sdlp – Page 24 – Slugger O'Toole

Conall McDevitt answers your questions on the SDLP leadership…

Mick Fealty on November 4, 2011, 3:42 pm

| Readers 36

And now we have the second, in what I hope will be a series of four ‘interviews’ based on Questions provided by the Slugger readership (you can see the original thread here): 1) What would you do during your first 30 days as leader to start rebuilding the SDLP? (Original question from ‘Sean Og’) If I become leader of the SDLP, my plans for renewal and rebuilding will take effect immediately. Within the first 30 days, I will convene a …

On the SDLP: “We were a group of individuals who belong to a broad church…”

Mick Fealty on November 4, 2011, 1:18 pm

| Readers 3

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 …

Patsy McGlone answers your questions on the SDLP leadership…

Mick Fealty on November 4, 2011, 1:10 pm

| Readers 18

And the first one of SDLP leadership contest, is Patsy McGlone. 1) What would you do during your first 30 days as leader to start rebuilding the SDLP? (Original question from ‘Sean Og’) My plan to reform, rebuild and restore the SDLP to the centre of Irish politics relies on strengthening party unity. Among the first actions I will take as leader will be to sit down with my Assembly and Council colleagues to take their views on the political …

The SDLP leadership candidates, ranked on internet use and internal organisation

Nicholas Whyte on November 3, 2011, 11:44 am

| Readers 71

The SDLP elects its fifth leader this coming weekend, with four male candidates in the running (the deputy leadership has been filled, without contest, by a woman). Since 1998, when the party topped the first preference tallies for the first Assembly election, the SDLP has lost votes and seats at almost every election cycle (the one exception being a sliver of a gain at the last European election) and now runs consistently 10% behind Sinn Féin, whereas twenty years ago …

Your questions for the SDLP leadership candidates?

Mick Fealty on November 2, 2011, 11:10 am

| Readers 33

As Alan notes, Paddy Power (the people who brought you Martin McGuinness at 3/1 for the Aras) now has Alex Attwood as favourite to win. To be fair that probably reflects a good campaign for Alex, and would considerably turn the table on our crowd sourced predictions from a few weeks ago. Indeed the Irish bookmaker has brought him a hell of a long way from 14/1. In any case, we’d like to put a standard four questions to all …

SDLP go to the polls this weekend – a look at the voting process as Attwood becomes the bookies’ favourite #sdlp11

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 2, 2011, 10:00 am

| Readers 34

Margaret Ritchie SDLP leadership campaign promotional balloon - Let's Make History

SDLP delegates go to the poll this weekend to select a new leader to succeed Margaret Ritchie. Party HQ will be busy selecting suitable triumphant music for the winner to enter the hall to on Saturday evening around 5pm. This morning, Paddy Power lists the odds 11/8 Alex Attwood 7/4 Patsy McGlone 3/1 Conal McDevitt (though Paddy Power spell his name incorrectly) 6/1 Alasdair McDonnell Votes will be physically cast at this weekend’s conference. Each branch has one voting delegate …

SDLP leadership readers’ survey: McGlone leads with good show from McDevitt…

Mick Fealty on September 26, 2011, 4:35 pm

| Readers 34

Okay, as has been said several times, this online survey, and was just for fun… So why do it (I hear FitzJamesHorse calling out from the group of troublesome boys at the back of the comment zone)? Well, it’s a sampling exercise… Not a sample of the electorate, but the rough opinion of the online readership of Slugger O’Toole… It should be noted that there is a substantial urban and in particular a Belfast bias to our readership (which may …

McDevitt registering a friendly base within the SDLP?

Mick Fealty on September 15, 2011, 1:08 pm

| Readers 110

Ken Reid notes that the nominations for leader of the SDLP close tomorrow. And it seems Conall McDevitt may be contemplating something, if not an official move then signalling the beginnings of a power base within the party… The South Belfast MLA is keeping his cards close to his chest but my information is five and probably six branches are prepared to nominate him. It could be quite a battle before the leadership election at the party conference in Belfast in …

What’s required is a Leader to bring about SDLP unity, not Irish unity…

Mick Fealty on September 10, 2011, 8:54 am

| Readers 30

Ian Parsley’s been doing some quietly impressive analysis pieces on the sidelines of NI politics. His latest piece is on what (and it’s easy to forget) has only just become the SDLP’s leadership campaign: Firstly, as discussed on this blog earlier in the week, Irish unity is not about to happen and people know it. The SDLP’s constitutional stance is clear, but it is also largely irrelevant unless is can be given extra meaning (in the same way the Alliance …

Tears of joy in February 2010 … now turned to tears of sadness?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on September 8, 2011, 10:29 pm

| Readers 12

Can’t believe Mick didn’t use this classic image from the February 2010 leadership election vote at the SDLP party conference to illustrate his earlier post about Margaret Ritchie’s announcement that she is to step down as party leader and also as MLA for South Down. Apologies to Margaret who I know hates the picture 🙁 Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast)Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports …

McGlone throws his cap in the ring, with a call for pluralist nationalism

Mick Fealty on August 1, 2011, 10:14 am

| Readers 25

So Patsy McGlone is in: “The SDLP has revolutionised Irish politics. The founding principles of the party are as relevant today as they were during the civil rights campaign. The unity of the people of Ireland, a unity built on trust, along with practical social democracy – being there for people through the good and bad times – lie at the heart of every SDLP member and supporter. “The way forward for us needs three strategic elements: strong leadership, clarity …

