Well, if nothing else, John McCallister knows how to grab a headline in a leadership contest… This time he is promising to axe the UUP’s long term chairman, David Campbell who was an integral and widely perceived to be a powerful part of David Trimble’s kitchen cabinet… “I think some people are actually very unfair about David Campbell. He has served the party for a long time and I think even our party rules would suggest that we would be …
Interesting blog piece from Alex Kane over at Eamon’s place… not least for his account for how Danny Kennedy’s (the bookie’s favourite) bid came to a sudden, and crunching end: It was obvious from the outset that Danny Kennedy and Mike Nesbitt were keen on a deal that would embrace thirteen of the fifteen MLAs, all of the peers and the bulk of the party officers. The logic, I presume, was that such a move would scare off the ‘liberals’ …
There are two striking differences between the UUP’s leadership campaign and that of the SDLP’s is its the current campaign’s brevity and the very public nature of this one versus the party only meetings of the minor nationalist party. Both main contenders have already racked up to public interviews, one each for the BBC’s Sunday Politics and then UTV on Monday Here’s John McCallister speaking to Paul Clarke: And Mike Nesbitt: It has already had an interesting effect, not least …
Here’s the BBC on the four candidates in the Plaid Cymru leadership election. Hot off the press in Golwg comes the news that Adam Price is backing Leanne Wood in the contest. (The Google translate for that is here). Today also sees the endorsement of Elin Jones by Arfon MP Hywel Williams. (Nice, sincere video) There are four candidates: Dafydd Elis Thomas, Simon Thomas, Ms Jones and Ms Wood. It seems that Dafydd is viewed as yesterday’s man – although we must remember that …
Pretty good discussion on Hearts and Minds last night (as so often, a politician free zone, the exception of Martin who’s firmly in the Fianna Fail camp these days, is its own reward) of the strengths and weaknesses of the SDLP… Organisation seems to be a critical issue, although Fionnuala O’Connor note that what the SDLP is to become is party of the larger question of what is to become of Northern Irish nationalism… Stick around for Harry Magee on …
European/Westminster candidate Steven Agnew is the new leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland, winning 72% of the votes in the postal ballot. In recent years the party had two co-chairs, one male and one female. In an extraordinary general meeting in the autumn, the party agreed to switch to mirror many of their affiliated European Green parties and elect a “clear and definable leader to act as both figurehead and primary spokesperson, particularly ahead of council and assembly …
Ahead of this morning’s announcement, I posed some questions to the winning candidate. (1) What’s the Green Party’s vision for Northern Ireland? The Green Party wants to see all political decisions based on whether they are good for the economy, good for people and good for the environment. That should be the benchmark, but too often the economy is prioritised at the expense of the latter two. The economy must serve the people, not the other way around. We need …
