TUV – Page 2 – Slugger O'Toole

Cllr Henry Reilly joins the TUV

David McCann on November 10, 2015, 7:16 pm

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Cllr Henry Reilly (formerly of UKIP) announced today that he was joining the TUV. Speaking about his decision to join Reilly said; In joining TUV I know I am doing the right thing, because this is the only unionist party still standing unapologetically for the traditional unionist principles in which I believe. It is also a party wholly committed to re-establishing the national sovereignty of the UK by taking the essential step of leaving the EU. Thus, it is my …

DUP and Sinn Fein vote down Jim Allister’s SPAD bill

David McCann on October 13, 2015, 9:38 pm

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Jim Allister is back with a SPAD bill (not that one) this piece of legislation would have placed a cap on pay and the number of SPADs that can be employed. Northern Ireland currently spends over £2 million per year on SPADs which is double the cost of Scotland and three times that of Wales. A few months ago Jim Allister wrote for Slugger setting out his case for reform of the system. Alas it appears that business as usual …

Allister on why we need further reform of SpAds at Stormont

Soapbox on August 11, 2015, 10:52 am

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The leader of the TUV, Jim Allister MLA is proposing a private members bills to reduce the number of SpAds at Stormont. Writing for Slugger, he sets out his case for reform of the current system After successfully piloted a Special Advisers Bill through the Assembly to remove convicts as SpAds, I have now drafted a further Bill to do three things – (i) reduce the number of SpAds, (ii) cut their salaries and (iii) ensure they are subject to …

LGBT issues: Northern Ireland party views – UPDATED

The Firemen on April 22, 2015, 8:23 pm

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(Updated to include responses from the Ulster Unionist Party and People Before Profit) Research conducted by Ruth McCarthy highlights some stark differences between the parties contesting this years Westminster elections in Northern Ireland on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues. A series of questions were asked: 1a Does your party visibly support LGBTQ equality issues in your party manifesto, on your website and in election campaigning materials? If YES, please give examples. If NO, please state why. 1b Please give …

TUV fail Ofcom’s ‘major party’ test for automatic PEBs; are PEBs actually useful or necessary?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 16, 2015, 1:38 pm

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Ofcom have ruled that there is not sufficient evidence to designate TUV as a ‘major party’ in Northern Ireland and hence Jim Allister’s party are not automatically eligible to two Party Election Broadcasts on UTV in the run up to May’s General Election. Back in January I blogged about the consultation which asked whether UKIP, Green Party and TUV should be rebadged as ‘major parties’. Today’s statement from Ofcom [in detail] comes to the common sense conclusion: After carefully accessing …

Launching your election campaign with a bang.

David McCann on February 6, 2015, 2:44 pm

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Well we have just three months to go until Election Day. Candidates and parties will be launching their campaigns for the Westminster election and will be attempting to set the tone for the campaign to come. Yet, despite this being a golden opportunity for you to set out your stall amongst the party faithful many parties either don’t invest in these types of events or just do them badly. Being the public service that we are here on Slugger I …

The trolling of Ann Travers

The Firemen on November 30, 2014, 3:12 pm

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The first in a three part series exploring so-called ‘trolling’ and abuse on social media At the beginning of November 2014 it was widely reported that victims campaigner Ann Travers had closed down her Facebook and Twitter accounts following a barrage of online abuse. It’s worth reminding people of the fact that Ann’s sister, Mary, was murdered by the IRA in Belfast in 1984. The target of the ambush was their father, Tom, a resident magistrate. He survived. In 2011 …

An expanded TUV seeking to shift up a gear at the weekend’s conference…

Richard Cairns on November 28, 2014, 7:00 am

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Richard Cairns is the vice chairman of TUV and an advisor to Jim Allister MLA. He is here to give us the low down on Saturday’s annual party conference: As Saturday approaches colleagues and I have been putting the finishing touches on our annual Party Conference. It is safe to say that every party wishes to learn from and build on their previous year’s conference, and TUV is no different. A conference needs to have identifiable themes, a core message …

Allister on Robinson, Paisley, TUV’s Future, Irish and Opposition

David McCann on November 27, 2014, 8:17 am

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As the TUV annual conference approaches this weekend, I caught up with the party leader Jim Allister. We talked about his work on the Social Development Committee, the Irish language and his relationship with other parties in the Assembly. (Note I did this interview before Gregory Campbell’s conference speech) I began by asking him how he planned to expand his party and build on the gains they made at the 2014 election. Allister told me that the 2016 Assembly election …

Men Only: Stormont ‘all party’ Pro Life group revealed

The Firemen on August 21, 2014, 12:22 am

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Social media was ablaze last night with the news of an ‘all party’ ALL MALE ‘Pro-Life’ group at Stormont. Chaired by the SDLP’s Pat Ramsey, the group also includes Jim Wells (DUP), Jonathan Craig (DUP), Alban Maginness (SDLP), Mervyn Storey (DUP), Jim Allister (TUV), Mark H Durkan (SDLP), David McIlveen (DUP), Kieran McCarthy (Alliance) and Danny Kennedy (UUP). Despite having no female representation the group give their main point of contact as Bernie Smyth, currently involved in a court case …

