Good Morning all,
The new proposed (again) council boundaries are out:
So it looks like 5 Nationalist (including Belfast), 6 Unionist at first viewing. But is it?
Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon is by no means a certainty as a unionist council. Antrim and Newtownabbey is another that will require a further detailed look.
Perhaps the ever excellent LAD facebook page has it right, except for Belfast, with their Loyalist ‘wishmap’. 🙂
Overall it looks like a political mishmash designed to extract a predetermined outcome. It also illustrates the convoluted hoops that are now necessary in order to maintain a fig leaf of majoritarianism for political unionism. For a political entity that was founded and maintained upon the principle of map boundaries being, eh, manipulated for a political objective the absurdity of the new areas is entirely logical. On any other basis it’s nuts.
I’ll look at this in more detail over the coming days but your thoughts, as always, are welcome?