Elections!!

[ProDave]

This will be contentious:

The DUP seats are all the ones closest to the Irish sea towards the UK.

The Sinn Fein seats are all bordering the ROI.

Split NI down the middle. Let the Sinn Fein seats join the ROI. Keep the DUP seats as part of the UK in a smaller NI

That's the Irish problem solved and we can move on.

I'll get my tin hat :run

 

[Murdoch]

The tory lot tried to run a disgusting campaign. In the last few days, the papers, the daily mail in particular, had entire pages, [front and about the next four] devoted to rubbish like "corbyn friend of the terrorists" All he has ever tried to do was to negotiate peace.

All the tories have done in the last week is to try to make political capital out of the murders of the people in london and manchester. Absolutely disgusting.

Well tory halfwit tossers, pride comes before a fall eh?? Bye bye theresa may!!! Has there ever been a more short lived prime minister?? ha ha ha

john...

Hum..... I lay the blame for such a boring campaign at the feet of the main parties - by fielding so few "front benchers" to be interviewed during the campaign

Both Labour and the Conservatives had so few people visible to the camera

AND

The media for not interrogating the parties properly about their plans..... 

Next time the media needs to come to an agreement that if politicians won't answer questions and / or go on about the opposition, they should stop the cameras and microphones....

 

[apprentice87]

Next time the media needs to come to an agreement that if politicians won't answer questions and / or go on about the opposition, they should stop the cameras and microphones...

Yes, they should, you are correct. When the prime minister decided she did not want to be in a debate, they should have left an empty chair and the presenter should have said something like; "the prime minister was invited to take part in this debate but refused.."

john..

 

[steptoe]

to have an absolute majority you need more than half the seats in parliament. If you haven't got control you basically are very unlikely to be able to vote any legislation through 'cos the rest of the children will gang up to block everything. KInd of what happened to Obama. TM failed to get a majority, so now needs the DUP to get her 'over the line' with a working majority of 3 MPs. In theory Corbyn could have achieved this with everybody else, but as Sinn Fein won't swear allegiance to the Queen, it remains a theory only. It's an odd situation that usually results in a another election within a short space of time. As for TMs control of the Conservatives, I can't see that lasting long.

@steptoe  serious question, what are the DUP like? Clealry staunchly British, very Orange, and from what I can see very conservative / old fashioned in their views. Would I be correct in thinking these guys are the legal face of the likes of the UDF / UVF?

What are the DUP like,? 

Old fashioned,?

:slap

They blocked an ELO concert once as they claimed it was the devils music of drink drugs and debauchery,!!!!    msl1:

 

[binky]

Interesting times ahead then :innocent

 

[rapparee]

Eh?? here is a picture of a chap that was their leader from 2008 until 2015... [The bloke on the left]

View attachment 8115

 

[steptoe]

There is not (IMHO) one single party in norn iron that could run a pissup in a brewery, never mind govern anything.

Is that the 3rd force,?

What a bunch of muppets, :slap

 

[apprentice87]

When they have elections in NI, what choice is there, or are all the parties a bit, well, weird?? Seems a real shame that there are these nutty parties, all people want is to be able to go about their business and not get mixed up in all the political squabbles, well, that is what i imagine is the case.

It said in the paper today, that if the tories have a coalition with the DUP, that it cause the troubles to start up again.. Is that true??

john..

 

[rapparee]

This will be contentious:

The DUP seats are all the ones closest to the Irish sea towards the UK.

The Sinn Fein seats are all bordering the ROI.

Split NI down the middle. Let the Sinn Fein seats join the ROI. Keep the DUP seats as part of the UK in a smaller NI

That's the Irish problem solved and we can move on.

Well that's me gone then.

 

[rapparee]

When they have elections in NI, what choice is there, or are all the parties a bit, well, weird?? Seems a real shame that there are these nutty parties, all people want is to be able to go about their business and not get mixed up in all the political squabbles, well, that is what i imagine is the case.

It said in the paper today, that if the tories have a coalition with the DUP, that it cause the troubles to start up again.. Is that true??

john..

Political spectrum of ni

Ulster Political Research Group - political wing of the UDA. 

Progressive Unionists Party - political wing of the UVF

Traditional Unionists Voice - hard unionist party, doesn't believe in power sharing with nationalists, doesn't advocate violence.

Democratic Unionist Party - favours big businesses, anti-abortion, anti-LGBT, biggest unionist party in ni potential king makers. Worked in power sharing with Sinn Féin, founded by Paisley.

