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Robinson Looses Westminster Seat.

Elliemental

Actually quite shocked by this, East Belfast is so true blue Unionist. This could potentially cause pretty serious problems for the Assembly.
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Wacker

OP it's Loses, not looses.

Joey the lips

Yes believe it or not. My first instinct was to say "hahhh" but I agree this is not good for the north. Nor is the election of willie McCrea.

Peter Robo was power hungry and would sell his granny and clearly his wife which made him good for a deal.

Joey the lips

Wacker wrote: »

OP it's Loses, not looses.

:rolleyes: you got the message either way.

Biggins

His loss comes as no surprise.
Between he and his wifes antics, he was bound to get a pasting at the vote box.

I'm more worried now about the possible future deal between the Unionists and the conservatives.

Dotsie~tmp

orourkeda wrote: »

I'd say she has some box on her alright

A sausage and a well known boulevard come to mind.

bonerm

You have to love British politics. When one of theres is found to be swindling or lying they either have fall on their sword or be unceremoniously booted out at the next election.

If it happened down here people would go "ah he's just a cute hoor, no harm in that. And shure didn't he help my brother out with that bit of planning permission last year!" and then vote him back in with a larger majority.

We could learn a thing or two from those crazy Brits.

Hail 2 Da Chimp

How about some friken NSFW tags there??? I nearly got sick

m@cc@ wrote: »

http://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/news/photoquality/CouncillorNaomiLong.jpg

Boggin'.

LizT

Hail 2 Da Chimp wrote: »

How about some friken NSFW tags there??? I nearly got sick

FYI, her looks have nothing to do with how well she carries out her job. I met her briefly last year when she was mayor of Belfast. She is a good speaker and seems lovely.

cock robin

skelliser wrote: »

He still remains the first minister tho.

Yeah the first minister of one of the greatest kip's on earth. I wonder does his wife wear orange knickers and a sash in the sack.

bonerm

cock robin wrote: »

I wonder does his wife wear orange knickers and a sash in the sack.

No, but I heard he does.

Capt'n Midnight

The_Minister wrote: »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_Party_of_Northern_Ireland

Basically, non-sectarian (yay!) and liberal (double-yay!).

They are the unionist non-sectarian liberal party.

Whereas the SDLP are the nationalist non-sectarian liberal party.

It's great fun trying to explain NI MP's to foreigners.

law86

I reckon it was the attempt to cover up the financial indiscretions by plaintive cries of marital infidelity and supposed mental illness which turned people's stomachs and votes. And rightly so. Day day now, don't let the door hit you...

Capt'n Midnight

lizt wrote: »

FYI, her looks have nothing to do with how well she carries out her job.

qft

And on that note, Mo Mowlam RIP

The HorsesMouth

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

They are the unionist non-sectarian liberal party.

Whereas the SDLP are the nationalist non-sectarian liberal party.

It's great fun trying to explain NI MP's to foreigners.

The Allianz party is the not the unionist non-sectarian party. They are basically the split down the middle and have no affiliations to any particular group.

The_Minister

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

They are the unionist non-sectarian liberal party.

Whereas the SDLP are the nationalist non-sectarian liberal party.

It's great fun trying to explain NI MP's to foreigners.

I don't think they are particularly Unionist (although I once heard someone describe them as the 'Nice Protestants').

I think the UUP are the opposite of the SDLP, as the DUP are the opposites of Sinn Fein, and then the Alliance is off on its own happy middle.

The HorsesMouth

The_Minister wrote: »

I don't think they are particularly Unionist (although I once heard someone describe them as the 'Nice Protestants').

I think the UUP are the opposite of the SDLP, as the DUP are the opposites of Sinn Fein, and then the Alliance is off on its own happy middle.

It works like this:
DUP -the hardline Unionists
UUP -the more liberal Unionists
Allianz - Dont care what you are,all invited.
Sinn Fein-The hardline Nationalists
SDLP-The more liberal Nationalists.

sink

The HorsesMouth wrote: »

It works like this:
UUP -the hardline moderate Unionists
DUP -the more liberal hardline Unionists
Allianz - Dont care what you are,all invited.
Sinn Fein-The hardline Nationalists
SDLP-The more liberal Nationalists.

FYP

The UUP are the moderate unionist party.

edit:- seems you fixed it yourself, nevermind

El Weirdo

The HorsesMouth wrote: »

It works like this:
DUP -the hardline Unionists
UUP -the more liberal Unionists
Allianz - Insurance company.
Sinn Fein-The hardline Nationalists
SDLP-The more liberal Nationalists.

FYP

consultech

I don't know what a tracker mortgage is.

dlofnep

The_Minister wrote: »

I don't think they are particularly Unionist

They absolutely are.

How on earth do you think they took a seat from Peter Robinson?

The Alliance party are probably the most moderate unionist party, but they are quite clearly unionist in structure.

General Zod

dlofnep wrote: »

They absolutely are.

How on earth do you think they took a seat from Peter Robinson?

The Alliance party are probably the most moderate unionist party, but they are quite clearly unionist in structure.

they are trading on the Lord Alderdice years in that area. since the 90's they've veered away from the unionists to a 'principal of consent' model.

