Absolute joke. A Brexit they wanted, they got, and now they are not happy with.
I hope the electorate stick it to them in May.
Northern Ireland Thread
- Thread starter Gaz.
- Start date
Absolute joke. A Brexit they wanted, they got, and now they are not happy with.
I hope the electorate stick it to them in May.
feckin DUP. A shower of thick headed wankers
sad
I'm a unionist, I don't understand why resigning now makes any difference, there's an election literally in 3 months time.
The only thing I can think of is doing it now means when SF are the biggest party they'll not vote Michelle O'Neill as first minister but have the protocol as an excuse for it.
Yeah I think it's a fudge to bring down the executive in a way that they think they will be seen as strong and hopefully (for them) build support from Unionists who supposedly all are wildly against the protocol (I don't actually believe this - I don't think many people really give a toss about it). The alternative is to wait until the election and see SF become the biggest party in NI with O'Neill as First Minister and then them not appointing a Deputy and bring it all down then.
It just smacks of children stamping their feet when they dont get their way.
They might pick up a few votes on the hardline Unionist side maybe, but I cant imagine the vast majority of unionists are impressed with this.
This is is something no side of the political spectrum that's been in power can really get on their high horse about. They've all brought it down for one reason or another.
NI politics is a joke and that's everyone of them as a collective, their are a few individuals that do a good job and I'm lucky to be in a constituency that has one of them.
Totally agree - I've said it before but NI has the most inept and pathetically out of their depth set of politicians probably in Europe. The semi-decent and competent ones stand out a mile and unfortunately there are very few of those.
Dont know the ins and outs but it says there's legislation next week due in westminster to allow the place to keep running for up to 9months in instances like this
It it's already down before it passes does that stop it being implemented as such I wonder
Seems UK gov has obviously seen this coming and is getting a bit tired of shit over here
It it's already down before it passes does that stop it being implemented as such I wonder
Seems UK gov has obviously seen this coming and is getting a bit tired of shit over here
Looks as if Poots got called out on his stunt and they took their ball and ran home.
I live in a hard-line loyalist area and I can tell you right here and now that the support for the DUP has fell off a cliff.
The general feeling is apathy, there's no representation for unionism now, they're all over the place, with antiquated ideals and ideas.
The other problem we have in the PUL community is the DUP is what everyone sees as representative of my community and it's really not for the majority of us. But the UUP have been in disarray since Trimble and never recovered and the TUV are the Old DUP.
I think the next election you'll see the lowest turn out ever from unionism because of lack of decent representation
Yeah I think you are right - the DUP exploit the PUL community and treat them with utter contempt - they just assume they will get the votes by stirring up the same old nonsense to try to stoke up fear and hopefully that is losing it's power. The DUP are not a working class party, they are only interested in power and money. I know from personal experience how they do things on the ground and to give you an example - I know of a community group that did a huge fund raising round and months of work was put in by people on the ground and they were able to buy a mini-bus and open a community fridge. Press came down to take some photos for the local paper and suddenly the local DUP representative turned up uninvited and got himself into every photo and by the end of the day it was being reported that the DUP had done all this work to improve the local community. That is just typical of the stuff they do. I should add that I have no doubt that other parties do shit like this as well but everybody I know that works in the community has nothing good to say about the DUP and how they work.
It's just blatant electioneering, their polling numbers are in free fall and the protocol is the issue they think will save them. The DUP are a shambles at the minute, racked with internal divisions and now flailing around trying to rescue the upcoming election. Depressing.
It doesn't surprise me one bit. I would say their is also good people in their as well but the top of the tree are cancerous.
My local MLA is a good worker and has personally helped me and my partner several times for several things. He is now independent so he'll get my first preference and I'm happy it'llnot have DUP next to his name
Most can see through it. The DUP like every other party has a hardcore that will stick with them no matter what, it's just knowing how big their hardcore is.
The saving grace for the DUP right now is there's not a strong alternative and I think they are banking on that come election day.
It is of course. But it also makes little sense (not that the DUP are blessed in that area). Like it or not (and notwithstanding various other parties have pulled Stormont down) they will be hung for this at the next election. Its a high risk strategy with little reward. All the other parties will point the finger at them in May.
They would have been better served sticking it out to May and fighting the election on the basis of "we are fighting to remove the protocol". Rather than opening themselves up to be hit over the head by every other party who will simply say the DUP cry off when they dont get what they want.
But, hey, that is the DUP.
