Northern Ireland Assembly 2016

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Of course expecting the UUP and SDLP to provide a competent opposition may well be asking just a little bit too much...

[IceAgeComing]

They've still not appointed the Justice Minister yet and they have 48 hours to do it before triggering another election which is a little worrying.  The Alliance used to do it but they've gone into opposition with the UUP and the SDLP; and there aren't that many other choices available: the Greens look like they are going to reject it, they've decided not to go down the road of having two joint justice ministers from the DUP and Sinn Fein; the only person left is an Independent Unionist who got elected for the first time at this election.  There's also some talk of them picking someone from outside the Assembly (that's apparently what the SDLP want), I'm not entirely sure whether that would be allowed though.

Imagine if you told someone fifteen years ago that the DUP and Sinn Fein would be in government alone in Northern Ireland, with the UUP, SDLP and Alliance refusing their places in the power sharing administration to go into opposition...

[Famous Mortimer]

Presumably the UUP is trying to position itself to the right of DUP with refusing to join the coalition?

What's the SDLP's game though?

[Famous Mortimer]

I'm hearing that UUP and SDLP won't sit with DUP because DUP backs the UK leaving the EU.

[IceAgeComing]

The SDLP going into opposition might be them trying to challenge Sinn Fein in some way; being in government hasn't exactly helped them recently and maybe going into opposition might differentiate them from their main nationalist rivals

Its not a bad thing; there being an opposition is a positive in Northern Ireland even if it the major parties in it are the SDLP and the DUP.  Provided that the government has parties representing both communities in it, this is a positive development...

I'm hearing that UUP and SDLP won't sit with DUP because DUP backs the UK leaving the EU.

Doubt it; I'm pretty sure that the UUP have a pretty large Eurosceptic wing of the party and Sinn Fein are as pro-Europe as you're ever going to get in the UK.  Europe's not exactly a big issue and not one that the Assembly deals with at all, I don't see why parties would refuse places in government because of it.  I think that its both parties wanting to show clearer differences between the two main parties; and also because they couldn't get the concessions from the DUP or SF as they wanted - the latter was the reason why the Alliance refused the Justice Minister position.

[Bacon King]

will UUP and SDLP jointly be the official opposition or is it just UUP because they're the bigger party?

[IceAgeComing]

I don't know whether there would be an "Official Opposition"; there technically isn't one in Scotland although the largest opposition party generally gets more questions at Question Time.  I'd imagine that both the UUP and the SDLP, and maybe also the Alliance, might be treated equally and get equal time in debates and the same number of questions in Question Time; although I'm pretty sure that no one really knows, the Assembly wasn't really designed to have an opposition and I'm pretty sure that they don't have any rules about there being one of significant size, like there is now.

[Famous Mortimer]

I mean, does the SDLP being in opposition put them to the left or right of Sinn Fein? Make them more nationalist or less nationalist? Or are they just "different".

[YL]

I mean, does the SDLP being in opposition put them to the left or right of Sinn Fein? Make them more nationalist or less nationalist? Or are they just "different".

I think they're just trying to be different, not being ex-terrorists no longer being enough.  Similarly, this is the UUP's latest attempt to try to work out how they are different from the DUP.