As I mentioned in the first post in this series, I’m not a member of the UUP, nor any other political party. So I’ve no vote next week when the members gather to elect their new leader. (They’re meeting to vote at the Waterfront Hall. Postal voting was too expensive to organise … and voting online like many of us do for union ballots and shareholder AGMs wasn’t put in place.) In deciding to interview the two candidates I deliberately …
Having so far looked at matters internal to the UUP, I thought it would be interesting to get the candidates’ perspectives on how their leadership would impact and benefit wider society, outside the party. Basil McCrea wants the UUP to better support the kind of politics he believes the public desire. [McCrea] I think the people have moved on a lot faster perhaps than our political class. There is a thirst out there for more progressive, more modern type of …
Both candidates agreed that the leadership campaign has been divisive. But what would they do to restore unity after the result? [Elliott] At stages it has been divisive. Clearly we’re all big people. We’re in politics so we have to move on. In past times I have differed with other Ulster Unionist Party leaders. But I’m still in the party, clearly because I accepted the will of the majority. [McCrea] It certainly turned into a more divisive and a more …
Given that it’s a leadership election (and not a beauty contest) it seemed wise to ask the two UUP contenders about the difference they hoped to make as party leader. First up was Basil McCrea who is very much running as the outsider, anti-establishment candidate, making a virtue of the fact that most of the big names in the party machine aren’t supporting him. [McCrea] Well first of all, I thought long and hard before I went into the leadership …
For the second post in this short series based on interviews with UUP leadership candidates Tom Elliott and Basil McCrea I take a look at their leadership pitches and their opinions on the UCUNF link-up. Asked for his 60 second leadership pitch, Basil launched into an analysis of past failure and the need for change, describing the type of party be wanted to lead. [McCrea] The party needs change, needs rapid change. We’ve had a number of pretty disappointing electoral …
There’ll be a series of posts over the next day or so reflecting on Basil McCrea and Tom Elliott as they bid for the leadership of the UUP. Both candidates agreed to be interviewed on camera (videos now available) over the last few days and answered a fairly consistent set of questions to see how that would tease out their different personalities, policies and ideas for taking the UUP forwards. They talked about their leadership pitches, the Tory link-up, changes …
While the UUP leadership contest provides the surface focus there’s talk of possible legal challenges to the membership list. The Belfast Telegraph understands many on the list have not paid dues and in some cases missed several deadlines to do so. Letters are to be sent informing individuals they cannot take part in the vote on Wednesday, September 22, despite an amnesty offer by party chairman David Campbell a few months ago. Mr McCrea said: “I can confirm I did formally …
Basil McCrea launched his campaign with a very interesting speech (copied below) yesterday at the Merchant Hotel in Waring Street, outlining)67 his five pledges for the kinds of changes he wants to make to his party’s approach. It’s fresh, interesting and in places thought provoking. Whether it adds up to a viable platform for change, is a matter for the party’s internal electorate. A good and plausible public speaker, McCrea is not popular with his Assembly colleagues. But his own …
Nicholas Whyte has kindly given Slugger permission to reproduce this article.
Where to start?
The four stage progression I suppose, thus:
1) The bright new non-sectarian dawn.
2) Look at us we have Catholic candidates.
3) Sorry no we haven’t.
4) Oh and we’ll change our mind on standing in every seat…
Totally. Absolutely. Astonishing.
I always thought that the money was important but was it the only thing?
How did they do anyway?
Welsh Nationalist. Rugby Fan. Know a bit about History and Railways…
For several years rumours have come and gone on the possibility of Tim Collins entering political life. It seems he has finally bitten the bullet and will enter political life in numerous countries in a quasi-military capacity for a fee. Most recently the claim was: A rumour going around that Tim Collins was rejected as the UUP candidate for South Antrim in favour of Adrian Watson. Though that idea had been floated back in February with him running as a …
This was at the top of my street until today (3 months after it should have been binned – by Neil Johnston of the UUP). It made a better attempt to stay out of the dustbin of history than the ‘party’ did.
It’s more than thirty years since PR STV was introduced to local elections and although it is a complex instrument you would have thought most parties would have cottoned on by now as to how balance their tickets. Danny Kennedy sees unionism’s underperformance in South Antrim as a reason to seek greater co-operation with the DUP: “Here in South Antrim the combined unionist vote was equal to more than five assmebly quotas, yet presently the area only has three unionist …
Tom Elliott has announced his intention to stand for the leadership of the UUP. He is the first to declare since Reg Empey said he would stand down. Elliott announced his candidacy in the Great hall in Stormont: “While I am proud of the Ulster Unionist Party’s long history and recognise that it was our determination that has brought Northern Ireland to this stage, I am also crucially aware that unionism has changed dramatically over the last two decades – …
With the publication of the Saville Report focus is now shifting to the possibility of prosecutions, some paratroopers are already under investigation by the Public Prosecutions Service over perjury at the inquiry but it is unknown if any criminal investigations and/or prosecutions will take place over events on the day. The DUP’s Peter Robinson has called for no prosecutions I think from a political point of view I have to say that I do not believe that there is anything …
The DUP also rather helpfully point us in the direction of Alun Cairns, who as a sitting AM initially followed what seemed like party policy when he won the Westminster seat for the Vale of Glamorgan and offered to resign his seat of South Wales West (for clarity that’s Swansea, Neath, Port Talbot and Bridgend). Update: Heads up from Dewi, here’s what Politics Cymru has to say on the matter of his likely replacement.. An understandable decision when, the party’s …
This is very interesting. The line on Sinn Fein’s expenses for their abstaining MPs from Sir George Young today in Parliament is no longer a matter for the Government but for the newly Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA). Why is that interesting? Well, because, so far as I can see, the IPSA’s only role is to decide whether the expenses are legitimate, not who can claim. The inclusion of funding for Sinn Fein was taken by Parliament under the direction …
An English friend who knows more than the average Englishman about Northern Irish politics asked me in all seriousness, just a few days before the last election, whether the UUP was now anti Agreement. Well, I explained, not exactly and yet it looked that way if you were taking seriously anything Reg said (which was not a lot) on politics in the run up to the election. Davy Adams goes a little further than my English friend (or I would) …
Interesting news from Jeff Peel on status of the Conservative party staffers in Northern Ireland. Slugger cannot confirm whether it is true or not, but we understand the Conservatives did indeed expend a great deal of time, money and energy on trying to help get Ulster Unionist (as well as their own) candidates elected in the latest general election. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the …
It’s not clear what the last election ever held for Reg Empey. Had he won, he was already committed to stepping down from his ministry and membership of the Assembly. With his intention to resign now clear are now where we would have been regardless of whether he’d won his seat, or not. The big question exercising everyone inside the party is: who next? Despite the poor look on not winning a single Westminster seats, it’s actual vote (if you …