UKIP - same as Britain, irrelevant.

Ulster Unionist Party - Descended from Carson's old Official Unionist Party, effectively ran ni like a dictatorship from 1921 until 1972. Now obsolete constantly losing ground to the DUP.

Conservative - irrelevant.

Alliance - a cross community party, tries to be non-sectarian, trusted by neither side.

Social Democratic Labour Party - Nationalist party, doesn't condone violence. Sister party of the labour party, notable for John Hume, used to work in partnership with the UUP, now obsolete constantly losing ground to Sinn Féin.

Sinn Féin - the main nationalist party in ni. No longer believes in violence. Used to be linked to the PIRA. Constantly increasing seats, worked with the DUP despite being polar opposite.

Érigi - Anti power sharing party, doesn't believe in violence.

Saoradh - political wing of the New IRA 

Republican Sinn Féin - Political wing of the Continuity IRA 

that's what you think, we love the squabbling, can't get enough of it.

I can't see the troubles restarting into full scale conflict, but Stormont will be dead in the water. Sinn Féin are likely to be a coalition partner of the next Dublin government so God knows what will happen. It will give a certain legitimacy to the dissidents.

 

[apprentice87]

OMG!! just a few then!! Would be hard to know who to vote for there..

john..

 

[steptoe]

OMG!! just a few then!! Would be hard to know who to vote for there..

john..

And,,,,,,,

They have PR, 

So you can vote for a few of them,,,, :slap

as they say,

Themuns

and

Usuns

:C

 

[apprentice87]

How the heck do they count the votes and establish who voted for who?? There must be loads of mistakes..

Still PR would be good..

john..

 

[binky]

I've alway thought we need some form of PR, when a party like UKIp can muster 10 million votes and get 1 seat it doesn't seem right?

 

[steptoe]

I've alway thought we need some form of PR, when a party like UKIp can muster 10 million votes and get 1 seat it doesn't seem right?

I remember thinking,

That's not right,

Look how many seats the SNP got in that election for a helluva lot less votes,

I'm also assuming your figure of 10million is simple exaggeration,,,,,,,

 

[OnOff]

I remember thinking,

That's not right,

Look how many seats the SNP got in that election for a helluva lot less votes,

I'm also assuming your figure of 10million is simple exaggeration,,,,,,,

I believe in terms of actual votes they got just short of 4 million in 2015 but only around 600,000 this time.

 

[steptoe]

I believe in terms of actual votes they got just short of 4 million in 2015 but only around 600,000 this time.

Its a strange thing,

They are now all but irrelevant due to their own success, even without having a massive showing of MPs, its a strange strange political world we live in,, :C

Plus, I'm not sure a lot of people actually voted for UKIP,

But more they voted for Farage, someone they knew from down the pub, someone they could relate to, who wasn't a career politician. 

 

[binky]

I like Farage even if I wouldn't vote for him, and yes the figures were not accurate. We see that scenario quite a lot though, by rights UKIP should have had around 10 MPs given the number of votes cast in their favour. the downside of PR is more chance of hung parliaments and co-alition governments, which isn't always good for 'getting things done'. But then it encourages moe co-operations and less extemiest policies. Perhaps parties might be more positive towards each other instead of peddling  lies and half truths, The total vitriolic bull spouted towards Corbyn by the Sun and Daily Mail during this campaign is frankly appalling.

 

[apprentice87]

Hi all,

I came across this.. What you all think...

"Two points;
-The DUP can't vote on English laws (due to the EVEL law passed in 2015) this means the tories only have a majority when it comes to Brexit and the DUP promised a soft Brexit in their manifesto (due to the border with Ireland). This means the tories can't vote through their manifesto without the consent of other parties MPs (and it looks like a lot of their own MPs will vote against anyway).

-if it becomes evident they can't pass bills then there will be a vote of no confidence and there will be another election (hence boris getting ready to oppose her)
-technically there can't be a coalition with the DUP due to the peace agreement and our promise of neutrality, so there is a "supply of consent"- so the tories are a minority government.

I share this because I want people to carry on their fight for a labour government, if we can keep the trajectory going Corbyn will smash boris in a re-election before we know it. Don't get frustrated guys, they won a headline, that's all. Corbyn is smiling for a reason"

Not sure if it is strictly correct, as, i thought the EVEL thing only applied to acts concerning subjects where the ability to legislate for these purposes had been devolved to the various administrations, like wales and scotland, and presumably, northern ireland..

Hmmm...

 

[binky]

if you are correct John, then that isn't even a working coalition.