Elections are won by the party (or coalition of parties) which can attract the most support and agree a common programme. This applies whether you have a two-party state or a multi-party state. Sinn Fein have faced this in the Dail where they have been the equal-largest party, but Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael would rather set aside their historic differences and work together than form a coalition with Sinn Fein. In US politics, where the bell curve of left …
You’re playing senior hurling now lads Those were the words uttered by Fianna Fail Minister, Seamus Brennan to the Green Party in 2007 as they formed a coalition with Fianna Fail. The DUP are currently in talks with the Conservative Party about forming a minority government. So far, things have gone well for the party with the confusion from Number 10 about whether a deal had been reached and then the DUP’s statement that talks were ongoing but that no …
Those who heard this morning’s #SluggerReport will have noted the major item was Nigel Dodds’ extraordinarily adept intervention in the Westminster debate this morning in the Guardian. It surely cannot be a coincidence that Jim Wells’ has been dispatched so quickly (hint: it was nothing to do with our toothless Ministerial code) in order to clear the air and political space for this… Listening to Nicola Sturgeon’s progressive pan-British rhetoric, you could have thought you were listening to one of …
By John McTernan The most important three words in any campaign are not ‘Vote For Me’, but ‘Hold Your Nerve’. The independence campaign has reached what Sir Alex Ferguson used to call ‘squeaky-bum time’. The polls are closing – we are told. The No campaign needs to be positive – opine commentators. Scotland is so different, so progressive – pant assorted lefties breathlessly. Wrong, wrong and wrong. Now is the time for the campaign against separation to hold its nerve. …
It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again. “Long-suffering Labour members locally have launched yet another campaign to persuade Ed Miliband to stand candidates in Northern Ireland” (Trevor Ringland, Conservatives NI) Not for the first time, Conservatives NI have issued a statement to support their beleaguered NI Constituency Labour Party colleagues opponents. Both groups strongly criticise the Labour Party leadership for leaving Labour supporters adrift and unable to stand candidates in Northern Ireland. In the Belfast Telegraph, Liam Clarke reports some …
George Osborne for the first time appeared nervous. No Chancellor in recent memory, apart from perhaps Gordon Brown, in the early years of New Labour appeared so cocksure. For three years Osborne has had to dress up bad news as good news. He cherry picked the statistics that suited him best, of course all Chancellors do this but this was something that Osborne attacked his predecessors for. Yes, the Coalition came into tough times economically but they are now three …
Alex Massie is Scotland’s man in the seried ranks of Tory thinkers in London. He’s not exactly unique, but there are few Unionist commentators who, like him, get a respectful hearing amongst the increasingly confident Scots nationalist blogosphere. In response to a well meaning, but inevitably London bound leader veiw from his own paper the Spectator, he notes: Of course Alex Salmond is beatable and of course support for UN-member independence is a minority enthusiasm. This is one reason why …
Nice couple of pieces from two Massies, Allan in the case of the headline, and Alex below… Both provide acute background to the Tories’ Scottish dilemma. First Allan writing in the Scotsman, to give a contemporary construct to that historical headline: Today’s Jacobites, wanting to turn the clock back, are those who would repeal the Scotland Act and abolish the Scottish Parliament. There are such neo-Jacobites in the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (and a number in the Scottish Labour …
It is now nearly three weeks since the general election and something still keeps nagging away at me. Back on May the 10th and a few days after the election, the intensive Tory-LibDem talks which had been going full tilt, had run into difficulty. The Daily Telegraph was reflecting the deep anxiety that must have been sweeping through the Tory party that they had been ‘outflanked’ as the LibDems had now opened talks with Labour. To add to Tory unease, …
