UUP – Page 18 – Slugger O'Toole

Nesbitt’s task is to discover a real purpose for the UUP. But will they let him?

Mick Fealty on March 31, 2012, 7:15 pm | Readers 62

Even the scale of Mike Nesbitt’s victory surprised some of his supporters. Slugger understands they were already confident of a 60-40 margin, but 81-19 was a resounding victory. He should not have any of the problems of his predecessor. Indeed, the major theme his acceptance speech was that party loyalty is a two way affair. He avoided the cock up of Alasdair McDonnell’s SDLP leadership, though in that regard Tom Elliott’s hasty exit meant there was no big media occasion …

Lacking in policy, distinctiveness, professionalism … and votes

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 30, 2012, 11:01 am | Readers 57

unionist vote share

When former UUP deputy leader and now crossbench peer Lord Kilclooney spoke to the BBC’s Gareth Gordon he said: I think in recent years the Ulster Unionist Party has failed to show what it stands for … First of all, I can’t think of any policies it really has promoted strongly in the last five years or so; secondly it has failed to show a clear distinction from other parties and thirdly (it has failed) to stop rowing within themselves. …

UUP suspend David McNarry for 9 months #mcnarrygate

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 29, 2012, 11:54 am | Readers 99

Tom Eliott wielding scissors at the opening of David McNarry's Saintfield Advice Centre Opening

Earlier this morning when I wrote … Neither has David McNarry gone away. I’ll be very surprised if one Strangford MLA won’t be spending next week sitting in the leader’s office in UUP HQ figuring out how the party can limit the damage the other Strangford MLA could yet still do. … I didn’t expect that David McNarry’s disciplinary action would be completed quite so quickly. UTV, BBC and others report The MLA David McNarry has been suspended from the …

A bold step? Or just more of the same better communicated? An interview with John McCallister and some thoughts on Mike Nesbitt.

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 29, 2012, 9:05 am | Readers 61

I spoke to John McCallister on Monday evening after the close of a Platform for Change event looking at a change “from the politics of identity to the politics of ideas”. I view it very simply that we don’t have many more chances to get this right. We either do the unionist unity route which I’m very opposed to – I think it’s bad for Northern Ireland, bad for unionism, just an unhealthy state in our politics and we would …

McCallister promises to clear out the old guard…

Mick Fealty on March 23, 2012, 9:34 am | Readers 607

Well, if nothing else, John McCallister knows how to grab a headline in a leadership contest… This time he is promising to axe the UUP’s long term chairman, David Campbell who was an integral and widely perceived to be a powerful part of David Trimble’s kitchen cabinet… “I think some people are actually very unfair about David Campbell. He has served the party for a long time and I think even our party rules would suggest that we would be …

Don’t underestimate McCallister’s capacity to disrupt some of the UUP’s best laid plans…

Mick Fealty on March 22, 2012, 1:47 pm | Readers 626

Interesting blog piece from Alex Kane over at Eamon’s place… not least for his account for how Danny Kennedy’s (the bookie’s favourite) bid came to a sudden, and crunching end: It was obvious from the outset that Danny Kennedy and Mike Nesbitt were keen on a deal that would embrace thirteen of the fifteen MLAs, all of the peers and the bulk of the party officers. The logic, I presume, was that such a move would scare off the ‘liberals’ …

UUP’s very public contest for leadership…

Mick Fealty on March 21, 2012, 12:37 pm | Readers 649

There are two striking differences between the UUP’s leadership campaign and that of the SDLP’s is its the current campaign’s brevity and the very public nature of this one versus the party only meetings of the minor nationalist party. Both main contenders have already racked up to public interviews, one each for the BBC’s Sunday Politics and then UTV on Monday Here’s John McCallister speaking to Paul Clarke: And Mike Nesbitt: It has already had an interesting effect, not least …

Without Opposition, “the UUP remains trapped, un-influential and jointly culpable…”

Mick Fealty on March 19, 2012, 11:30 am | Readers 671

Alex Kane on the virtues of embracing opposition for the UUP: …it strikes me that the UUP is in the same position as Clegg: it cannot be true to itself and carve out its own identity (which makes it hard to attract new votes) and it shares the general unpopularity of the Executive (which means it may lose people who voted for it last time). Mike is right when he says that the UUP’s structures and organisation still need work …

Learning from the Tories: A road map to recovery for parties in trouble?

Mick Fealty on March 17, 2012, 12:50 pm | Readers 625

Noel Whelan’s op ed piece is an intelligent structural rip from Tim Bale’s address to the recent Fianna Fail Ard Fheis on lessons to be drawn from the Tory come back after more than 13 years in the political wilderness.. Professor Bale was drawing on his recent study The Conservative Party: From Thatcher to Cameron… As Whelan suggests there are lessons here for all former incumbent parties here, north as well as south… You should really read the whole thing… …

Can the new UUP leader put an end to the party’s inexorable drift?

