Current Affairs Irish Border and Brexit

[Armaghtoffee]

In the end it was circa 16,000 votes.

A truly incredible turnaround from last time. He is a very credible performer and he must have done serious work on the ground to have earned that mandate.

It has been a very good election for Nationalists.

 

[Khalekan]

Will be interesting to see how long Alliance can hold onto their borrowed votes. They would love an Assembly election now.

I am thinking the Assembly will be up and running again within weeks.

Leave aside the Finucane result and Sinn Fein had a bad night as well....outside of Belfast North their vote fell everywhere, including Belfast West and especially in Derry.

The last thing both SF and DUP will be wanting is another Election any time soon ergo a compromise will be reached next week IMO.

 

[davids]

I was away in Belfast the other day meeting with some business friends (all staunch unionists) and they seemed to have a genuine fear that each of North, South and East Belfast could go against them.

The hilarious thing was that they are all smart enough to know that Brexit alone is a disaster for Northern Ireland. However with No Deal possibility alive given the nut job Tories are still around an even greater nuclear threat also exists. But they'll still support the DUP.

That border just won't seem to go away,no matter how hard the Tory party wish and wish.

 

[Khalekan]

A truly incredible turnaround from last time. He is a very credible performer and he must have done serious work on the ground to have earned that mandate.

It has been a very good election for Nationalists.

I am listening to Radio Foyle right now and all their commentators and the vox pop in Creggan are flagging up abstentionism as a major reason for this amazing turnaround.

 

[Bluerover]

The odd thing is Blue, that phrase was coined by Gerry Adams back at the time of the Hume/Adams talks, when he talked of a “Pan Nationalist Front running from Derry through Belfast to Dublin and across to Washington, New York and Boston”.

It has since become a dog whistle which politicians like Foster use to rile up the more unsavoury elements of loyalists in 6 of 9.

Sorry to disagree Khal but it was the lovely John Taylor who coined it afaik- and yes it was about the Hume -Adams talks.

Dangerous especially in light of the horrible banners in Belfast and Antrim - with which of course the DUP had no hand act or part!

 

[Catfish Blues]

There's no doubt we are witnessing the beginning of the breakup of the UK tonight.

England elect a pro Brexit government with a big majority while Scotland and NI reinforce their determination to remain in the EU.

If Johnson doesn't listen to the will of the people it would be akin to the refusal to listen to the result of the 1918 GE. And we know what happened then.

Surely they have learnt the lessons of history by now.

I'd say there's a good chance that recent events are pointing towards a united Ireland, and I think there'd be a huge sigh of relief ( out of sight obviously ) in Westminster if that happens.

Not so sure about Scotland tbh, I can't see a UK government being quite so keen to see the back of it as they probably are about NI.

 

[Khalekan]

Sorry to disagree Khal but it was the lovely John Taylor who coined it afaik- and yes it was about the Hume -Adams talks.

Dangerous especially in light of the horrible banners in Belfast and Antrim - with which of course the DUP had no hand act or part!

We will have to agree to disagree, Blue

I am 99% certain it was Gerry whom used it first.

 

[Bluerover]

We will have to agree to disagree, Blue

I am 99% certain it was Gerry whom used it first.

"Historical Dictionary of the Northern Ireland Conflict" - G. Gillespie (Rowman & Littlefield) gives it to JT - p290

"Taylor became UUP spokesman on the European Community .....but was critical of the John Hume–Gerry Adams discussions, which he viewed as an attempt to create a pan-nationalist front to isolate unionists".

 

[Khalekan]

"Historical Dictionary of the Northern Ireland Conflict" - G. Gillespie (Rowman & Littlefield) gives it to JT - p290

"Taylor became UUP spokesman on the European Community .....but was critical of the John Hume–Gerry Adams discussions, which he viewed as an attempt to create a pan-nationalist front to isolate unionists".

That doesn’t show that he said it before Gerry......

 

[Armaghtoffee]

I am thinking the Assembly will be up and running again within weeks.

Leave aside the Finucane result and Sinn Fein had a bad night as well....outside of Belfast North their vote fell everywhere, including Belfast West and especially in Derry.

The last thing both SF and DUP will be wanting is another Election any time soon ergo a compromise will be reached next week IMO.

Sinn Fein need to be seen to be administering government in the North to be considered as credible partners in the South.

Yes the vote declined but given the middle ground borrowing votes it wasn’t a bad night at all. 7 seats is decent when you look at the kicking the DUP took.

 

[Armaghtoffee]

I am listening to Radio Foyle right now and all their commentators and the vox pop in Creggan are flagging up abstentionism as a major reason for this amazing turnaround.

I think the SF vote last time also had an element of sympathy for the demise of McGuinness.

 

[Armaghtoffee]

I am thinking the Assembly will be up and running again within weeks.

Leave aside the Finucane result and Sinn Fein had a bad night as well....outside of Belfast North their vote fell everywhere, including Belfast West and especially in Derry.

The last thing both SF and DUP will be wanting is another Election any time soon ergo a compromise will be reached next week IMO.

Meant to say in my earlier post, the votes that SF have lost can largely be traced to the SDLP thereby that ballot remaining in Nationalist hands. In contrast, the UUP has been cannibalised by the perceived neutral Alliance Party and that’s why I say it was a good election for Nationalism/Republicanism.

 

[Khalekan]

I think the SF vote last time also had an element of sympathy for the demise of McGuinness.

Yes, they were making that point as well.

 

[Blue 1]

Tiocfaidh ár lá

 

[Carl O'Ancelotti]

Unionists in minority for first time! Truly historic day.

7 SF 2 SDLP 1 Alliance 8 DUP.

Foster has gone back to using the hateful "pan-Nationalist front" language of the dark past.

Disgusting.

Wonder what she has to say about the pan-Unionist front which failed to get the UUP candidate in Fermanagh/South Tyrone elected despite both SF and the SDLP running candidates ?

Nothing probably.