So a Northern Irish minister single handedly decides to open the EU market to a third country for electioneering purposes. Talk about building trust 
Bryson was on Nolan this morning moaning that this would amount to a "constitutional coup" by civil servants who, lets not forget, are mostly part of the pan-nationalist agenda
I just can’t see the end game. There won’t be a stalemate forever and if this kills Stormount then a run of the mill government would have a Nationalist majority ruling over NI which is infinitely worse for them.So a Northern Irish minister single handedly decides to open the EU market to a third country for electioneering purposes. Talk about building trust
The only way Stormount survives is if Alliance designates themselves as Unionist
This has been coming for years and now finally we are at the point that SF is going to be the majority party from now on. The DUP will do everything they can to stop it and in reality what we could be looking at is Stormont collapsing and never coming back again because the DUP will refuse to appoint a Deputy FM - which is ironic as they have 'Democratic' in their name yet they disregard democracy all the time.
If there is some legislation put through that means Stormont can continue but without a first/deputy FM which apparently is on the cards then this will be the ultimate fudge and bullshit to keep the show on the road.
It’s probably what is needed though. Because every time one of these parties don’t like what’s happening they up sticks and go home.
Removing that power from them and therefore the threat of collapsing the executive should actually now be the highest Priority.
If one of the FM or the deputy pull out then just move to the next biggest party to nominate a successor to fill the gap. In that way the party pulling out is punished and not the whole country.
I get that goes against the principal of power sharing a bit, but the concept of power sharing as envisioned in the GFA probably needs tweaked a bit now anyway. It’s not 1998 anymore.
I think there needs to be an opposition in all democratic countries.
I do think though their needs to be some sort of fail safes to prevent the government from imposing a nationalist favoured or unionist favoured agenda.
One thing we know here is no party in NI can be trusted to do what's best for everyone
I do think though their needs to be some sort of fail safes to prevent the government from imposing a nationalist favoured or unionist favoured agenda.
One thing we know here is no party in NI can be trusted to do what's best for everyone
By the sounds of it that legislation has just been passed today.
So fed up of the DUP of their threats and warnings, they never have Northern Ireland’s best interests at heart and just bring about trouble for people.
The DUP are a comedy sketch at this point.
More than any party in Northern Ireland they contributed to this mess. Now they protest it's inevitable result like they're the voice of reason...
The amount of disdain they show the people they claim to represent is disgusting.
More than any party in Northern Ireland they contributed to this mess. Now they protest it's inevitable result like they're the voice of reason...
The amount of disdain they show the people they claim to represent is disgusting.
That’s it confined then. Ball bags
Pretty much sums up the DUP..
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news...d-with-loyalists-in-the-troubles-report-finds
No great surprise there - just shows the sort of double standards and corruption that was going on throughout the troubles with nobody involved not having blood on their hands.
No great surprise there - just shows the sort of double standards and corruption that was going on throughout the troubles with nobody involved not having blood on their hands.
I'm am a protestant. But feck do i love Irelands call. What I didn't know is catholics/ republican hate the song. Why?
It’s crap compared to the Soldier’s Song..
So it’s looking like the DUP is going to cost the executive £300m in the budget by pulling out of powersharing, £300m that was destined for the health sector in a worldwide pandemic. I swear this party has no shame…
Could you please elaborate on what you feel is important to you in terms of policies?
I’m from a very hardline Loyalist area which is still frequently on the national news for rioting. And we have three types of voters here:
1. The educated voter who reads political manifestos and votes for a party which has policies which are important to them.
2. The super prod whose voting is solely based on “keeping ‘em ‘uns out” and doesn’t seem to care about health care or social housing. Because who needs that? Much more important to vote for the Dinosaur Unionist Party and prevent gay rights, abortion and an Irish language act. And of course to create dodgy schemes such as RHI which cost the country millions. Usually this voter will complain about healthcare and housing too but blame SF despite DUP being a constant throughout.
3. The hardline religious bunch that probably attend the Metropolitan tabernacle and see abortion as a bigger threat and issue to them than a hospital waiting list which has been out of control for a decade.
Why are you loyal to a union who literally don’t care about NI? The British government, and especially the Tory’s, don’t care about NI and see us as a problem. If Irish unification became a possibility they would gladly get rid of the “NI problem” which costs them a lot of money and hassle.
Im just glad that the DUP will soon no longer exist, they aren’t going to recover from this and the hardline TUV who are the DUP on steroids will never gain enough support either.
SF are just as big a problem but at least their manifesto is from the 21st century and focuses on issues which people find important.
A UUP/Alliance/SDLP government would be ideal. DUP problem is now gone due to their self destruct, just got to hope SF also lose support over the next few years and then finally we may have a sensible government who focus on issues which affect the majority of the population rather than this playground shite the last decade.
I actually don't know where to start on this one, but I'll give you my perspective on how I feel. I'm not looking to debate it, my thoughts are mine and any amounts of lecturing by anyone (not directing this at you or anyone in particular) is going to change them.