Mick Fealty on March 15, 2012, 1:33 pm | Readers 571

Liam Clarke in the BelTel, frames the leadership contest within the UUP: In its heyday the UUP was the party of the Union. Later it became, with the SDLP, a party of the peace process. Since then it has struggled to define a new role for itself and support has drifted away. It has flirted with the Tories, the DUP, and the SDLP and before that the PUP as it sought allies to halt its decline. At each stage it …

John McCallister joins the UUP leadership race

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 13, 2012, 7:25 am | Readers 58

This morning, John McCallister – UUP Deputy Leader of the Assembly Group – has thrown his farmer’s cap into the ring to replace Tom Elliott as leader of the UUP. In a statement McCallister calls himself an “unashamed liberal progressive unionist” and makes a couple of his policies clear: UUP shouldn’t be allowed to float into the orbit of the DUP. If elected, the UUP would go into opposition at Stormont. The question now is whether Mike Nesbitt (who managed …

Tom Elliott hands the poisoned chalice on

Turgon on March 12, 2012, 4:56 pm | Readers 51

As referred to extensively below Tom Elliott has announced his decision to step down as UUP leader and Danny Kennedy has now announced his decision to stand. There has been much analysis both in the press and in blogs about the decision: as ever the best to my mind is Alex Kane’s in the News Letter. Tom Elliott was elected by a considerable margin over Basil McCrea even if one leaves out the votes from Fermanagh. At the time I …

Tom Elliott’s first post resignation interview…

Rodney Edwards on March 9, 2012, 6:35 pm | Readers 256

Tom Elliott, who resigned as Ulster Unionist leader last night, says he quit because of growing tensions within the party. He also says there has been an “uneasy atmosphere” in the Ulster Unionist Party in recent days and claimed that some of his colleagues have been making life difficult for him by briefing journalists “lies”. In an exclusive interview with The Impartial Reporter, Mr. Elliott says he has “no regrets” about his time in charge, adding: “I would have liked …

Elliott off – what next for the UUP?

Dewi on March 8, 2012, 8:25 pm | Readers 44

Tom Elliott has obviously had enough. (from UTV) Mr Elliott has said he will not seek re-election to the position at the annual general meeting, in just over three weeks time. In a statement outlining his decision and the reasons behind it, he said some “obstruction and hostility” began immediately following his election as leader and has been “relentless” since then. The party’s AGM is scheduled to take place on Saturday 31 March. “It has been a great privilege for …

“the game for the UUP is virtually up unless it is able to come to terms with … the unpalatable reality”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 19, 2012, 8:26 pm | Readers 70

Tom Eliott wielding scissors at the opening of David McNarry's Saintfield Advice Centre Opening

The king of the UUP-scourging quote is back. David McNarry, the man who gave us the line “the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken” has given up his early Lenten abstinence from the media. The UUP member and independent MLA at the centre of the party’s most recent fracas has emerged and spoken once again to the News Letter, despite the ongoing disciplinary process and the instruction to all …

UUP and the SDLP: Two parties in search of a script?

Mick Fealty on February 9, 2012, 9:00 am | Readers 49

Very good column from Fionnuala O’Connor on Tuesday re what what’s happening to two parties in continuing decline. She starts with the semi public spat between Margaret Ritchie and her chosen successor, the retired school head, Sean Rogers: Surely between them a keen new player and a former leader could have avoided such a petty row, or at least kept the daylight from it. It’s as if they don’t realise the SDLP image has taken a battering. The old rules …

UUP: Confused boxer without a decent right or left?

Mick Fealty on February 2, 2012, 12:30 pm | Readers 97

There isn’t really an upside to the UUP’s problems at the moment. Although they were never what you might even remotely call political friends, Mr McNarry’s exit bears a lot of resemblance to the early departure of Trevor Ringland. Already the consequences are closing in. So early in his career as leader to have lost allies or potential allies from both the right and the left, is a little more than careless. His problem is – not dissimilar to the …

McNarry: “the party will close ranks and anybody who wants to be a hypocrite will get their photograph taken”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 1, 2012, 9:10 pm | Readers 107

Tom Eliott wielding scissors at the opening of David McNarry's Saintfield Advice Centre Opening

It’s the story that keeps on giving. And that looks to be David McNarry’s intention. Now free of having to notify the UUP press office about media interviews and statements – something that Tom Elliott has adhered to as Party Leader – David McNarry is everywhere. This morning’s News Letter. The Belfast Telegraph. Though nothing fully authored by him in the Irish News. [Ed: Maybe he’s saving that as a treat for Thursday?] In recent days he has appeared on …

UUP must get over its permanent identity crisis…

Mick Fealty on January 23, 2012, 9:18 pm | Readers 48

Alex Kane’s column from the News Letter today in which he tells the UUP (and the Tories) more than a few uncomfortable truths: Putting it bluntly, the UUP needs a convincing answer to one simple question: what is the point in voting for the UUP rather than the DUP? If they don’t have a convincing answer to that question then the DUP vote will remain steady, non-voters won’t be attracted and some of the UUP’s own voters may choose to …

Cryptozoology: Unionist outreach to Catholics

Turgon on January 11, 2012, 9:00 am | Readers 175

Cryptozoology according to wikipedia is “the search for animals whose existence has not been proven.” Here in Northern Ireland we have our own version of this: not monsters in Lough Erne (though the pike can get pretty big) but rather the political version. The two most sought after fantasy animals are the fabled Garden Centre Prod and the unicorn that is the Unionist Catholic. These creatures probably hide in the Craigantlet and Castlereagh Hills in the case of the Garden …