UUP – Page 15 – Slugger O'Toole

Martin criticises Nesbitt and Kenny over talks and role of Irish government

David McCann on October 20, 2014, 9:27 am

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Interesting report in today’s Irish News about comments from the Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin and the UUP leader, Mike Nesbitt. The paper reports comments from Nesbitt last week saying he was provided with assurances that the Irish government “would respect the principle of the three-stranded approach”. “However, the other two strands involve north-south and east-west relations and clearly you cannot consider those matters without input from the Irish government,” the UUP leader said. However, speaking at the Fianna Fail commemoration …

Nesbitt:”This is about the Union, this is about putting Unionism first, this is about the good of Northern Ireland.” #UUP2014

David McCann on October 19, 2014, 11:53 am

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Yesterday as the Ulster Unionist conference wrapped up I sat down with the party leader, Mike Nesbitt to discuss the last election, Unionist unity and the party’s prospects for the upcoming Wesminster election. I began by asking him about the last election, how did he feel about the UUPs moderate improvement from 2011? Well I wasn’t looking at the percentage, I was looking at the total number of people getting elected and we got 99 and that is the equivalent …

#UUP2014 conference review & audio: “We want Fermanagh South Tyrone … we can win the Westminster seat”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 18, 2014, 4:42 pm

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Around 300 people filled the Ramada Hotel venue, marginally younger than previous years, and during the morning extra chairs had to be brought in to add a couple more back rows. It’s clear that the UUP have internally stabilised and while they emphasised their growth in the local government election, it’s not clear yet that their “shrink to grow” policy has come to fruition. Westminster candidates Jo-Anne Dobson (Upper Bann) and Danny Kinahan (South Antrim) were showcased. Both spoke confidently, …

Why the party membership could be our political salvation.

David McCann on October 16, 2014, 9:00 pm

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If we could have a term to describe the attitude of some supporters of political parties in Northern Ireland it would be people who like to indulge in “drinking the kool aid.” This term means to simply take the party line without question or any critical comment. The idea that your party is exceptional and that the only way to national salvation is through your leader coming to power is a powerful, if not slightly deluded opinion to hold. It …

Jonathan Powell: The Lessons of Northern Ireland

Soapbox on October 15, 2014, 7:59 pm

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Following the launch of his new book ‘Talking to Terrorists,” former Chief of Staff to Prime Minister, Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell, writes exclusively for Slugger about the lessions he learned from his time working on the Northern Ireland peace process The Northern Ireland negotiations were the most difficult and frustrating challenge I faced in my life, but also, at least in retrospect, my most important and satisfying achievement. Since leaving government I have set up an NGO, Inter Mediate, to …

Nesbitt on Unionist unity and the Westminster election

David McCann on October 15, 2014, 7:00 am

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Ahead of the UUP Conference on Saturday, Irish News political correspondent, John Manley sat down with the party leader, Mike Nesbitt to discuss Unionist unity and the upcoming Westminster elections. Let’s begin with the UUP target seats for the upcoming election that Nesbitt thinks are ripe for his party He identifies DUP-held South Antrim and Upper Bann as seats where the UUP is most likely to prosper, but admits that success elsewhere is likely to rely on a pact of …

Mickey Brady: Why Welfare cuts must be opposed

Soapbox on October 2, 2014, 5:00 pm

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As the debate continues on over welfare reform, Sinn Fein MLA and Deputy Chairman of the DSD Committee, Mickey Brady, writes for Slugger about why proposed cuts should be opposed. The Tory-led coalition has sought to sell welfare cuts on the false premise of Strivers verses Skivers. Nothing could be further from the truth. The cuts agenda will affect low-income working families, people with disabilities, those who cannot find employment because there are no jobs available, the young and the most …

Murphy: Does continued Partition or Irish unity offer better future

Soapbox on September 25, 2014, 5:30 pm

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In the aftermath of the Scottish referendum, Sinn Fein have renewed their push for a border poll here. The party’s MP for Newry and Armagh, Conor Muprhy writes for Slugger making the case for holding a poll and Irish unity. On the 18th of September the people of Scotland exercised their democratic voice on the future of the Scottish Nation. Throughout the referendum the people of Scotland engaged in an informed and respectful debate and they have now made their …