First off I'm in the North Down Constituency. My first preference will be Alex Easton. I've seen first hand the work he does and my partner has benefited from his work several times. He is an independent albeit former DUP. But not all DUP are bad people, it's just got too many in power that are disconnected from today's grass roots and stuck in the past.
I believe stormont is broke, no one is accountable, no opposition and any given day the FM or DFM can pull the institutions down. This has now happened twice in this current mandate 3 years by SF and now by the DUP. This needs to change.
I think your 3 types of voter do exist but I also think there's plenty that aren't any of that and your description of a DUP voter is wrong, yes there may be some but it's unfair to tarnish them all with the same brush. I will use me as an example, again these are my views people can agree or disagree, I'm not interested in debating them as I haven't all day to do that. Although you can put me in one of them types from your perspective.
I do read manifestos, however I also read the old ones and see what they actually delivered, quite often it's not much and it's rehashed in the new manifesto.
I also take into account my ideology, which is a Unionist. The only time I voted non unionist is when I lived in West Belfast, I'd lend my vote to SDLP as they are a more moderate nationalist party and better than SF.
I'm not part of any church, albeit christened in the Church of Ireland, haven't went to church outside of weddings and funerals since I was a kid. So I've no church influence. I believe abortion shouldn't be freely available and used as a contraceptive. I believe the only times an abortion is acceptable is when, the mother is in danger, the baby won't survive or have severe issues that won't give them a quality of life. In the event of a rape or incest. I don't think inconvenience is an acceptable reason. If you don't want the baby put it up for adoption, there's thousands of willing good couples who can't have kids would jump at the opportunity.
LGBT rights, no issues with it. Certainly wouldn't put in a partition of concern in for anything regarding this. Whatever the will of the people is, I'm happy to go along with. It's not a personal big concern of mine.
ILA, couldn't care less about this, my only concern is the costs. If it's kept to a reasonable amount then I've no issues. If it starts costing millions upon millions every year then it needs looked at. I also think this is true of all tradition lead government acts.
The main issues for me is health, roads, education, economy and the protocol.
I don't think it's an either or, you can prioritize health and the protocol situation. The issue I have here is I don't believe unionism right now is effective and can't see them delivering on the protocol situation.
Your take on SF is interesting, the way I see them is, they jump on the popular issues and people eat it up. They don't deliver much though.
RHI, they pulled down the institutions because of it, but in hindsight it was a smokescreen.
They said they'll only come back if Arlene stood aside, if gay rights where agreed and ILA was agreed.
Well as soon as they had the ILA in the back pocket all was well again. The LGBT community shoved to the side, Arlene still first minister and nothing changed. The ILA still hasn't been enacted.
SF talk a good game, promise the world and deliver nothing. Just look at West Belfast, SF run for 30 plus years and it's still got high crime rates, housing issues, poverty, health issues and kids running the place at night. SF will still get in.
DUP are no better.
On the middle ground, the only way this works is when more nationalists start voting this way. The unionist voters have already started moving this way eg north down, east Belfast etc we haven't seen alliance really threatened a predominantly nationalist area yet at the polls. If we see one get in, in West Belfast for instance that'll be the first signs the middle ground might actually be a possibility in the future
I world never vote Sinn Fein as I don't believe they have any interest in makiing a difference to their supporters
In fact in my experience they seem to prefer keeping the people who voted for them down so they will continue to vote for them.
There is a fear that if things are good they won't be seen as the saviours.
I come from Strabane well known as an unemployment blackspot of Europe and strictly Sinn Fein. They could stand a broomstick for Strabane and would still be elected.
Yet they have consistently done nothing for the town and in fact Michelle O Neill deliberately sabotaged the town's bid for a new Government Office which would have led to 500 new jobs and the knock on effect of those people spending money locally.
Strabane won the bid which I know for a fact yet Michelle made the decision to bypass the town and instead put the Government building in a predominantly protestant town miles away instead.
A decision which she said would save money but cost a lot more money as the building she claimed was already there had to be knocked down rebuilt then roads made leading into it.
A building which has stood empty for years now and will continue to do so as it's now going to be a hub and nothing more.
The only reason I can see for her doing this other than the obvious Brown envelope is this fear if Strabane did grow as a town and people were doing well they may not need Sinn Fein and their false promises.
In fact in my experience they seem to prefer keeping the people who voted for them down so they will continue to vote for them.
There is a fear that if things are good they won't be seen as the saviours.
I come from Strabane well known as an unemployment blackspot of Europe and strictly Sinn Fein. They could stand a broomstick for Strabane and would still be elected.
Yet they have consistently done nothing for the town and in fact Michelle O Neill deliberately sabotaged the town's bid for a new Government Office which would have led to 500 new jobs and the knock on effect of those people spending money locally.
