplemented by MLAs genuinely concerned about the upcoming elections. It is the DUP brand that is in greater trouble. Arlene Foster’s popularity had dropped but not as much the DUP’s. Does the …

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Will the potential deconstruction of the DUP see the beginning of the end of these monolithic political partnerships in Northern Ireland?

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Cllr Brian Pope, Party Group Leader (Alliance), Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council  Whether the latest DUP upheavals will result in a fractured party is of less interest than the impact it might have on its uneasy alliance with Sinn Féin. Ever since the St Andrew’s Agreement was signed, in 2006, we have been caught in a grip of an apparently immovable object – that being the DUP / Sinn Féin coalition. Some may herald the success of this uneasy partnership, …

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SOAPBOX: As things go from bad to worse, the DUP can’t avoid the ripples of the ‘Beattie Bounce’

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Dr. Clare Rice is a postdoctoral researcher at Newcastle University: a specialist in power-sharing and Northern Ireland’s politics. She tweets as @Clare_Rice_. All views expressed are the author’s own. The word ‘honeymoon’ evokes sentiments of a relaxing, happy and easy-going time. The big event is over, and in the bubble of positivity that follows, the focus shifts to the future. For Edwin Poots, this phase has been as good as non-existent since he became the new DUP Leader. The unceremonious …

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UK Secretary of State Brandon Lewis champions liberal reform to save the Union and throws down the gauntlet to the DUP

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This just could be significant.   In the Sunday Times, the emergence of a pro Union liberal reform strategy acceptable across the community from the British government. It appears  to remove the last vestige  of the UK government dancing to the DUP’s tune. At  the most sensitive moment imaginable, just before  Edwin Poots nominates a still unknown First Minister, Brandon Lewis  presents a frontal challenge to the DUP.  This has been simmering for some time but I never thought it would …

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Fragmented Unionism and Broad Churches…

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It has long been the formula within political Unionism that if a Unionist party is both united and able to accommodate a broad church of Unionist opinion then it will be the dominant Unionist party. In many ways this formula has never been attained within political Unionism, however, in recent times it’s becoming more difficult to find a party that can solve this formula, and never has this been more apparent than now. However, is the formula relevant in 2021 …

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Doug Beattie welcomes any disillusioned members of the DUP who want to come over to the UUP…

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With the DUP taking a lurch to the religious right, some of the more moderate DUP politicians are wondering is it time to jump ship. Doug Beattie is happy to welcome them one and all, with one proviso. Doug said: ‘ any new members would have to endorse the UUP’s vision and values.’ This could be a bit of a sticking point because even UUP politicians would have trouble explaining their parties vision and values. UUP leader Doug Beattie has …

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With walkouts and resignations Edwin Poots’ leadership of the DUP gets off to an eventful start…

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Exciting stuff at the DUP leadership meeting last night. Arlene Foster, Sir Jeffrey, Gavin Robinson, Diane Dodds and Gregory Campbell all walked out before Edwin’s speech. Then Paul Bell, a member of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone DUP Association for 20 years, quit the party. Paul Bell, a member of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone DUP association for 20 years tells @BBCGarethG he is leaving the party… pic.twitter.com/Ja43uRfM8N — bbctheview (@bbctheview) May 27, 2021 And just for good measure, Ian …

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Why Conor Murphy’s Budget is failing our people

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Sinéad McLaughlin is an SDLP MLA for Foyle and is the SDLP spokesperson for the economy For the last 14 years, Northern Ireland has been led by joint first ministers from Sinn Fein and the DUP. This leadership was supposed to deliver prosperity after the peace that was delivered by the leadership of John Hume and the SDLP. But instead of prosperity, the North continues to have some of the worst economic outcomes anywhere in Western Europe. My city of Derry …

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Well, well, well-#AE2022 and that Lucid Talk poll

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It’s early days, minds could change later, but the Belfast Telegraph’s latest poll will send shivers down the DUP’s spine. According to Lucid Talk, support for the DUP has dropped to 16%, the same as Alliance. Sinn Fein sits at 25%. Doug Beattie will take comfort from the figure for the UUP, up two points to 14%. A Sinn Fein First Minister has been a possibility since the 2017 Assembly election. Based on these figures,  Sinn Fein will clinch the …

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Where can the Unionist parties gain seats at the next election?

