Former DUP Minister, Jonathan Bell announced on Nolan this morning that he is standing as an independent in the Strangford constituency Bell received 3,393 first preferences in 2016 and was elected on the 3rd seat. David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs
Just a curious observation following Finance Minister Maírtín Ó Muilleoir commenting yesterday on the ongoing RHI situation, where he refused to say if he retained confidence in the DUP leader. Quite a stark contrast to when the Finance Minister appeared before the Finance Committee to answer questions raised over the Daithí McKay/Jamie Bryson deep throat situation. When Jonathan Bell began to give Ó Muilleoir a hard time in the witness seat, the Finance Minister was irascible in his replies. Ó …
Everyone will be watching Nolan Live tonight with bated breath (and popcorn). What will Jonathan Bell say? Will he produce documents and materials that will amount to a de facto ‘smoking gun’? The SDLP has said that they will table a motion of no confidence in the First Minister on Monday. People before Profit have organised ‘Arlene must go’ rallies for tomorrow and their timing (whilst fluky) is perfect given that people will be presumably reeling from tonight’s interview with …
Much has been made of Jonathan Bell’s trip to China, it emerged that his trip was not paid for out of public money nor from the Confucius Institute at the Ulster University of Ulster – the Irish News reporting that a university spokeswoman said “no” to the question of if the institute had paid for the trip. His Party, the DUP said that the trip was made in his role as honorary vice president of the Confucius Institute. An issue …
While DUP ministers continue their in-out-in-out, Hokey Cokey resignation-renomination routine, Ruth Patterson has gone all out with a traditional resignation. 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/
Peter Purcell works in Marketing and writes a platform for us on politicians who used social media particularly well during the recent election campaign. As campaigning is now over lets leave politics to one side and take a look at who is winning on social media and leading the way for their party colleagues to follow. I have picked out three candidates that have caught my attention, but would be keen to hear who has impressed you. Naomi Long In …
Yesterday Ruth Patterson attended court for her Facebook post and provided an interesting piece of optics for the television cameras. In a considered move, a variety of DUP ministers and other public representatives, including Edwin Poots, Sammy Wilson, Jonathan Bell and Guy Spence (to name a few), attended the court hearing or accompanied her to and from the court, clearly with an eye on the cameras. Other unionist glitterati in attendance included Willie Frazer and others taunting Patterson to get …
Alex Kane has a marvellous take on the Golf Club issue that blew up last week… He argues that Jonathan Bell’s only mistake was to single out golf clubs as singular offenders, and that the DUP should not have backed down… But then he gives the argument a gentle twist: If you’re looking for evidence of the ‘prejudice and the hatred whispered behind closed doors’ you could begin with most of our political parties. While it is certainly not true …
