Hi everyone,
It’s been an interesting few weeks.
The Tories clinging to power in Britain by flirting with the DUP, flashing the cash, paying for the goodies and swishing their conservative skirts brings to mind a political lap dancing image which I’d rather not conjure up.
The title of this blog is a reference to the Belfast Telegraph sub editors who seem incapable of any other adjectives regarding unionist reaction to, well, just about anything. I could have added a few more words such as defensive, defiant, aggressive and denial.
We have had to endure the unedifying spectacle of certain elected politicians treading one of three well trodden paths and combination of all of them.
- Attempting to Justify the behaviours and consequences of those behaviours, of the crazier elements of their support
- Deflecting in every direction possible rather than addressing the actual issues
- Disappearing from sight and sound entirely
This amounts to a single thing.
A dereliction of leadership.
If I may spell it out, never has the PUL community been more in need of clear, focussed, leadership than now.
Without that, unionism cedes ground to the lunatic fringe that we saw on display in Windsor Park last night with their songbook in full voice and their unrestrained, instinctive, visceral, hatred, on display to a wider audience.
Wider Unionism has not yet realised that they are now a minority in the North East of Ireland. Their politicians know it. Everyone else knows it, Horseman knew it some years ago, most educated unionist voters know it. Someone needs to tell their 1690 facing followers.
As long as political unionism refuses to lead their voters, the only movement they will experience is backwards. That is a tragedy for their poorest and most disenfranchised voters.
As for the the Belfast Telegraph headline writers? Shame on you.
I hope, for the sake of unionism, that change will happen soon.
"We in coming days may be" 
I am curious to see how the BCC bonfire injunctions play out over the next year, especially with regard to the Sandy Row building damage. Burning Alliance posters on your bonfires when Alliance hold the balance of power on the BCC is likely not going to play out well for Unionism over the next 12 months.
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Makes you wonder what the future will be for the unionist working class in a Six Counties were they aren’t the majority. Guessing they will keep dancing round the bonfire for generations.
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I agree that the good atmosphere around the Twelfth parades has helped in terms of the mood and certainly bodes well as Michelle O’Neill rightly says for politics going forward.
Well done to those on all sides who worked together to bring this about.
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And that was a party political broadcast by…
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Sinn Féin do deserve credit for their painstaking, quiet work behind the scenes on this, delivering benefits for local people in Belfast and across the north, regardless of religion or background.
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Didn’t see myself on any bonfires in North Belfast. We Green’s generally don’t but I thought my name is too ‘taigy’ for some of the most sectarian of our bonfire builders.
Incremental progress being made by communities. We need to move to proper enforcement on these issues. No hate crimes, no environmental hazards, public safety as paramount and assigned responsibility for bonfire sites.
There are community groups able to do this in these communities. Time to resource them to make the transition.
Interesting wider choreographed dance it seems with O’Neill’s warm words, and Poots (Poots?!?) making moves on Acht Na Gaeilge. Hopeful for a return to Stormont in September. Then we can move on progressive legislation while conservative Unionism does not have a blocking majority.
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Pleased to hear that Gaygael,
I can report that the Bangor bonfire builders seem to have behaved better than in previous years also. I’m not aware of any effigies/ posters this year which is a considerable advance. I know your party colleague, Cllr John Barry,quite well and perhaps he can confirm this.
Interesting to see the Clandeboye bonfire was an environmentally friendly version also.
Regarding political advances, I’ve also noticed the incremental moves being made and I too hope that restoration of the institutions will be possible, although the DUP will require a fundamental change of mindset and attitude.
Perhaps the growing realisation that they are a minority, just like everyone else, may help.
Mutual recognition, respect and accommodation is the key in my opinion
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Your last sentence sums up what we need. There is no point trying to equate the others’ culture to something recognisable of our own. For example gaelic games do not have a comparable sporting movement, while marching bands are a very different cultural expression (any republican bands are, imho, atrociously bad copycats of even the worst of the 600 or so Orange/loyalist bands).
And to this end, only the stupid and thoughtless mock the other side’s expressions. This applies as much to language as to bonfires; you can curry my yoghurt while I think about your kkkulture.
Instead see the alternative. We have many similarities but the differences make all our minorities stand out. Let’s not sanitise but certainly consider how our cultural expressions can be freely and sensibly shown without being seen in terms of fear and domination, real or imagined, by our fellow citizens.
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‘Expressions of culture’ are one thing, expressions of hatred are something else entirely. Until Unionism learns to express its culture in a way which doesn’t intimidate and denigrate its neighbours, then its on a hiding to nothing.