Villiers: “Northern Ireland’s political leaders need to act now to grip the situation”

Soapbox on September 22, 2014, 5:00 pm

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In the aftermath of the Scottish referendum and the debate over welfare reform, the Secretary of State, Theresa Villiers MP, writes exclusively for Slugger O’Toole about how we move forward There is much to celebrate about modern Northern Ireland. Twenty years ago this small place carried the burden of a global reputation built on images of bitter conflict and violence. Today, Northern Ireland deserves admiration for its burgeoning creative industries sector, advanced infrastructure and outstanding cultural attractions, as well as …

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 …

Are unionists ‘…committed to drastically lowering people’s standards of living’?

John Ó Néill on August 15, 2014, 1:10 am

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This is a quick companion piece to Mick’s on welfare reform cuts. Gerry Adams issued a longish statement last week on the issue, which presumably can be taken as the current Sinn Féin position. These are a few relevant extracts: The DUP has repeatedly demonstrated an unwillingness to participate positively in any of the institutions. Instead it has adopted a tactical approach aimed at serving the political agenda of a fundamentalist rump in their party rather than the needs of the …

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 UUP..

Mick Fealty on May 29, 2014, 7:39 am

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On Friday at the count, Mike Nesbitt was on a roll and so was his party. I was surprised at the news from East Belfast, particularly Ormiston one of two DEAs making up the most of the coming battleground between the sitting MEP Naomi Long and the DUP. The drama lingered to the very end, just into Sunday morning when the DUP’s Denny Vitty was edged out by the Green candidate Ross Brown. Having taken two seats further up the count, the …

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 …

Gordon Gillespie-Why Sunningdale was never going to work

Soapbox on May 20, 2014, 4:30 pm

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As it is the 40th anniversary of the UWC Strike we asked Dr.Gordon Gillespie who completed his doctoral research on the strike to write up a piece on why he feels that Sunningdale was always doomed to failure. Forty years ago this month the first attempt to create a cross community executive in Northern Ireland ended in failure. The political strength of loyalist power station workers allied with paramilitary force on the streets and backed by broad unionist support forced …

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 …

So, you want to be a Cllr? Here’s some social media do’s and don’ts.

David McCann on May 4, 2014, 2:30 pm

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This round of local elections were interesting for me as I watched in January my twitter feed being swamped with tweets of election hopefuls announcing their candidacy for the various wards in the upcoming election. Ever since the election of Barack Obama in 2008, candidates have looked to social media to promote themselves and their issues. Now, the impact of this is debatable, I think that for local government elections, social media is a nice stocking filler for candidates. It …

Equal Marriage-An issue for liberals and conservatives to rally behind.

David McCann on April 28, 2014, 11:31 am

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There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation Those words came from the Former Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, when he introduced a bill in Canada decriminalising homosexuality. While yes, three thousand miles away I think those words should matter to the issue that our MLAs are debating this week. I am typically a conservative minded person, like most conservatives I like incremental, organic change. Over the past few years the lobbying for marriage equality has …

Negative Campaigning-Does it work?

David McCann on April 27, 2014, 1:42 pm

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You got to go negative Lee Atwater, Advisor to President George HW Bush Those words from Atwater came in the summer of 1988 when Bush trailed his Democratic opponent Governor, Mike Dukakis. The Bush campaign developed some famous negative ads in election history with the ‘revolving door prison’ ad being the most remembered. Closer to home the Conservatives in 1992 fighting a tough election came up with a very clever ad called Labour’s tax bombshell. Like Bush in 88, the …

NI21’s ‘tús maith’ !

Concubhar on April 22, 2014, 11:31 am

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One swallow doesn’t make a Summer and one bilingual billboard can’t erase the generations of anti Irish language unionist politics – but the bold initiative by NI21 to include the Irish language in its election campaign has to be hailed as a breakthrough of sorts. Look at any of the unionist party websites and you will note the absence of any Irish language content and, on top of that, any reference to the Irish language is invariably hostile. The …