Westminster election in the north

Saint Tom wrote: by no means is it a foregone conclusion at this point as to who will be the biggest uk party. nick clegg performed very very strongly in the pm debates, would be hilarious if the unionists in the north and snp were part of the same coalition, the irony!

 

Edited by Denis Irwin - 18 Apr 2010 at 3:47pm

Críostóir Óg wrote: A hung parliament will show unionists up for what they are politically, more anti-irish than pro-british, vowing to do what's best for the north rather than the uk as a whole...

 

Críostóir Óg wrote: A hung parliament will show unionists up for what they are politically, more anti-irish than pro-british, vowing to do what's best for the north rather than the uk as a whole...

Just reading through the DUP manifesto here, they always manage to make me laugh:

Armed Forces

Summary: Most up-to-date equipment for our armed forces - Upgrade living quarters - Dedicated hospital facility for British soldiers and veterans - Remembrance Day and Pride in Britain Day as public holidays

Who is this aimed at? They don't have any candidates or voters living in Britain, the geography of unionists is dreadful...

Culture

Summary: Assist Loyal Orders, bands and Ulster-Scots – new start for parades – bands strategy – developing Britishness – feasibility study into NI National Library

I think the DUP's definition of this is banging a large drum once a year just to remind people that they're as British as the people in Finchley, who incidentally don't do this...

working for equality between Irish and Ulster-Scots culture.

I notice that they've given up slightly on the Ulster-Scots language approach, I think due to the minor detail that it isn't a fekin language. http://www.ulsterscotsagency.com/ This is the website of the agency responsible for the 'language', you'll notice that there isn't actually the function to view the website in Ulster Scots...

Westminster Reform
The reputation of Parliament has been damaged recently.To those of us who value the Union, our Parliament is of immense significance, and the DUP is determined to rebuild confidence in Parliament and politics

Would the DUP like reminding who the chief Husband and Wife offenders were? Or how much they spent on a pen, a desk and a briefcase? Let's not mention Iris in all of this, she's still very temperamental...whilst seen shopping in London...


Edited by Críostóir Óg - 20 Apr 2010 at 5:55am

Newryrep wrote: [ Not sure how reform would affect the nationalist parties .

The Scientist wrote: Anyone who votes for drug dealing, rape ur child scum like sinn scum then should be shot with balls of their own sh*t!   Real nationalists will vote SDLP

Honestly have no idea Rog, I have a fairly basic knowledge of the whole thing.

AntrimMan wrote: Honestly have no idea Rog, I have a fairly basic knowledge of the whole thing.   PR works well enough it seems in local elections where 6 MLA;s or whatever are selected from each constituancy. In the westminster elections where 1 MP is selected for a constituancy I don't know how PR would work if ya know what I mean - Surely its just person with most votes gets it.

Works by alternative vote, in the same way the President of Ireland is selected, it means that you need to attain 50%+1 of the vote. If you look at the 1990 results Brian Lenihan Snr had the highest popular vote at first, but it wasn't enough for a majority, Austin Currie was eliminated and his votes transferred largely to Mary Robinson, who won instead. It's a fairer way of doing things because it means that whilst not everyone gets who they want, more people will get someone they don't mind...

AntrimMan wrote: Ah , fair enough.   Not that I think it'd make a blind bit of difference. Shinners transfer to SDLP and vice versa , DUP to UU ( or UCU these days).   Just have 3 tick boxes - Orange, Green , Other and be done with it.

Spot on, it would give South Belfast back to unionists, keep FST nationalists, and everything else would be left permanently untouched. AV will be far more interesting if/when brought into Britain. With regards to:

RogerMilla wrote: AntrimMan wrote: Think he means the likes of the SNP and Plaid Cymru.   ah ok , i presume they would do well/bettter under proportional representation ?

It would be very interesting indeed, and would be an absolute hammer blow to the Tories (boo hoo) in places where they can just about scrape seats outside their south east heartland. I think nationalists could indeed suffer because if you're not pro independence in Scotland for example you can vote for 2 non-independence parties (lib dems and labour) without worrying that you've split your vote.

I think though that what we've seen in scotland post-devolution is that the SNP concentrate their efforts far more intensely on Scottish Parliament elections, where people are more inclined to vote for them on 'local' issues. The SNP should downplay Westminster elections anyway, portray them with ever declining relevance to Scotland.


Edited by Críostóir Óg - 20 Apr 2010 at 10:26am