election2010

General Election 2010: The PDF Action replay panel at RSA London

Mick Fealty on June 4, 2010, 9:15 am | Readers 10

Highlights from the beginning of a lively session at the RSA in London on May 13th, featuring Craig Elder (Conservatives.com), myself, James Crabtree (Prospect Magazine), Stella Creasy (Labour Tweeter and MP), Anthony Painter (author of Barack Obama: Movement for Change) and Harry Cole (aka the blogger Tory Bear). Well worth the listen not least because of the variety of the inputs coming in from very different angles… Although sadly there is nothing of the following (at times very lively) debate, …

Hearts and Minds: “Largest single bloc in the pro-Union community is non-voting”

Alex Kane on May 25, 2010, 11:34 am | Readers 26

Alex Kane has kindly contributed his “If you ask me…” commentary from last week’s Hearts and Minds programme. It is replicated in full here on Slugger with permission of the programme makers.

Did you get to use your vote this year?

Mick Fealty on May 13, 2010, 8:13 am | Readers 2

Jonathan reckons that the electoral fortunes of several parties (Sir Reg Empey fights for his life at a meeting of his party’s Executive this Saturday) swung on a very small number of voters in Northern Ireland: 2,721 votes cast out of a total of 673,871 doesn’t seem much. That’s because it’s not. In fact, it’s a paltry 0.4%, but in business and in politics, it’s victory in the margins which can make all the difference. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. …

Feed us with turnout data from your local polling station(s)!!!

Mick Fealty on May 5, 2010, 9:23 pm | Readers 14

I’ve just been on Talkback speaking with Steve Hewlett of the Radio Four Media Show fame and Wendy Austin about the general nature of the election campaign and the role of the Internet. One point I would like to make (and no, I didn’t get to make it), is about the capacity of an intelligent online readership to add significant value to the wider understanding of what’s actually going on. Last year our readers were able to make intelligent guesses …

Robinson scores a palpable, if tactical, hit with the Daily Telegraph

Mick Fealty on May 5, 2010, 1:47 pm | Readers 4

Interesting front page story from my old Daily Telegraph colleagues Rosa Prince and Robert Winnett who may not have accurately read the implications of their story for their paper’s favourite man in the race… Effectively they are saying that Cameron may come to rely on a party they are currently engaged in a life and death struggle with in South Antrim (erm, the day after beating his way through hell, high water and volcanic ash to a part of the …

David Cameron talks to Mallie, with just thirty six hours to go…

Eamonn Mallie on May 4, 2010, 6:10 pm | Readers 4

Aspiring Prime Minister David Cameron has rubbished a Belfast Telegraph election poll, alleging it was carried out by a lobbying company linked to the Democratic Unionist Party. In a rousing speech to members of Ulster Unionist and Conservative parties David Cameron gallantly boasted of how he braved the elements of nature like young Lochinvar to reach La Mon Hotel for today’s political rally. La Mon Hotel was bombed by the IRA 31 years ago. The Conservative party leader raised the temperature declaring: …

David Cameron comes to Northern Ireland…

Eamonn Mallie on May 4, 2010, 1:00 am | Readers 8

David Cameron is expected to tell the people of Northern Ireland today they will not have to carry a disproportionate share of financial savings. The aspiring (or according to Peter Robinson last year putative) PM is on a flying visit to Belfast to boost his sister party, the Ulster Unionists. David Cameron angered members of the Democratic Unionist Party last week when he signalled over dependence on the public sector would have to be addressed. This was widely interpreted by political rivals as …

Quote of the day…

Mick Fealty on May 3, 2010, 2:45 pm | Readers 6

Heard in Fermanagh South Tyrone… Martin Ferris (TD, Kerry) catches up with Ferghal McKinney and informs him, “You don’t even live in the constituency”… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Election 2010: Things I believed in yesterday…

Mick Fealty on April 29, 2010, 3:58 pm | Readers 1

I picked this up this morning, it’s a Tory leaflet warning people of the big danger of a hung Parliament… 24 hours ago it was a decent pitch. Today, I’m not sure anyone believes Gordon can be PM any more… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty