small party interviews

Catching up with John Lowry (Workers Party) #lg11 #belw11

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 3, 2011, 9:05 am

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Workers Party SECT ARIA NISM election poster

In the last of this pre-election series of interviews with representatives from smaller parties contesting Assembly and/or council seats, I spoke to John Lowry, General Secretary of the Workers Party. (Update – adding link to their Election 2011 site.) John Lowry is standing for the Assembly in West Belfast and Lower Falls for Belfast City Council. The party is contesting all four Belfast Assembly constituencies. My earliest election memory as a child was pouring over the broadsheet 1983 general election …

Catching up with Steven Agnew (Green Party) #ae11 #lg11 #ndo11

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 2, 2011, 9:05 am

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The Green Party has six Assembly and twenty two council candidates standing for election on May 5. I spoke to Steven Agnew a few weeks ago in the party’s constituency office (and headquarters) in Bangor to ask about Green Party policies and priorities for the Assembly and local government, local sourcing, and their stance against reducing the number of local councils and their hopes for election results. Steven Agnew once echoed Kermit the Frog when he said “it’s not easy …

Catching up with Jim Gorman and Paul Little, IRSP council candidates in Belfast #lg11 #belw #beln

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 29, 2011, 11:15 am

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On Thursday afternoon I spoke to IRSP’s two candidates standing for Belfast City Council: Jim Gorman (Lower Falls) and Paul Little (Oldpark). The party has another three candidates standing in Derry and Strabane. The first part of the interview looked at their candidacy in next week’s local elections; the second part looked at the IRSP more generally, its link with the INLA, God, apologies, policing and their view on current dissident activity. I asked about where the IRSP as a …

Catching up with Stephen Stewart (18 year old independent) #ae11 #bele11

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 22, 2011, 8:00 pm

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Stephen Stewart, 18 year old East Belfast independent standing in front of Parliament Buildings

Eighteen year old Stephen Stewart is squeezing in running as an independent candidate for East Belfast in the Assembly elections alongside his A-levels. He’s partially inspired by Martin McAuley who stood as an independent in North Belfast’s Westminster election last year and is having a crack at the Assembly this year. The whole point of me doing this is to complete the Good Friday Agreement and elect the first person from the ‘ceasefire generation’. It’s thirteen years since the signing …

Catching up with Paddy Meehan (Socialist Party)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 21, 2011, 12:00 pm

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The Socialist Party are standing on a Fight the Cuts agenda. With local government and Assembly candidates in Belfast and Enniskillen they’re in competition with a whole clatter of small left wing parties. Paddy Meehan is their South Belfast candidate for the Assembly, and is also standing in Laganbank for a seat on Belfast City Council. I spoke to him a couple of weeks ago and asked what the Socialist Party was offering voters. We want to give the opportunity …

Catching up with éirígí’s John McCusker – starting “a community fight back”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on April 16, 2011, 10:26 pm

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éirígí won’t be everyone’s cup of tea on Slugger – but then name one political party that is. And in the spirit of exploring the smaller parties standing in the Assembly and local government elections, éirígí replied to the email that a number of other parties received but ignored. I spoke to John McCusker at length a week or so ago. He’s éirígí’s West Belfast chairman and standing as the party’s candidate in Lower Falls for Belfast City Council in …

Catching up with Brian Ervine

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 6, 2011, 8:45 am

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Brian Ervine emerged as the Progressive Unionist Party’s leader last year after Dawn Purvis quit in the aftermath of UVF members’ involvement in the murder of Bobby Moffett. I caught up with Brian in the PUP’s Newtownards Road office on Thursday afternoon. Serving in the shadow of his brother – and physically, sitting under a photo of David Ervine – he talked about his political beliefs, party policy, election hopes, and was happy to discuss the PUP’s relationship with the …

Catching up with Dawn Purvis

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 16, 2011, 11:39 pm

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Often it feel like Slugger has a love/hate relationship with Dawn Purvis. The annual judging process is quick to give her awards, while critical commenters are even faster to cast doubt on her political credibility, particularly over the timing of her departure from the PUP last year to become an independent MLA. If you ask me, deep down Dawn Purvis is a political anorak who could carve out a career as a party strategist or advisor. While conveniently fitting her …