Election results 2014: Unionism’s natural internal level

Turgon on June 7, 2014, 3:25 pm

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The dust is beginning to settle on the election. In actual fact the dust settled fairly quickly as there was not much created. On the nationalist / republican side there seemed remarkably little though I will leave discussion of that to those better qualified. On the unionist side there was slightly more but only slightly and if the results were compared say to the mainland GB elections one would say business as usual. Diane Dodds gained a small percentage at …

After the election… The TUV…

Mick Fealty on May 28, 2014, 10:33 am

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I think it was David Brewster in the research for Slugger’s paper on the future of unionism in Northern Ireland who told us that what Unionists needed more than anything else was a win. It’s been a very long time coming, but if there is one clear victor in this election it was Unionism’s reversal of a long term drop in unionist turnout and possibly initiating the rolling back of a highly pervasive sense of defeatism. Jim Allister may have …

Unelected EU Commissioner says 75% of our laws are made in Brussels

Kilsally on May 21, 2014, 9:24 pm

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Further to my piece about the European Free Alliance (SNP / Plaid) claiming 70% of our daily lives are governed by rules from the EU a video on Vimeo has European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding claiming 75% of laws originate from the EU. Elected MEPs cannot initiate legislation, propose legislation or even repeal legislation. All that is done by the unelected EU Commission. — Roger Da Costa (@rog_ukip) May 21, 2014 The choice is clear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAtAligq_Vc KilsallyIT Technical Manager …

BBC Spotlight European Debate #SpotlightNI

David McCann on May 20, 2014, 11:40 pm

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So, tonight I wandered over to the BBC to watch the last European candidates’ debate. What became apparent within the first ten minutes is how much political coverage in Northern Ireland misses Noel Thompson-an effective chairman with a dry wit and real knowledge of the issues. On to the debate itself-the format was excellent with fewer candidates being given longer to debate. It was really was a night and day experience from UTV last night as Thompson was able to …

Euro TV Debates: What each candidate needs to do #EP14

David McCann on May 19, 2014, 7:10 am

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This evening and Tuesday night will be the last real opportunity for the European candidates to address voters and make their case for election to the European parliament. The debates are scheduled to take place on Monday 10:35pm, UTV with all ten candidates, followed by another on Tuesday evening on BBC One also at 10:35pm. I am not sure whether all the candidates have been invited to the Spotlight debate or whether it is just the five main parties. I …

Slugger verdict: Ranking the Party Election Broadcasts

David McCann on May 15, 2014, 7:31 am

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They have been commented upon for weeks and their impact is always in question. Yet, a good party political broadcast can capture attention and make people talk. So, in that spirit I thought I would assemble a panel of judges to help me go through all of the party election broadcasts and rank them in how effective they thought they were. The other judges were PR Consultant, Carl Devlin Whyte and the broadcaster, Jim Fitzpatrick. Each of us ranked the PEBs out …

What makes a good local Councillor?

David McCann on April 13, 2014, 12:40 pm

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Over the coming weeks hundreds of people will be seeking a job with an interview panel of thousands asking questions about their ability to deal with local problems, create jobs and run local services. But, this year will be a little bit different as local councils take on a lot more powers. Speaking about the changes to local councils the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, Derek McCallan, made the point that as a community we need …

TUV European Selection Convention- Jim Allister is the candidate

David McCann on April 3, 2014, 8:39 pm

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So, I wandered over to the Park Ave Hotel in East Belfast tonight to see the TUV announce as their candidate for the European election. The party room meeting was comprised of around 170 people. The evening began with a speech by the party leader Jim Allister, followed by a Q&A were delegates got the chance to ask questions about the upcoming elections. I suppose the end result was never really in doubt but it was interesting to see how the …

TUV, SDLP and UUP host victims commemoration at Stormont

Turgon on March 11, 2014, 10:47 pm

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Alan has a post on the Alternative Ms. Ulster event hosted by Steven Agnew at Stormont on Sunday complete with the inspiring / daring / indecent, speech/ behaviour by Ms. Park. In contrast yesterday the UUP, SDLP and TUV hosted the third annual day of remembrance for victims of terrorism. 120 people attended and three people spoke: Michelle Nixon who has been caring for her brother since he was seriously injured in 1979 by an IRA bomb in Rosslea; June …

North-Southery? Build a wall or a bridge?

David McCann on March 3, 2014, 11:15 pm

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I remember reading through old government documents from the 60s being perplexed at seeing members of the Northern Ireland government referring to their southern counterparts as members of the ‘republican government’ who were on the other side of the ‘frontier’ (that’s the border to me and you). But what was more disturbing about that period were proposals like co-operation in tourism and trade which had benefits for Northern Ireland being turned down because of political concerns about the integrity of …