Meanwhile back in Northern Ireland (well which Conservative alliance did you think I was talking about?!) the Conservatives and Unionists are apparently moving from strength to strength; Cameron in last night's Tele:
At the European elections three weeks ago more than 132,000 people in Northern Ireland chose to reject the politics of the past and, by supporting the Conservatives and Unionists, voted for change.
They did so in Northern |Ireland just as voters did across Great Britain including, spectacularly, in Wales where Conservatives topped the poll.
Conservatives are now the only party with representation in every region of the United Kingdom. That is the first time in over a generation that any national political party can make that claim.
See? Jim Nicholson’s original 82893 first preferences have grown by over 50% to 132,000 in the space of only three weeks. By the end of summer, at that rate, the whole NI electorate will have voted for Jim, the Conservatives/Unionists and change!
*Thanks to FD for the alert.
11 comments:
Organic growth straight into the manure.
So that would be the lone UUP MP who is refusing to stand under the Tory banner and suggesting that she would stand against the official Tory candidate in her seat.
I wonder what the odds are on there not being any Tory MPs elected in Northern Ireland?
And funnily enough, my word verification was "copre"....
wildgoose I too have forgotten the name of the lone UUP MP
The more I see of European parties in the Euro parliament the more I question the argument - 'the rest of the world thinks and acts this way now why can't we'. It appears the rest of Europe is as happily unreconstructed (in its own various ways).
Wildgoose and Anonymous,
The soon to be ex-MP you're thinking of is Lady Sylvia Hermon- you could make a strong argument that is already more or less sitting as an Independent.
Re the betting on the Conservatives and Unionists being wiped out at the next Westminster Election- similar talk was made in the media and blogs regarding Jim Nicholson's chances- and I actually think it gave the campaign and voters dozing at home the kick up the arse required. As it is he outpolled the DUP in 3 DUP held Westminster seats I believe- her Ladyship's N>Down is a further possibility as is S Belfast.
And just to confirm that "organic growth" was an attempt at irony;)- somebody was feeding DC dodgy facts
"It appears the rest of Europe is as happily unreconstructed (in its own various ways)."
FD,
Yes it is- proof being that the parties enrolled for the Conservative Group were considered by its leadership by far to be less toxic than some of the others who could have been approached.
"3 DUP held Westminster seats I believe- her Ladyship's N>Down is a further possibility as is S Belfast."
S Belfast is not possible without a deal and if anyone thinks differently they are living in an electoral cloud cuckoo land.
UUP was still behind DUP in South Belfast and well behind SDLP - if a Unionist is to get it it'll either through a deal or a Independent candidate we can all live with.
Are the DUP going to spilt the unionist vote again? The main UK unionist party - the Conservatives(which polled nearly 50 times more than the DUP at the Euro elections) should surely be given a free run at South Belfast.
What is 'unionist' about a party that polls slightly over half of one per cent in one corner of the UK?
They seem determined to keep NI isolated from the UK
Not so anonymous
Ahh I see we have another visitor from cloud cuckoo land. If you repeat the same point as you did on a different site the claim to anonymity doesn't get very far.
As Milton friedman said There is no such thing as a free lunch.
I think the 132k referred to by Cameron was Nicholson's vote including transfers at the point of his election.
FD
"S Belfast is not possible without a deal and if anyone thinks differently they are living in an electoral cloud cuckoo land."
Everything is possible, it hust degrees of likelihood which vary;)
If there isn't going to be a deal (and I think it would defeat the whole purpose of the link-up if there is) then I hope a bit of imagination is used in choosing the C/U candidate for SB. If they accept it's a long-shot then why not? It would send a positive signal out in one of the constituencies which just might respond to it.
June 26 Anonymous,
Is there such a thing as a Unionist vote?
Surely the whole point behind the link-up is moving politics beyond the stale old old? Treat the DUP in exactly the same way as any of the other parties on the ballot paper (eg we don't tell Alliance the SDLP not to stand in SB because they will divide the golf-club G and T vote!).
Anonymous saturday
A fair few of those tfrs came from the TUV, I wouldn't have said they were/are really up for the kind of change cameron's on about here.
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