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The DUP has started messaging ahead of next years assembly election that the combined Unionist parties need just five seats to remove the protocol. Now this claim has been fact checked that they can only remove certain parts, rather than all of it. But I thought it would be interesting to look at where Unionism could potentially find those gains. To start with, this is a very tall order for the combined Unionist parties. If the results of elections from …

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Militancy can only expose Edwin Poots’ weakness. Instead he can claim credit if David Frost delivers acceptable mitigation of protocol terms

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The tempo of Protocol politics  is quickening. Fresh from  calling into the Arcadia deli on the Lisburn road ( a favourite haunt of  SDLP, Alliance and Green voters no doubt as it once was of mine ),  Brexit minster Lord Frost  has  issued what sounds like an ultimatum to the  EU. “If the Protocol operates so as to damage the political, social, or economic fabric of life in Northern Ireland, then that situation cannot be sustained for long”. The new …

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DUP Leadership Ballot to take place on 14th May

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More breaking news tonight – the DUP chairman Lord Morrow has confirmed leadership election will take place Friday 14 May at 11am pic.twitter.com/IDE8rnRNAx — Jayne McCormack (@BBCJayneMcC) May 4, 2021 More from Sam McBride about who  can vote, The key part of the DUP statement on the rules for its first ever leadership contest is not the date (next Friday) or that it will be held virtually, but that it appears to include Jim Wells as part of the electorate …

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The two races to succeed Arlene Foster…

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We’ve heard the names. Barely an hour had passed from news breaking about a letter aimed at removing Arlene Foster from her leadership of the DUP, of Unionism and of the Northern Ireland Executive, and already names of willing replacements were circulating. But there’s something unusual about this process that hasn’t been commented on to the extent I’d expected. The names you’ll have heard are being put forward for DUP Leader, but have any been advanced for the position of …

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If Edwin Poots tried to crash the Assembly it would open the door to a border poll

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Let’s assume Edwin Poots is a shoo-in for the DUP leadership. Comfortable in his minor elder statesman role at Westminster, Jeffrey Donaldson hasn’t the stomach for a contest. He might be willing to accept  it on a plate but that’s not going to happen. With more than a hint of desperation, some of us have been foisting the Nixon goes to China model onto Poots, meaning that the hardliner in politics may be better placed to compromise than the liberal. …

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The authoritarian, moralistic worldview of the DUP is not made for real life and so real people are leaving it, and them, behind…

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In the last 24 hours, I’ve been asked for my thoughts on the possibility that changes in the DUP signal a ‘lurch to the right’, as someone engaged in the campaign for reproductive rights. There is no doubt that the idea of the most socially conservative Christian fundamentalists taking a firmer grip of the wheel of the largest party in the north is concerning to anyone who believes in human rights, equality and social justice. Their reputation on issues that …

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Edwin Poots announces his candidacy for DUP Leader.

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Today, I announce my candidacy for leader of the Democratic Unionist Party. I love this country and its people and I look forward to engaging with party colleagues in the days ahead. pic.twitter.com/Qesd3GTCwR — Edwin Poots MLA (@edwinpootsmla) April 29, 2021   David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs

The DUP class coalition is ending…

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Despite the best efforts of hard-line unionists to bring the narrative of Arlene Foster’s downfall at the hands of the much-maligned NI Protocol, the discussion is almost organically drifting towards values. The party of Paisley faces the perfect storm as working and middle-class supporters leave them poll after poll straight to the Alliance Party or to the Traditional Unionist Voice. The former departure lounge of the UUP has been exposed as the fractured loose coalition of two opposing world views …

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Arlene Foster to step down as leader on 28 May and as First Minister at end of June

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Arlene Foster’s statement this afternoon … A short time ago I called the Party Chairman to inform him that I intend to step down as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party on the twenty-eighth of May and as First Minister of Northern Ireland at the end of June. It is important to give space over the next few weeks for the Party Officers to make arrangements for the election of a new leader. When elected I will work with the …

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