Gavin Robinson

Gavin Robinson; “incumbent on unionists not to take the status quo for granted”

David McCann on January 18, 2021, 1:21 pm | Readers 4270

The East Belfast DUP MP, Gavin Robinson spoke to the Irish News Political Correspondent, John Manley about Unionism and the issue of a border poll. For context, readers will remember the former First Minister, Peter Robinson argued that Unionists should prepare for the possibility of a poll at some point in the future. Speaking to Manley he said; Asked by The Irish News about his namesake’s remarks, Gavin Robinson said the former DUP leader was correct to urge unionism to …

West Belfast Talks Back #feile15 – O Broin, Robinson, Corbyn & McKeever

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 5, 2015, 11:08 pm | Readers 1943

Long before the annual West Belfast Talks Back event had begun, spare chairs had been carried in and occupied, and the walls were lined with people keen to hear the debate. Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn raised an arm as he walked up to the stage to a roar of applause – perhaps his only Blairite gesture of the evening. The first questioner asked what hope the panel could bring to people in Palestine? East Belfast MP Gavin Robinson pointed …

Gavin Robinson: “I don’t think we can leave it for another year … to make sure we manage all of the bonfires in a much better way” … but what can be done?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 13, 2015, 11:27 pm | Readers 3586

Six fire engines and 35 fire crew sprayed cold water on houses and trees facing the East Belfast Chobham Street bonfire to keep them safe from the savage heat and flames on the Eleventh night. Speaking to the BBC today, local MP Gavin Robinson said: Elected representatives, community representatives, statutory agencies, the police and those of influence with the community – they were all ignored and I think that’s greatly regrettable. … I don’t think we can leave it for …

Mike Nesbitt on Gavin Robinson, David Simpson, good grace and polls

Soapbox on May 18, 2015, 6:58 am | Readers 3405

In the aftermath of the Westminster Election the UUP are now back in the House of Commons. Writing for Slugger, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mike Nesbitt writes for us about election night and hits back at the DUP’s David Simpson. UK-wide, the 2015 General Election has been defined by the Conservative’s outright win, the tsunami of momentum behind the SNP and the failure of pundits and pollsters to call it right. Here, the latter also featured, but to me, …

East Belfast: where the progressives met their Waterloo

Turgon on May 9, 2015, 7:31 pm | Readers 2651

It is the two hundredth anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. These days, however, the French seem to celebrate it as a victory rather than a defeat. So finally we can celebrate after five horrible years as the bastion of awfulness finally fell: oh yes and it was VE day as well. Excitement amongst unionists over the defeat of Naomi Long is tempered by the fact that she was hardly a terrorist cheerleader in chief. Rather much of the pleasure …

Gavin Robinson accused of ‘ungracious’ acceptance speech…

Brian O'Neill on May 8, 2015, 6:38 am | Readers 9313

Gavin Robinson is getting a lot of flak for his acceptance speech. Watch it below: Here is an extract: The last 5 long years are over. A new day has dawned in East Belfast. when people were offered the choice to go forward or back, they choose forward. And they choose to go forward with someone they can trust. The comments did not go down well on twitter: https://twitter.com/NewtonEmerson/status/596505194357207040 https://twitter.com/neildalzell/status/596496073885122561 Even more damning is this tweet from Naomi Long: @tomfromireland …

#EBDebate: The Robinson/Long debate (updated with video)

David McCann on April 15, 2015, 11:30 pm | Readers 1243

Slugger O’Toole (in partnership with Chambré Public Affairs and LucidTalk) hosted our first ever election debate at the Strand Art Centre last night between Gavin Robinson and Naomi Long. For some this debate was controversial as it was a head to head between the two main contenders. [Ed – though they are the only candidates from parties who didn’t lose their deposit in 2010 who are standing this year, if you factor in the polling from previous and subsequent elections …

Follow tonight’s East Belfast Debate at #EBdebate

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 14, 2015, 7:00 pmComments Off | Readers 2800

A handful of NI constituencies are heading towards tight and keenly fought races. Tonight sees Slugger O’Toole’s first ever election debate, with candidates Naomi Long and Gavin Robinson getting the opportunity to answer questions, explain their distinctive policies and visions for the Belfast East constituency. There’s clearly a strong local interest in the East Belfast election. Last night’s five-candidate hustings in Willowfield Parish Church (organised by Evangelical Alliance/CARE) was attended by around 250 people and ran slightly over two hours. …

East Belfast: Is this the start of the Long goodbye for Naomi?

David McCann on February 5, 2015, 12:06 pm | Readers 2812

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% …

Robinson: Ready for the election, planning a positive campaign and plans to end five frustratingly Long years in East Belfast.

David McCann on December 9, 2014, 4:20 pm | Readers 2541

At the next election one of most hotly contested battles will be East Belfast as the DUP attempt to take back the seat that they lost to Naomi Long in 2010. At the DUP conference, the party named their candidate to take on Long this May and he is former Lord Mayor of Belfast, Gavin Robinson. As we prepare for the election, I caught up with the newly minted DUP candidate to get his views on the campaign ahead and …

Peter Robinson on Westminster and defending Ashers Bakery from the “Big Brigade” of the Equality Commission #DUP14

David McCann on November 23, 2014, 12:02 am | Readers 1230

As things wrapped up in the afternoon at the DUP Conference, I managed to get some time with the First Minister, Peter Robinson to discuss the conference, the upcoming election and the DUP’s support for Asher’s Bakery. I began by asking him how he felt the mood of his conference was this year? Not surprisingly, Robinson told me that the party was in “good spirits” this year as they had a large overflow of delegates in the main hall, as …

McCann meets….Naomi Long MP #AP2014

David McCann on March 23, 2014, 4:33 pm | Readers 345

On Saturday afternoon I caught up with the MP for East Belfast and Deputy Leader of the Alliance party, Naomi Long. We discussed a range of issues from her background growing up in East Belfast to her future as an MP and a possible leader of the Alliance party. The full audio of the interview is at the bottom of the post but here are some noteworthy quotes that I found interesting. I began by asking her about how much …