Northern Ireland General Discussion

[Verily]

An alliance with the Tories seems like the only way to save the UUP and unionism in general from the Paisleyites.

Save the UUP? You mean save "Sylvia Hermon for North Down". The UUP have absolutely no chance of winning anything else.

[Verily]

An alliance with the Tories seems like the only way to save the UUP and unionism in general from the Paisleyites.

Save the UUP? You mean save "Sylvia Hermon for North Down". The UUP have absolutely no chance of winning anything else.

They don't now. But they could recover over the course of several decades.

Over the course of several decades, Ian Paisley will die, and the DUP will moderate.

[Verily]

The DUP aren't just a bunch of fundamentalists... in any case, I don't see how hooking up with the Tories (again) will help the UUP at all. Maybe people should remember quite how well (or rather "badly") the Tories did when they stood in NI in '92.

They stood some candidates in 2005, didn't they? In just a few seats, and got something like 0.3% of the vote.

[Verily]

I've long supported a United Kingdom of Great Ireland and Northern Britain, to encompass all parts of the British Isles except the Southeast of England.

Will the Southeast then become a part of France?

[Verily]

I've long supported a United Kingdom of Great Ireland and Northern Britain, to encompass all parts of the British Isles except the Southeast of England.

Will the Southeast then become a part of France?

No, it will become an independent country with weird but endearing politics that will also attempt to revive Anglo-Saxon as a second official language.

Then they need a civil war. It's not a proper country until it's had a civil war.

[Verily]

2. Does the DUP, who is to a large extend supported by protestant working class, take, at least to a degree, a social democratic stand on economic issues?

The DUP is opportunist on economics and rarely has to make such decisions (or win/lose votes on them). The primary left-wing unionist party is the Progressive Unionist Party.

[Verily]

UUP: the Unionist Party was an integral part of the Conservative Party until 1972, the party had close links to the Monday Club back in the day and a certain former party leader is now a Tory peer. That tells you almost all you need to know, though there have always been exceptions - liberal and leftish Unionists unable to commit to the Alliance and with nowhere else to go. This includes their sole remaining MP.

Sylvia Hermon left the UUP over its effective re-merge with the Conservatives, didn't she? (or maybe she lost reselection, don't recall.) I think she's running for re-election as an independent with Alliance backing.

[Verily]

Belfast East could end up being a very interesting four-way melee between the UUP, DUP, TUV and Alliance. Naomi Long took nearly 20% of the vote in the 2007 election, and she's now Lord Mayor of Belfast; surely that will help her campaign. Stack that against a split in the hard unionist vote between the DUP and TUV and the departure of Reg Empey as the UUP candidate, and the winner could well have no more than 25% of the vote.