Rumbles in the SDLP over November’s leadership election…

Mick Fealty on July 27, 2011, 7:47 pm

| Readers 44

Margaret Ritchie SDLP leadership campaign promotional poster - with the ink running in the Newcastle rain

Patsy McGlone has been keeping his counsel to himself ever since ever since he was overlooked for the one Ministerial post open to them, but the SDLP’s deputy leader was not happy at being overlooked. Now the BBC is reporting speculation that Mr McGlone may declare his candidacy as early as next month. Given his main rivals in Mid Ulster are all Sinn Fein and all have some formal status (DFM Martin McGuinness, Agriculture Minister, Michelle O’Neill, and the Speaker …

“this Department is not in a position to proceed any further with the Narrow Water Bridge project”

Pete Baker on July 13, 2011, 2:58 pm

| Readers 50

When it was announced in February 2008, the proposed “lovely looking bridge” at Narrow Water, Co Down, to link the Omeath to Newry Road in Co Louth with the A2 Newry to Warrenpoint road, Co Down, produced an unseemly scramble by three then-members of the Northern Ireland Executive. By contrast, as far as I can tell, the latest news of the project has been met by silence… From Dáil written answers 5 July 627. Deputy Seamus Kirk asked the Minister for Transport, Tourism …

SDLP’s last advantage lies in their cross community appeal…

Mick Fealty on June 27, 2011, 4:35 pm

| Readers 33

Okay, I’m deliberately turning this one on its head, partly because the question raised in Ian Parsley’s post poses is more interesting that way. So for me, here’s the payload in Ian’s post: The DUP has proven masterful at taking fairly narrow policy positions and giving them broad appeal; it seems to seek out certain chunks of the electorate and prioritise one particular set of policies to them. The UUP and SDLP, on the other hand, try to sell their …

The SDLP’s clearest future is ‘as a social-democratic and labour party’

Mick Fealty on June 21, 2011, 3:41 pm

| Readers 49

I recall suggesting to a fairly senior member of the SDLP not 18 months ago that the party had insufficient political capital to squander it on a ‘Fianna Fail versus Irish Labour’ squabble. It was a counsel that, along with much else publicly expounded from this blog, apparently fell on deaf ears. With which southern party do you want alignment may be a great parlour-game, but for a party in the SDLP’s perilous position, it is the wrong question (at …

So Why Do Nice People Vote Sinn Féin?

FitzJames Horse on June 15, 2011, 12:18 pm

| Readers 856

So why do nice people vote Sinn Féin? I suppose we should ask one. Take the case of a Sluggerite who describes himself on his profile as ……a socialist, republican, moderate and nationalist. And skeptical of Journalism and Conflict Resolution. He first voted as a 18 year old in West Belfast for Republican Labour and Gerry Fitt. A straight fight with Brian McRoberts a Unionist. Hardly a choice. As a 21 year old in 1973, he did not vote in the …

“The Stormont system appears unsustainable in the long term…”

Pete Baker on May 29, 2011, 6:32 pm

| Readers 13

I noted previously Patrick Murphy’s concern about “how the assembly’s unchanging nature will influence future public engagement with elections and with what passes for politics here.” In yesterday’s Irish News he posed a challenge to the post-election SDLP. From the Irish News Often in Irish history, constitutional nationalism has reaped the electoral benefits of armed insurrection. This time the rebels cut out the middle man and collected the votes themselves. Their political similarity to the SDLP was obvious. Entering politics required …

Blue Labour: Perhaps metropolitan liberal politics is not enough?

Mick Fealty on May 23, 2011, 11:16 am

| Readers 16

This is a ‘new’ school of thought in England, and is in some ways an interesting denial of New Labour’s recent neo Thatcherite past… On Conservative Home’s Left Watch blog, Matthew has written an interesting précis which breaks it down into ten primary features: It recognises that Labour developed a top-down style of governing, and stresses communitarianism, self-reliance and mutual societies. It is critical of the neo-liberal economic approach of both Labour and the Conservatives. Socially, it is, in many …

Post election, the SDLP’s position is like…

Mick Fealty on May 10, 2011, 1:55 pm

| Readers 133

West Ham struggling near the bottom of the table desperately trying to avoid the drop… What particularly brought them to mind was Robbie Keane’s spectacular miss against Blackburn Rovers at the weekend… Despite sharing some of the same institutional problems with the UUP, the SDLP remain the more competitive, at least at Assembly level. But in both sets of elections, their long term decline has continued. And there have already been glowering looks (though nothing said, concretely at least) at Margaret …

Pushing at boundaries

Blank on April 30, 2011, 7:08 pm

| Readers 16

Great to see some politicos working outside comfort zones in their chase for votes. In the last day we’ve had Niall Ó Donnghaile out in Castlereagh helping his SF colleagues hunt those final ticks, Conall and the SDLP trying their luck in Belvoir and Mark Finlay and the UUP giving the Markets and Lower Ormeau a punt. So who else has been working an area not know for easy votes? (I’m still waiting 4 years for the APNI to canvass …