Nigel Dodds: “Sinn Fein’s problem is that they can’t take a decision within their own party”

Sometimes it is hard to know whether to laugh or cry when dealing with NI politics. [Might be better if you’d just stick to walking the dogs? – Ed]. Ah, so. Here’s Nigel Dodds riposte to Martin (just remember, there’s a war an election on): Sinn Fein’s problem is not that they can’t reach agreements with unionists but they can’t take a decision within their own party. On the introduction of the National Crime Agency to Northern Ireland, there are …

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DUP conference roundup #dup13

Much about the DUP conference felt very familiar. The traditional route cross country to La Mon Hotel. The full to overflowing car park. The roar of applause from party members who adore their leader. The lack of mobile coverage … and the hotel wifi that that promised much but seemed to quickly run out of DHCP addresses and left the conference isolated in its Castlereagh bubble like an episode of Under the Dome (albeit without the guns). Lunchtime was staggered …

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Is Peter Robinson’s leadership goose cooked?

In his annual self-imposed Florida exile, Peter Robinson must be increasingly frustrated as he reads newspaper articles and blog posts on his iPad, and listens to radio clips discussing the expected end of his political career up on the hill. So far he’s shown self-control and avoided stabbing at his Twitter app to respond. It’s been a long summer for the First Minister at home in Northern Ireland, with two recalls of the Assembly, trouble flaring up in North and …

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“I am delighted to hear that the people of Northern Ireland are the happiest in the United Kingdom”

Some good news!  [Peter Robinson will be pleased – Ed]  Possibly…  According to the Office of National Statistics’ analysis of experimental subjective well-being data from the Annual Population Survey, April to September 2011, the people of Northern Ireland are the happiest in the United Kingdom.  In fact the, admittedly subjective, data reveals that the people of Northern Ireland had higher average ratings than the rest of the UK on the ‘life satisfaction’, ‘worthwhile’ and ‘happy yesterday’ questions (7.6, 7.8 and 7.5 out of …

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Sinn Fein are the tomorrow people and the yesterday people.

Most of the excitement regarding the DUP conference centred on Peter Robinson’s speech (or Sammy Wilson’s). In contrast Nigel Dodds’s has received less attention. The moving forward narrative was again played up with the repeated claim that the DUP are the party of Northern Ireland and the party to move Northern Ireland forward. There were swipes at the UUP and TUV as well as nationalists and republicans. Dodds’s moving forward was couched in somewhat more traditional unionist terms. His remarks …

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Dodds slamdunks Cameron at PMQs…

I’m not generally a fan of the mauling match that goes on at Wednesday lunchtime in Westminster, but this is something else… Mark has the detail at Devenport Diaries.. 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

Paddy Power odds favour Dodds and DUP to retain 30 plus seats

Here’s a nice piece of market making from the entrepreneurial Paddy Power’s odds on a successor to Peter Robinson. Nigel Dodds is 4/5 on, which is probably just about what you might expect for a deputy leader. The boul Paddy says “From a betting point of view it’s beginning to look like a one horse race with eighty percent of the bets placed so far supporting Mr Dodds”. We’ll see if it stays that way when and under what circumstances …

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