John McCallister

Team Jasil – that’s John and Basil – say: “Get off your backsides and vote for people that are trying to make a difference”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on May 12, 2013, 9:00 am

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Basil McCrea and John McCallister were the invited guest speakers at a Friday lunchtime Politics and Change in Northern Ireland seminar run by the Institute for Research in Social Sciences at UUJ. The room was mostly full of academics and postgraduate researchers. It was an opportunity to hear John and Basil deliver what might become their stump speech, laying out the vision and principles of their new “political vehicle”. Their fledgling two seater party has been sounding out support and …

John McCallister: Our politics has collapsed and retreated behind old barriers

Mick Fealty on April 6, 2013, 11:16 am

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Interesting outake from.John McCallister’s oped in yesterday’s News Letter: “..he says of the SDLP’s professed vision of reaching out to unionists: “Centre-ground, moderate unionists can take no pleasure in the fact that this vision has not come to pass. “Rather than being a standard-bearer for civic, moderate nationalism, the SDLP has retreated behind the tribal barricades. “It is, of course, understandable. The temptation for both unionism and nationalism has been the same: forsake moderate, pluralist politics and go hunting for …

Basil McCrea finally throws in the towel … from where can UUP find hope?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 15, 2013, 10:33 amComments Off | Readers 525

Two months ago on 15 December, UUP leader uttered the following phrase on Evening Extra: If we have to shrink to grow, we will After John McCallister’s resignation last night, Basil McCrea has followed this morning, burning his bridges on the Nolan show. listen to ‘Basil McCrea reveals he is quitting the UUP. ’ on Audioboo Which means that the Opposition back corner in the Assembly chamber is expanding. listen to ‘Eamonn Maillie & Alex Kane comment on the news …

Caption Competition

Brian Spencer on December 18, 2012, 2:37 pm

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Things seem to have fallen a little silent on the Nesbitt front but let’s not let sleeping dogs lie! 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/

Saturn Devouring His Son

Brian Spencer on December 14, 2012, 10:03 pm

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Full acknowledgements to Francisco Goya. 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/

UUP: A party with less and less visible means of political support…

Mick Fealty on October 2, 2012, 11:22 am

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Fairly brutal says Basil McCrea. But John McCallister is gone as Deputy leader of the UUP. Why? For making this speech to the Young Unionists on the future of Unionism at the weekend. Nesbitt loyalists grumble that McCallister (Nesbitt’s defeated rival in the recent leadership election) was doing little more than laying out his alternative vision for the party. Odd when you think he’s supposed to be Deputy leader. Picking a fight over Nesbitt’s call for Unionist unity was presumably …

Lessons from up on the hill: mind your soundbites & voting on equal marriage

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 1, 2012, 9:59 pm

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Loose words sink ships political deputy [Assembly group] leaders’ careers. Particularly when you use a soundbite as strong as “sleepwalking into unionist unity”. John McCallister’s rhetoric on Saturday night at a Young Unionist dinner describing [as I comprehended it] how unionism in general might interpret the DUP/UUP relationship given the evidence of the past week lost him his seat at the side of Mike Nesbitt. Ulster Unionism has sought to give voice to the civic unionism of the Covenant. Sleep-walking …

UUP Leadership – Mike Nesbitt’s pitch (and an interview) plus what John McCallister said

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 31, 2012, 6:48 pm

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81% of the UUP members gathered at the Ramada Hotel this morning voted for Mike Nesbitt to be leader. 19% voted for John McCallister. The result can be interpreted in a number of ways. It’s certainly a clear endorsement for Mike Nesbitt as leader, and the party didn’t shy away from a “fast track” leader. It can also be seen as a clear rejection of going into opposition immediately, though some members go further and say it’s a rejection of …

And into the last bend of the UUP leadership race: Who will win?

Mick Fealty on March 30, 2012, 6:37 pm

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Someone, in their infinite wisdom, at the BBC has decided not to make this week’s Hearts and Minds video available on the iPlayer (which is odd)… So all we have of Mike Nesbitt’s interview is this fragment clipped and satirised and played over and over… (you’d almost think someone didn’t want him to win tomorrow)… The only thing I’ll be betting on tomorrow night is that Eamon Mallie will have news of the winner before anyone else… But over at …

A bold step? Or just more of the same better communicated? An interview with John McCallister and some thoughts on Mike Nesbitt.

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 29, 2012, 9:05 am

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I spoke to John McCallister on Monday evening after the close of a Platform for Change event looking at a change “from the politics of identity to the politics of ideas”. I view it very simply that we don’t have many more chances to get this right. We either do the unionist unity route which I’m very opposed to – I think it’s bad for Northern Ireland, bad for unionism, just an unhealthy state in our politics and we would …

Kennedy’s out; will McCallister stay in the race to fight a confident Nesbitt?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 16, 2012, 10:26 am

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When I bumped into Mike Nesbitt at an event last night, he looked very confident when he said “I’m going to be leader”. This morning, Danny Kennedy has withdrawn from the race and not submitted his papers, leaving John McCallister and Mike Nesbitt as the two declared candidates. During Tom Elliott’s own leadership campaign, Mike Nesbitt was at Tom’s side and remained fiercely loyal throughout Tom’s reign. That should work to his favour in the event of a leadership vote …

Can the new UUP leader put an end to the party’s inexorable drift?

Mick Fealty on March 15, 2012, 1:33 pm

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Liam Clarke in the BelTel, frames the leadership contest within the UUP: In its heyday the UUP was the party of the Union. Later it became, with the SDLP, a party of the peace process. Since then it has struggled to define a new role for itself and support has drifted away. It has flirted with the Tories, the DUP, and the SDLP and before that the PUP as it sought allies to halt its decline. At each stage it …

John McCallister joins the UUP leadership race

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on March 13, 2012, 7:25 am

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This morning, John McCallister – UUP Deputy Leader of the Assembly Group – has thrown his farmer’s cap into the ring to replace Tom Elliott as leader of the UUP. In a statement McCallister calls himself an “unashamed liberal progressive unionist” and makes a couple of his policies clear: UUP shouldn’t be allowed to float into the orbit of the DUP. If elected, the UUP would go into opposition at Stormont. The question now is whether Mike Nesbitt (who managed …

FM #AE11 Row: ‘No-one’s mentioned it to me on doorsteps’ – McCallister (#sdo11)

Patrick Corrigan on April 14, 2011, 7:12 pm

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Ulster Unionist deputy leader and South Down Assembly hopeful John McCallister may have helped spark a bad-tempered row after his Nolan Show rubbishing of the “we must stop Martin McGuinness becoming First Minister” sham fight, but it hasn’t made him any more convinced that it’s an issue on the minds of the electorate. When I spoke to Jim Wells in Newcastle this week, he reckoned that the First Minister question was one of the main issues being raised with him on …