BTW, I'd also argue that SF are non-sectarian also.

dlofnep

General Zod wrote: »

they are trading on the Lord Alderdice years in that area. since the 90's they've veered away from the unionists to a 'principal of consent' model.

Yes, but they are still a unionist party. Robinson does not lose his seat to a non-unionist party, especially in a unionist heartland. Alliance are attempting to portray themselves as indifferent - but the people that make up Alliance are certainly from traditional unionist backgrounds.

I don't really have many problems with Alliance. They don't seem to be bigots - but I'm not really up to scratch on their policies, so I'll have to read.

General Zod wrote: »

BTW, I'd also argue that SF are non-sectarian also.

Considering they had a unionist in an orange sash address their Ard Fheis and receive a huge applause - I'd tend to agree.

Elliemental

dlofnep wrote: »

They absolutely are.

How on earth do you think they took a seat from Peter Robinson?

The Alliance party are probably the most moderate unionist party, but they are quite clearly unionist in structure.

Actually, they're very similar to British Liberal Democrats and their party members are drawn up from all sides of the community and not just the Catholic/Protestant communities. I know its' hard for some to accept that there are more than just these two tribes here. But honestly, its' true. And the Alliance Party is just about the only party that attempts to represent all of them.

Blobby George

Elizabeth Shallow Redcoat wrote: »

The amount of threads posted today that I haven't a fcuking clue about...

Who? What?

Sometimes the Who reply is justified but in this case WTF? Have you even the remotest interest in current affairs? The North's First Minister and a leading figure in NI politics for a couple of decades and you're asking who. FFS.

gurramok

Elliemental wrote: »

Actually, they're very similar to British Liberal Democrats and their party members are drawn up from all sides of the community and not just the Catholic/Protestant communities. I know its' hard for some to accept that there are more than just these two tribes here. But honestly, its' true. And the Alliance Party is just about the only party that attempts to represent all of them.

They are pro-union on the union question. They do not want to see NI secede from the union and yes their members are drawn from both major religions.

Yes, they are good on non-national question issues and do not partake in tribal traditional issues. By the way the likes of SF are left wing liberals on social issues and hardline on the national question.

The DUP are hardline on both social issues and the national question. Thats the difference between SF and DUP.

bnt

Wacker wrote: »

OP it's Loses, not looses.

Or maybe Robinson set it loose, and it ran away? If you love something, set it free: if it comes back to you, it's yours; if it doesn't, it never was ...

Mint Sauce

its seems ulster really did say no this time

no to peter robinson anyway

dlofnep

Elliemental wrote: »

Actually, they're very similar to British Liberal Democrats and their party members are drawn up from all sides of the community and not just the Catholic/Protestant communities. I know its' hard for some to accept that there are more than just these two tribes here. But honestly, its' true. And the Alliance Party is just about the only party that attempts to represent all of them.

If it quack's like a duck.

I'm happy that they got the seat to be honest - but there is no way that Robinson lost a seat to a non-unionist party. They may claim to represent both communities, but their internal structure is full to the brim with traditional unionists - so they will be naturally more sympathetic to one side (consciously or not).

Bottle_of_Smoke

dlofnep wrote: »

They absolutely are.

How on earth do you think they took a seat from Peter Robinson?

The Alliance party are probably the most moderate unionist party, but they are quite clearly unionist in structure.

I wouldn't quite agree. Their unique selling point is they don't touch border politics. I'd say they're made up of both nationalist and unionist members who care more about other issues than the border, whereas the other unionist parties have the union as their main thing.

As regards Peter Robinson's seat, Long worked hard and campaigned in loyalist working class areas, alliance were pushing the fact that this election had nothing to do with the country's constitutional status. If it were simply her being a unionist one would think the UCU would have done better.

gurramok wrote:

They are pro-union on the union question. They do not want to see NI secede from the union and yes their members are drawn from both major religions.

Again don't quite agree. I know they began as a non-sectarian unionist party but nowadays I think they're principally ambiguous/ignorant of the border question.

Had a quick read of their website

Alliance Party wrote:

About the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
Delivering CONSTRUCTIVE OPPOSITION to the sectarian consensus!
A growing Alliance team ambitious for Northern Ireland
Our team of 7 MLAs, 32 Councillors and hundreds of volunteer activists are working across Northern Ireland to build a better society.

We're working to build a society free of segregation, sectarianism and prejudice where everyone - Catholic or Protestant, black or white, local or immigrant, rich or poor, young or old - can live their life the way they want, free from fear.

We're working to create a shared society, that takes advantages of its links to Great Britain, to the rest of Ireland, to Europe and to the wider world to generate prosperity and quality of life for everybody - rather than the divided society others promote, where our diversity is seen as a threat.

We're working to build a society where we don't need to run cap in hand to Westminster to keep our public services working; one where we empower business to generate enough wealth to fund the services we all benefit from.

We're working to create a sustainable society - where our beautiful environment is cherished, where we don't spend money we don't have and where the rights of individual are not smothered by the demands of the state and big institutions.

There's nothing really there that shows they're politically pro-union other than the fact they say "northern ireland", which SDLP do too.

Bottle_of_Smoke

dlofnep wrote: »

Considering they had a unionist in an orange sash address their Ard Fheis and receive a huge applause - I'd tend to agree.

Was that this year or previous? Would be interesting to see!