Robin Swann became the Ulster Unionist Leader yesterday. He candidacy was unopposed. He delivered his first speech as leader to the few hundred delegates gathered at the party’s AGM in South Belfast. On a single Unionist Party; So to those who seek a single unionist party, I ask them to consider carefully the consequences of such an outcome. A single unionist party would limit choice, stifle debate and quickly result in the depletion of Unionist votes at the ballot box. …
Only the most basic information has emerged so far out of the set piece statements from the parties. Arlene Foster’s offer of a return to the Executive “without pre-conditions” and do sensible things like passing the budget was never going to be enough to draw in Sinn Fein, whose whole position was all about setting conditions. If she was ever going to give satisfaction on matching Sinn Fein’s unmanageably long list of demands, why not give some specific declarations of …
North Antrim MLA, Robin Swann is set to take over as the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party without a contest. Swann is currently the party’s Chief Whip and was involved with the Ulster Farmers Union. In a post on Facebook last night he said; I can confirm that I have submitted papers today to seek election as Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, after receiving support from across the Party including members of our Westminster, Assembly and Local Government …
History is unlikely to be very kind to Mike Nesbitt’s tenure as Ulster Unionist leader. The 2017 Assembly election looked to many observers like the UUP’s long-awaited big chance. It was not to be. To be fair, the UUP was struggling long before Nesbitt took over at the top. It can also be said that he tried pretty much everything. He led them firstly as an Executive party and then into Opposition. When he first entered politics, it was at …
Yesterday Mike Nesbitt addressed the UUP Executive for the final time as party leader. In his speech he focused on his 5 year leadership and had a few shots at the DUP. His full speech is available on the News Letter website. He made some points about the general attitude of Unionism arguing; Unionism needs to engage more. There is no point complaining the White House and the USA are biased, if the only voices they hear are Irish nationalist …
Former BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London
Arlene’s call for a single unionist party in the Belfast Telegraph is a clear sign she’s going make fight of it. Coming on the eve of first stage negotiations, it suggests a different focus – defiance. The move is out of kilter with the one action that would false foot Sinn Fein or get them back in government – standing aside as first minister even temporarily. Ideally, I would like to see a renewed attempt to create unionist unity where …
“When the history of this election written the first word is going to be ‘transfers’…” said Mark Carruthers of Mike Nesbitt’s only real contribution to a tumultuous campaign. The real problem the UUs had was its lack of resonant messages on the government record. However, once said, transferring cannot be unsaid. It’s the clear logic of anyone going into government to power share. And it wasn’t universally unpopular. The party increased its vote like almost everyone else. But by nothing like enough. …
Before I set to on a profile of the UUP’s fate in this election I think this thought from Pete Shirlow is worth sharing on its own. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
The clock is ticking. Following the seismic results of last Thursday’s Northern Ireland Assembly elections, the rules state that the local parties have three weeks to form a government before the people of Northern Ireland are asked to go to the polls for the fourth time in a year. Previously, I had discussed the forecast model that I had created for the election, based on the results from 2016 and polling published by Lucid Talk. Overall, the accuracy of the …
It was the best of campaigns, it was the worst of campaigns. Arlene’s decision to meet the three letter problem of RHI with the three letter solution of IRA worked masterfully in terms of holding the DUP’s vote together; despite three months of unremitting negative publicity and a collapsed government, DUP losses were kept to just 1.1%, with the drop in seats not much worse than the five likely to go with the shrinking of the Assembly. The DUP actually …
People going to the polls today are being sold badly short. They do not know whether they are electing members to an Assembly that will function again. Northern Ireland is facing not an existential crisis but a failure of politicians to work a workable system consistently. The trouble is that no effective means of calling them to account has yet been developed. Most people, the public and politicians alike don’t seem to realise how appalling this looks to outsiders and …
Tonight we have Slugger’s Big Election Punt (in partnership with MW Advocate) where our panel will have to make some key predictions about the upcoming election. In that spirit we thought we would ask you about what you think will happen tomorrow in terms of the parties. For what it’s worth here is my punt (Some variation as a few seats such as South Belfast & Upper Bann are just too close to call). DUP; 30-31 Sinn Fein; 23-24 UUP; …
The five main party leaders gathered at the BBC Blackstaff studio tonight to discuss issues such as RHI, Brexit, Direct Rule & cross community voting. Chaired by Noel Thompson, he very ably directed candidates and the audience through out the night. For me, the strongest performance was from Colum Eastwood. For parties like the SDLP, just letting people know that you are on the stage is an achievement and he did this in spades tonight. From the opening segment on …
It was a bumpy ride for Steve Aiken on Nolan yesterday. In politics it is a good thing to go into a contest with high ambitions but they also need to be credible. For information the UUP are running 24 candidates, Sinn Fein are running 34 candidates. UUP are at roughly 13 seats in a 90 seat Assembly, Sinn Fein are at around 24 seats. As for the DUP they are running 38 candidates and are at 31 seats in …
Doug Beattie is a UUP Candidate for Upper Bann I want to ask you out on a date. There won’t be a fancy meal, no wine and no flowers – in fact on the face of it there will be nothing in the date for you but you will leave the date feeling good about yourself. This is a date with democracy and the Assembly election on 2nd March 2017. Already I can sense that many people have stopped reading, …
Some useful thoughts here from Northern Ireland’s one man think tank, Newton Emerson, on the business of how the UUP and SDLP might provide a credible challenge to the new establishment parties of the DUP and Sinn Fein: What really stops the UUP and SDLP offering an alternative is that a Stormont executive must be led by the largest nationalist and unionist parties and there is no guarantee of the “moderates” leading both blocs. If the requirement instead was for …
Andrée Murphy is a Columnist with the Andersonstown News Sitting in my living room on Thursday night seeing three women leaders of the local parties and two male leaders on the two fringes made me chuckle. I tweeted it was hard to believe that it was Michelle O’Neill’s first time in the spot as leader, such was her composure and capability. But then I also realised that it was also Naomi Long’s first time in that position too. I suppose …
The Electoral Reform Society has today released findings from their survey of how we voted last May and the findings really blows a hole in the idea that transfers will be flowing from Unionists to Nationalists or vice versa. The study draws on data from thousands of respondents – over 4,000 – to create the largest database of voting patterns for NI. It shows that while only a small number – 4% of Catholics and 2% of Protestants – give their …
Previously, I looked at what might be expected from next month’s Assembly election if the current polling, showing a fall in support for the DUP with a corresponding rise in support for the Alliance Party and the UUP, is indicative of public support. The forecast model anticipated that the UUP could expect to receive 14 seats under such a scenario, which would be a respectable result given that they won 16 out of 108 seats in the previous mandate. However, …
