european elections

The Brexit Party look set to dominate at the European Elections in Great Britain as the Conservatives collapse

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on May 20, 2019, 2:18 am

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The Conservatives are on the verge of being virtually wiped out at this Thursday’s European election, whilst the Brexit Party look set to improve on the 24 seats that Ukip won at the 2014 poll. Using the data from this YouGov poll and analysis on the number of seats won by the vote received in the 2014 election, I estimated the probability of each party winning each seat in each European constituency. The Brexit Party would be, by far, the …

Naomi Long is the strong favourite to win Northern Ireland’s third European Parliament seat

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on May 19, 2019, 1:52 pm

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At the European elections on Thursday the 23rd of May, Northern Ireland will elect three MEPs, who will each serve a term of indeterminate length between zero and five years. Of the incumbents (Martina Anderson of Sinn Féin and Diane Dodds of the DUP), both are guaranteed to keep their seats. Danny Kennedy of the UUP is running following the retirement of Jim Nicholson. Both Naomi Long of the Alliance Party and Colum Eastwood of the SDLP are in contention …

@LADFLEG: “We are pro-Union and pro Loyalist”

David McCann on June 30, 2014, 5:30 pm

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Last week I sat down with two of the brains behind Loyalists Against Democracy (LAD), Billy and Ron. I was interested to catch up with the guys since we last spoke in February about the group’s foundation and how they approach certain issues. This time, however, I was interested to speak to them about some of the issues that they group has been involved in since we spoke, namely; the departure of Winston Smith, Pastor McConnell and where does LAD …

Slugger’s BIG Election Hangover

David McCann on May 31, 2014, 3:45 pm

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Finance Minister, Simon Hamilton addressing Slugger crowd Last night we held our very first election hangover in the Hudson; we have guests from across the main political parties and journalism in attendance at the end we had over 100 people there. Our guest speakers, Finance Minister Simon Hamilton and NILGA Chief Executive Derek McCallan gave a brilliant overview of the election and the roles that our new councils will be taking on in a year’s time. All of this was …

After an all-Ireland election, where might Sinn Féin go next?

John Ó Néill on May 30, 2014, 4:19 pm

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If any party are glad that the recent elections are over, it is surely Sinn Féin. Being the only major party that contests elections in all 32 counties means it is uniquely challenged when simultaneous local, European and bye-elections are held at the same time. With such an island-wide volume of electoral data, sifting through the various results and assessing their implications presents similar challenges for its strategists. But a couple of themes are pretty clear. In Wexford, Sinn Féin ran 5 …

Euro 14: Nationalist apathy rears its head.

David McCann on May 28, 2014, 7:30 pm

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Sinn Fein for the second time topped the poll in the European elections matching their success in the local elections; if you’re a nationalist you have probably popped the champagne corks and begun a rousing chorus of ‘happy days are here again.’ However, if you are of this view I sadly have to tell you to put that champagne back on ice and turn down the music. Nationalism as whole had a very poor election this time around as it …

Cartoon – Mine is bigger than yours

Brian Spencer on May 25, 2014, 9:34 pm

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Brian SpencerBrian is a writer, artist, political cartoonist and legal blogger. Actively tweeting from @brianjohnspencr. More information here: http://www.brianjohnspencer.com/ www.brianjohnspencer.com/

Cartoon – The sectanic mill

Brian Spencer on May 22, 2014, 6:33 pm

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Derek Mooney-Fianna Fáil and the long road to recovery.

Soapbox on May 19, 2014, 12:30 pm

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Continuing on our series of articles of elections in the South, former Fianna Fail advisor Derek Mooney writes about the current campaign, Fianna Fail’s recovery and what it has to do next. While there are worse jobs in the world: the worst job in politics is certainly leader of the opposition. If he didn’t already know this, it is certain that Fianna Fáil’s leader Micheal Martin will know this in just over a week. The 2014 European and Local Election …

Slugger verdict: Ranking the Party Election Broadcasts

David McCann on May 15, 2014, 7:31 am

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They have been commented upon for weeks and their impact is always in question. Yet, a good party political broadcast can capture attention and make people talk. So, in that spirit I thought I would assemble a panel of judges to help me go through all of the party election broadcasts and rank them in how effective they thought they were. The other judges were PR Consultant, Carl Devlin Whyte and the broadcaster, Jim Fitzpatrick. Each of us ranked the PEBs out …

Labour in meltdown mode

John Ó Néill on April 28, 2014, 10:37 am

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Who needs negative campaigning when you have the Labour party? While opinion polling seems to have been incessant in the south since the last election, the latest Millward Brown poll published by the Irish Independent over the weekend has brought more grim reading for Labour. But not only does the party now seem to be rooted in single digits (an eye-watering 6% in the latest poll), this morning the fallout has added a new dimension with calls for the resignation of party …

McCann meets….@NI21Chair Tina McKenzie

David McCann on April 7, 2014, 4:05 pm

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This morning I met NI21’s newly minted European candidate, Tina McKenzie in the Europa Hotel for one of her first interviews as the party candidate. Bouncing in and full of passion we spoke for just over twenty minutes as she regaled me with her ideas and plans for the campaign to come. I know the Sluggerverse has been critical of Tina and NI21 for a lack of policies in regards to Europe, so, this is what I wanted to primarily …

NI21 announce their Euro Candidate @NI21Chair Tina McKenzie

David McCann on April 7, 2014, 12:00 am

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Ok, folks well the wait is over and it was really what we expected but NI21 have officially announced the party Chair as their European candidate. Speaking about being nominated Tina McKenzie said in a party press statement that; I want to maximise the potential of Europe and will focus on getting the best for Northern Ireland not the best for any one community. I want to represent and promote our people, their talents, skills, commitment and drive to improve Northern Ireland …

McCann meets…Ross Brown #gpniconf14

David McCann on April 1, 2014, 1:39 pm

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Last in my series of interviews from the Green Party conference is the party’s European candidate, Ross Brown. I began by asking him about his ability to raise the £5,000 pounds necessary to run in these elections, but he assured me that the party along with his online drive to raise funds will allow his participation in the upcoming votes. Brown told me that he believes there should be some sort of public funding for political parties in order to …

Anna Lo- A United Ireland would be better placed economically, socially and politically

David McCann on March 20, 2014, 8:05 am

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Expect more things like this from Anna Lo-she is full of surprises and her interview with John Manley in today’s Irish News is no exception to this rule as she speaks about her position on Irish unity. In the piece she tells Manley; I’m an honest person…I think it is such a small place…To divide it up and the corner of Ireland to be part of the United Kingdom… it’s very artificial. Lo stated her belief that …

McCann meets…Anna Lo MLA #AimHighVoteLo

David McCann on February 21, 2014, 9:46 pm

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On Thursday evening I met the Alliance party’s European candidate, Anna Lo MLA for an interview about her experiences as a politician in Northern Ireland, the upcoming European elections and her future. I began by asking her about her experience in being elected in 2007 and the support she garnered from the Chinese community in South Belfast; I was very grateful for the support and really felt very emotional as some of them (Chinese community) had never voted ever in …