WHAT’S IN A NAME; I always said if I ran for election again I’d change my surname to something beginning with an A or a B. Nicholl is such an unfortunate political surname, especially in Northern Ireland where it gets lost after all the M’s. Because it is a truth generally acknowledged that candidates who are first on the ballot tend to receive a vote advantage compared to those whose names begin with letters later in the alphabet.
Michael Moore is Policy Officer at Macmillan Cancer Support In a matter of weeks, the Assembly election outcome will be known and elected MLAs will be contemplating their priorities for the next five years. The numbers, needs and experiences of people affected by cancer in Northern Ireland make a powerful case for cancer care remaining high on the agenda. We want to see all parties in government working together – along with Health and Social Care providers and charities – …
The UUP held their Spring conference yesterday in Armagh, launching their 33 candidates for the upcoming Assembly election. In his leaders speech, Mike Nesbitt reflected on the gains that the party has made over the past year; Danny Kinahan and Tom Elliott becoming Members of Parliament, ending a short but hurtful exile for this great party from the green benches of Parliament. Danny winning South Antrim for us. Tom winning Fermanagh and South Tyrone for all unionism. Remember, colleagues, running …
LEADER RATINGS – Back in October, Mike Nesbitt had the highest rating of the five party leaders. Peter Robinson languished behind, only ahead of Alasdair McDonnell. Fast forward five months and two leadership changes later, Arlene Foster is top of the polls. Though much less of a bounce for Colum Eastwood who should be worried that he’s rated alongside Arlene Foster in the eyes of nationalists and barely ahead of David Ford.
VETERAN RETURNS – Former Alliance (and independent) councillor and former Green Party leader Brian Wilson is stepping back into politics and standing as an independent candidate in North Down in a move that will disappoint both the Green Party and Alliance.
So, Jim Wells, despite his fears to the contrary, is going to run for the DUP in South Down. He was kept waiting until the very last weekend before being ratified to run with 43 others as an official DUP candidate in the May election. In fairness, despite the speculation, it has never been clear just who would have run in his place. But what is clear is that Mr Wells will not be facing any local hustings events. Arlene …
I was part of a short segment from Chris Page on BBC Newsline looking at the issue of election hustings. I have seen hustings from both an organisers point of view and somebody who has sat in the audience. For most organisers they are hugely stressful and time consuming, for an audience member they can be a chance to learn about a candidate or they can be incredibly frustrating as candidates struggle/avoid answering questions, plus for some of the more …
TELL ME when it’s time to go says Alliance leader David Ford. In this interview with Slugger he talks about Alliance’s electoral appeal, new parties in NI, switching to use council areas for Assembly constituencies, taking Executive meetings out on the road, the balance of funding between prison and community/probation services, joined up working across the Executive, Alliance’s approach to the Justice Ministry after May’s election, public and political support for refugees and asylum seekers in NI, and his thoughts on the Irish election and the impact of the EU referendum on the Assembly campaign.
Will the debate over Europe provide a welcome distraction from the normal politicking during Assembly elections? Will it lift public and political heads out of purely local issues to think about the bigger picture and how Northern Ireland sees itself within Europe? Or will it heighten our identity politics?
The rise of the Democratic Unionist Party over the last decade and a half has harmed the older Ulster Unionist Party. On the nationalist side, the same thing has happened, but the change has been much more pronounced. Colum Eastwood, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party, has committed himself and his party to recapturing the heights it once enjoyed before the meteoric rise of Sinn Féin. Not afraid to make bold pronouncements, Eastwood has called the SDLP “the …
RETURN OF THE NATIVE: Mr McGuinness comes back to represent a constituency he never actually left, seeking to pressurise the SDLP machine – who need to defend three seats against both Sinn Fein and People Before Profit candidates – in hopes of weakening its efforts elsewhere.
WHERE NEXT? If one thing characterises Sinn Féin as it prepares for elections north and south of the border, it’s momentum. Consistently strong election results in the north and rising support in the south mean the party is feeling very optimistic about its future, with party leader Gerry Adams recently stating his belief that Sinn Féin will enter government in the Dáil after either this year’s general election or the next.
DUP PROFILE: Just 13 years ago the DUP eclipsed the UUP to become the dominant unionist party in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Now, as the May election draws near, the DUP and its new leader, Arlene Foster, are confident they will return another good performance. Given their track record in Assembly elections, it’s not hard to see why.
The long serving SDLP MLA for North Belfast, Alban Maginness will step down at the next election. A new candidate will be selected on 14th January. I would assume that the former Lord Mayor and Cllr for Oldpark, Nichola Mallon will be the strong favourite to take the baton for the party. Others like former Lord Mayor and Cllr for Castle, Pat Convery are waiting in the wings as well. Few things to remember; Sinn Fein are only running two …
A really interesting article by Sam McBride in the News Letter today highlight the number of MLAs standing down at the next election. In his piece McBride points out; Almost 30 per cent of MLAs elected in the last Assembly election are not even standing for election next year – and the turnover in Assembly politicians could end up being as high as 40 per cent. But goes on to say; On top of that, several MLAs who stand for …
And she’s citing racism as a primary reason… The BBC has a reference to it, which tops a previous story text about Pastor Jack McConnell, and the ‘supporting’ remarks of Peter Robinson… [Helpfully joining up the dots just in case anyone missed it? – Ed] You might say that, I couldn’t possibly comment. 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 …
