Mike Nesbitt; UUP

Obsessing about vote management is inevitable but shouldn’t distract us from what happens afterwards

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Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt has predictably taken a hammering over his personal choice to vote SDLP next. The Newsletter has helpfully quoted 8 UUP candidates who think otherwise. They can hardly be blamed. Most of them  rely on DUP transfers to  get elected and aren’t expecting SDLP transfers anytime soon. They mortally fear a DUP plump that leaves them high and dry and in some cases, Sinn Fein cosy and warm and elected  instead. So why did Mike do …

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Arlene’s triumph: time for others to reconsider their pitches and where that horse is

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So the results are all in. The result: nothing has changed and a bit has changed. The fall in the nationalist / republican vote and levels of seats has been analysed and will bear further analysis. The changes or lack of them on the unionist side are, however, just as interesting. Ben Lowry and Sam McBride in the News Letter have their analyses and I would demur little from either of them. Arlene Foster and the DUP’s triumph is marked. …

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Mike Nesbitt, the UUP’s resurgence and sea battles

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I began thinking about this blog a few weeks ago just when the UUP first left Stormont but never go round to finishing it. As time has gone on though its accuracy seems to be to be increasing especially in view of Nesbitt’s speech which Alan has covered below. Five years ago I did a blog about the UUP and the Battle of the Nile. In brief at the Battle of the Nile Admiral Nelson divided his forces and attacked …

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UUP leaving the executive: anti agreement unionism for slow learners

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So the UUP have finally done something exciting and left the Executive (or at least will once their own party executive rubber stamps the decision). The internal unionist politics of this: both why it was a politically good idea and the potential ramifications are significant and worth a separate blog (which I may get to at some point). For the meantime, however, looking from a pan unionist point of view why this matters is also important. There have always been …

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Nesbitt: “change happens and if you don’t roll with it then you’ll be left behind”

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Interviewed in this morning’s Belfast Telegraph, Lynda Bryans was asked about the best advice she had received. It wasn’t about shrinking and growing. That’s an easy one. It was something Mike said to me years ago. I had to choose between a staff contract and a risky one-year contract that might not be renewed. Mike told me that change happens and if you don’t roll with it then you’ll be left behind. That’s been great advice ever since and I …

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