Sinn Fein 4 seats

Bloody Drunkard

So we are getting towards peace (or so Bertie would say) Yet the SDLP lose seats to Sinn Fein and the UUP (P.S. I don't condon thye use of Ulster in their name) lose seats to Paisley's DUP

so the boys with the guns have more power and the Nobel Peace Prize winners have less

Looks interesting

Maybe if the SDLP and Sinn Fein voted tacticly they could have snatched a few seats but that will never happen

SO WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD ????????

bugler

Unrest.DUP will take the mantle of the most popular Unionist party soon (if not already) and we know what that means.The only really good things to come of these elections were Bob McCartney and Mcrea losing their seats, but then thats just me being petty and vindictive

Magwitch

A result on both sides that has expressed in unmistakable terms that there are indeed tow very different sides. Where do we go from here?

SF's attitude with relation to disarming of the IRA will be more forthright given the extra seats and mandate that it gives. However the use of that very mandate may adversly affect their inroads into southern politics (which has been on the cards).

As for the DUP, now they have more seats they must deliver. If they pull down the agreement I think they will discover that the voters did not mandate them to go that far. If they do not pull it down they must work within the assembly. Either was they may find themselves in a no win situation.

It is perhaps a transition period that is necessary. People follow their gut instincts and when they see that it will lead to divisoin and paralysis they may make woiser choices next time.

GreenHell

hmmm northern Ireland politics do appear to once again be heading towards to the bigeted days of the past. But judging from old northern politics alot can and will change in the next 4 years. Tremble not my favourite politicon , is a very practical politicion and I think the UUP will be back.

As for SF they will continue to grow sense they are getting the younger votes and will continue to do so , although if something about arms doesn't happen they might find themselves on the outside again.

Interesting times ahead.

Magwitch

Interestingly I think SF will have to dig Mr. Trimble out or a corner. They will of course do this in a way (it may take time) that looks like it is the DUP's fault, but if they do not they will loose an electoral edge they could gain in southern Ireland. They will get their RUC reforms at the expense of the DUP and co.

It is a tough political task, but at the next election the DUP will suffer as their negetivity is not what the "protest" voters voted for. Trimble will win out I am sure but it will be a hell of a ride.

QUOTE: Gerry Adams: ITV Election coverage: "The IRA will not disarm YET".

Gerry Adams is not the type of guy to put a "YET" in relation to the arms issue unless he means it. That is the life line offered to the UUP from SF, of that I am sure - or Gerry Adams is prone to political slips-ups (which is never the case). It is what will deliver victory to the UUP over DUP before the next election (4 year...a short time in NI politics) and in return SF will get its police reforms etc.

The game goes on......

Greenbean

Sinn Fein with 4 seats; this time I hope they don't expend their new found power to hold back more decommissioning and waste all their pull in trying to get more "hardline republican" concessions. So far I see very little moves to bigger issues or an appeal to not so hardline nationalists, instead all I see is energy and power being wasted on keeping those who are hardline, content and happy. And for god's sake I hope they don't spend all the power attempting to maneuver into a United Ireland scenario, let the dust settle this far and start integrating communities and defusing situations. But then keeping things very much US and THEM fuels the boiler room of Sin Fein engine.

I may have been brought up with the silver spoon, I may have not really been able to see what the fuss is about beyond a ladish territorial game which is now egged on by elders, but its not so easy to be fighting for equal rights when you don't really see whats so unequal about things. The british governemnt and unionists may have ****ed over the rights of nationalist in northern ireland 15,20,30 years ago but now a days things are alot more level pegged and much of the agro doesn't make sense to me. I may (hypothetically) know of a guy who goes and kills two police men, to him its a war, to me its just barbarious. All I have to justify it is some sort of gangster style affiliation between hard-line republicians, I can in no way understand how they feel that way, given how I've grown up.

But yet with this, to me, diversity in the generations of republicans how come Sinn Fein is doing so well. It seems to be a loosing on their association with terrorist activities, its become more cool to be Sinn Fein, its a gangster lad thing for a young person with plenty of streetgang hate to fuel things (far from the notions of the original IRA). Also when the guns dissapear from view, its easy to forget they are there - its easy to then see Sinn Fein as you've always imagined being a republican about as a youth ("I'd like a united ireland, but I don't like the killing"). This is my problem, if you're gonna support Sin Fein then at least do it for the real reasons they exist, the right reasons you may call it. Do not be voting for them for all the wrong reasons. If you really don't understand how its sensible to go up to an english man in cold blood and shoot him because of his job, or how its feasible to have civilian killings justified for a guerilla war, then you can't justifiably vote for Sinn Fein, while weapons are in place (and I don't want to sound like unionist or anything here - I know the main reason why the IRA holds off on decommissioning is because the real its believed that once that (unmentioned in the good friday agreement) restriction is dealt with, unionists will just hold up another - its a belief that things will always have to be done this way anyway, so the battlefield may as well be decommisioning, which can be swept away in days, rather than something like the history of Sinn Fein being tied into terrorists). Your emotions may say aye, but your sensibility is shouting no.

Greenbean

If I sounded like I was contradicting myself, its because I am; an internal battle if you will (to dramatise things a little). Take what you can of the previous post and maybe shed some light for me.