Strabane won the bid which I know for a fact yet Michelle made the decision to bypass the town and instead put the Government building in a predominantly protestant town miles away instead.
A decision which she said would save money but cost a lot more money as the building she claimed was already there had to be knocked down rebuilt then roads made leading into it.
A building which has stood empty for years now and will continue to do so as it's now going to be a hub and nothing more.
The only reason I can see for her doing this other than the obvious Brown envelope is this fear if Strabane did grow as a town and people were doing well they may not need Sinn Fein and their false promises.
The thing is SF and DUP are both actually working together to keep themselves in power - this may seem strange but it is entirely true. Both are harming the people they are supposed to represent and both are power hungry, money grabbing bastards.
I wouldn't lend my vote to either party if my life depended on it.
I wouldn't lend my vote to either party if my life depended on it.
@Steve Bruce thanks for taking the time to reply.
I think with Sinn Fein one thing which they are good at is with their councillors as they usually live within the communities they represent and do a lot of work. Whereas in my area the DUP councillors are only seen at election time. However from a MP point of view they are worse than DUP even if I don’t agree with the DUPs voting patterns; at least they show up and provide some form of representation.
Fully agree though that for government to work we need both sides of the communities to move away from these extremist parties and instead to more of a middle ground such as SDLP/Alliance/UUP/Green and maybe even PUP? (Don’t follow them so much so not sure).
I certainly think though that it’s a long way back from here for the DUP and I can’t see how they can possibly recover now. Even though FM and DFM effectively have the same powers. We already seen on Donaldsons tv interview the other week that he practically said they won’t nominate a DFM if SF become first minister which they likely will. Which again doesn’t help at all and will just see more voters move away from them.
The health care is in crisis and the last thing we need is the DUP playing silly buggers because SF won the vote.
I just hope the UUP don’t try and go more right wing to pick up DUP voters because their ideology is outdated and they refuse to stand up to paramilitaries, instead it feels more they’re puppets for the paramilitaries.
Anyway im rambling here. Sooner DUP and SF are out of Stormont the better.
I think with Sinn Fein one thing which they are good at is with their councillors as they usually live within the communities they represent and do a lot of work. Whereas in my area the DUP councillors are only seen at election time. However from a MP point of view they are worse than DUP even if I don’t agree with the DUPs voting patterns; at least they show up and provide some form of representation.
Fully agree though that for government to work we need both sides of the communities to move away from these extremist parties and instead to more of a middle ground such as SDLP/Alliance/UUP/Green and maybe even PUP? (Don’t follow them so much so not sure).
I certainly think though that it’s a long way back from here for the DUP and I can’t see how they can possibly recover now. Even though FM and DFM effectively have the same powers. We already seen on Donaldsons tv interview the other week that he practically said they won’t nominate a DFM if SF become first minister which they likely will. Which again doesn’t help at all and will just see more voters move away from them.
The health care is in crisis and the last thing we need is the DUP playing silly buggers because SF won the vote.
I just hope the UUP don’t try and go more right wing to pick up DUP voters because their ideology is outdated and they refuse to stand up to paramilitaries, instead it feels more they’re puppets for the paramilitaries.
Anyway im rambling here. Sooner DUP and SF are out of Stormont the better.
This is a good point. Edwin Poots recently wanted to stand in South Down. Why? He isn't from the area, probably knows little about it, and wouldn't be of help to most people of the area. The only reason I can think they wanted him to stand there is cos simply he is Edwin Poots and they want him to be an MLA somewhere. Anywhere. But its a stupid strategy.
SF play the long game. They are patient and they have a strategy. They don't rush. Obviously their ultimate goal is a UI. Whether people are for or against that is not the point of this post, but rather to say they have a sound strategy in place to achieve their aim. And what they have been successful at in recent years is picking up the more moderate Nationalist vote. People in the 80s & 90s who would have most likely voted SDLP are now not so horrified at the thought of voting SF.
Contrast that with the DUP. Do they make any moves to reach the moderate Unionist? While they may believe they do the stats would say otherwise. Where is the strategy? All I hear is people like Gregory Campbell saying "A United Ireland will never happen". Why? Just cos you say so? Because the changing demographics and economic situation post Brexit are pointing towards it happening. Convince the people you want to vote for you that it will never happen with true convincing arguments. Make your case. Show the reasons why. Don't just bang out the old "It will never happen" line without backing it up. In short - get a strategy.
SF could get power in the North and South in the next elections. Strange days indeed.
My memories of SF canvassing in derry are big thuggish looking louts going door to door asking who you’re going to vote for
Yeah that sort of stuff was well known. Also people checking who you voted for at the polling station. Many people voted out of fear and intimidation back in the day.