With the leader of the main Unionist party applauding speeches calling the GFA 'iniquitous' and 'deceit' are the upcoming elections a test for the seminal agreement?
It's hard to know what will happen if the DUP manage to get their vote out and maintain the majority vote.
yawn, change the record blanch
Seeing FFG's attempts to undermine SF and promote SDLP backfire obviously hurt you, but the only one lying here is yourself.
The Alliance now have to deliver something faced with the same intransigence that SF faced since the GFA.
There is only ONE political ideology holding up rights and equality in NI and it shows in their overall decline as a political ideology.
As expected the DUP casting the TUV aside having played the support act to Allister at all the anti-protocol rallies to scare Unionists into turning out for them at the polls.
The nationalist vote was 41.8% in 2016, 41.1% in 2011, 41.4% in 2007. After been steady for so long, why is the nationalist vote declining on a long-term trend?
It seems, which I did not realise before posting in this thread, that significant numbers of Catholics/Nationalists are shifting their vote to the Alliance, presumably mostly from SDLP, as part of a project to build cross-community in NI. So the (slight) slippage in the overall vote for 'Nationalist' parties doesn't seem to represent any decline in the number of CNR voters.
What has the daily running of NI to do with Republic... the only economic interest MM should have is here but we all know things are OK here...
Some more data for those refusing to believe that there is only ONE political ideology in decline on this island.
Clever to focus on share of seats rather than percentage of votes. Seats don't count in a Border Poll, votes do.
What are you talking about? Is somehow the cost of living not a problem in the North because Sinn Fein are now in charge?
That has implications for a Border Poll. The Alliance view of the world is that the problems of Northern Ireland need sorting out within Northern Ireland, and that constitutional issues can wait.
On the overall nationalist vote it looks like the figures you have used is just the SF plus SDLP vote. What about Aontú or PBP?
Nationalist vote static at best. No change in terms of SoS thinking on a border poll as he said on TV last night.
Here's the share of the vote in 1998 blanch...do the math, as they say. One political ideology in decline.
Do you agree that it is now time for us to begin planning? Or do we do a Brexit?
It maybe beyond the ken of your good self but it is possible to have multi strands to what you do as a political party.
You pain is leading you to think the ONLY thing being talked about is a border poll.
The party's have turned up for work today. There is one political ideology standing in the way of that. ONE
Declining vote for nationalism, declining seats for nationalism, there is no momentum towards a Border Poll.
Sure, the divisions within unionism, and the stupidity of the DUP, created a situation where Sinn Fein became leading party by default, not through increasing their own seats.
If any party focuses on a Border Poll rather that the bigger issues of cost of living, health, education etc. in Northern Ireland, good luck to them at the next election, because they will need it.
Don't always see eye to eye with our current Taoiseach but he was on form this morning. Outlined the Shared Island vision of the Irish government and practical cross border initiatives to build up relationships.
Compare that to what we hear from Sinn Féin - border poll, united ireland, border poll, end 800 years of the Brits etc. But what precisely are they doing to help some future border poll pass? Sweet f**k all is the answer.
Reminds me of the Irish Language fanatics who are using the 1937 constitution to force the use of Irish across the public realm of the Republic, regardless of whether the local citizens want it or not.
When they can't or won't persuade people, then they resort to legal approaches.
There is NO decline in the nationalist vote blanch, see above. Unionism is in it's death throes and has split into factions trying to survive.
The momentum is very much towards asking the people what they want the future to look like as the statelet has clearly failed yet again..
Do you agree it is wise to begin preparations for this?
Nationalist vote in the North peaked a decade ago, in contrast to the fabled upward march due to demographics.
Asked if he thought a Citizens Assembly was the right approach, he said No. 😁
Why? Because he wants to carry on his damp squib of a project designed only to listen to selective voices, he's afraid of 'citizens'. Par for the course with the power swap.
There is no decline blanch, it is all there in the data. Keep picking select points to try and paint a picture but the facts beat you every time.
Belligerent Unionists are doing the same thing at the moment (trying to fashion a victory for themselves) so you are in good company again.
Yes, so SF and nationalists in general need to get going. A good start would be to defer the controversial Language Act for say 50 years. Practical acts that find points of common interest rather than points of division.
Ah no, not appeasement of Unionism again!
Voting intentions for MLAs do not give the clearest intentions either way about a border poll - trying to equate Alliance's gains as a decline in pro-UI vote is a fallacy. Making inferences that do not hold weight in reality.
Most voters in NI are voting with day to day stuff in mind first: cost of living, healthcare, transport. Not the NI Protocol, not a border poll.
That does not mean that if a border poll were to be called that the results would reflect the composition of Stormont - it would not.
If you really want to know what result may be in a border poll, look at polling information. Do not look at MLAs. Very weak argument to suggest it would be the case
LOL - well what's your suggestion? Appeasement / working together/ finding points of common ground - these are all the same thing. Many ways to skin a cat.
There is no decline says Francie.
Francie posts a table showing a decline in seats from 43.3% to 38.9% in five years.
Francie doesn't challenge the finding that the nationalist vote peaked in 2016 at 41.8%.
Those are the facts.
No matter how many times it is claimed that the nationalist vote is not declining, it still doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
Increased desperation, decreased success. He'll learn eventually.
It does feel awfully like you are setting the bar of cooperation here at a height that you know won’t be reached — i.e. as soon as SF push again for the ILA then ‘boom’ — you have the ‘gotcha’ that proves SF are insincere about wanting to engage constructively with Unionism. But taking this route is actually at odds with what the election demonstrates — and that is that the two parties who are said to be the big winners from the vote (i.e. Alliance and SF) are in favour of the ILA.
There is nothing about this election that should suggest that historical bigotry towards the Irish language should be pandered to any longer. If anything, the Unionist parties should reflect on the fact that the future of their ideology lies in the hands of a generation who don’t see the Irish language as the premise for Ireland’s version of the Sudetenland annexation.
83% of SF voters, the overwhelming majority, give preferences, and thus support, to other parties. How is that a bad thing for democracy?
Nationalism got an exceptional vote in 2016 blanch.
It's typical playacting from you to do this. In the next breath you will be chiding us that 'we should be looking at trends'.
What a pickle you get yourself into at times. 😁
How about everybody lives up to agreements made Furze? Would that be too much to ask of your precious Unionism and the British?
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