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Very interesting snapshot of attitudes among young Protestant people. Ignore the siren voices saying that Northern nationalism needs to be less liberal – a socially liberal Nationalism can make common cause with these young people on many issues.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/aug/04/northern-irish-unionist-parties-alienating-young-protestants-study
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I’d agree with that; there are myriad issues that cut across communities. Abortion and gay marriage are two such examples.
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It’s not that Northern Nationalism needs to be less Liberal, it’s that it needs to stop being 2 parties with one voice/choice and to give conservative Nationalists an outlet to come out and vote for.
These younger Protestants don’t want to be in the Arlene’s NI, but they’d still rather be in Teresa UK than Leo’s Republic.
The most interesting aspect of the piece is how few of them are actually voting.
If Nationalists turnout is so low compared to Unionists, but hardly and Prods under 40 are voting, then how few Catholics under 40 are voting ?
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Any of the contributors here who stand outside polling stations will be able to answer that Paul. Anecdotal I know but still…
And it shows that liberals or progressives in both (all?) communities have little to no choice.
The flip side is that we also have people who will only vote on a single issue. I wouldn’t vote for someone based on marriage equality but I would vote if a candidate from a party with the ability to impliment it could offer class sizes of 15 at primary level through investment in teacher employment.
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The latest in the saga of the Redrawn Constituencies. The plan is for the Boundaries Commission to report on the second consultation around September 2018. Let’s hope the next Westminster election is fought on the redrawn map – that really would put the cat among the pigeons.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/boundary-commission-advances-plan-to-axe-belfast-constituency-36074410.html
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Antain, Apologies for late approval of this – I’ve been moving residence over the weekend without web access. Yes, your point is correct- the boundary commision will be publishing on Sept 5th, from an e-mail I received from them ” We now intend to publish the responses received, including the transcripts of the public hearings, on our consultation portal http://www.bcni2018.uk on Tuesday 5 September 2017. This will trigger the start of a four week secondary consultation period, ending on 2 October 2017″
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The Boundary Commission is continuing the process of revising the boundaries but is a mere formality since it is unlikely that the UK Boundary Review will pass at Westminster in October 2018. In order for the final review to pass it needs 322 votes and the Conservative Party only has 317 votes. They need their coalition partner, the DUP, to vote for approval and this will never occur. The proposals for Northern Ireland would result in 9 SF seats in Foyle, Glenshane, North Tyrone, Fermanagh-South Tyrone, Upper Bann-Blackwater, Newry-Armagh, South Down, Belfast Northwest and Belfast Southwest. The DUP would have only 6 or 7 seats. MP’s Dodds, Simpson, and Little-Pengelly will never vote for a plan that will result in the loss of their seats to SF! Gavin Robinson would also be at risk of losing to Alliance in Belfast East. When this legislation was initially passed it was assumed that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition would easily pass the changes but obviously much has changed since then. Since the proposals will favour the Conservatives there is no possibility of support from Labour, Liberal Democrats or SNP. There has been some speculation that the Conservatives will then propose another review but keep 650 seats instead of reducing Westminster to 600 seats.
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I wouldn’t be so emphatic, Faha. You didn’t think that a majority of the House of Commons would vote to have an election despite the Fixed Terms legislation. But they did.
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Hi all.
I think the review is dead in the Water. For many of the reasons outlined above but also because the timetable has slipped significantly. If it did happen, I wouldn’t be so sure about the Belfast NW seat going to SF.
Click to access 2018-review-timeline_1.pdf
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As expected.
Part of the non-published CONDUP deal?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-boundary-review-commission-scrap-plans-reduce-mps-650-600-brexit-rebellion-a7931631.html
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Over at the UK Polling Report there was an article on the Boundary Review with a link to the Times. Apparently Theresa May is planning to abandon the Boundary Review. The new plan is to pass legislation to redo the Boundary Review with 650 seats. If that occurs then Northern Ireland would have 18 seats.
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A new campaign by the National Youth Council to lower the voting age in Northern elections to 16. I’m all for it, for obvious reasons. From the article:
‘Back in 2012 a joint Green Party/Sinn Fein motion to extend the voting age was carried in the Assembly 51 votes to 29, with the DUP and TUV opposing it. But the vote was academic as the Assembly does not have the power to change it.’
There’s the rub. I’d imagine if Labour were in power in the UK we might see some self-interested movement on this. Until such times, it’s hard to see Theresa May doing Jezza any favours.
http://www.belfastlive.co.uk/news/belfast-news/youth-northern-ireland-demand-change-13632239
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Is that Greens and SF working together on progressive issues back in 2012?
Good to see eh.
That majority now would be 51 – 29 if we had a returned Assembly. Expect this to become the norm across the West over the next few decades.
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The redrawing of electoral boundaries may not be dead in the water after all, according to this Daily Telegraph article by the optimistically-monikered Christopher Hope. The sting in the tail is that any change to Northern constituencies would be slight and not unfavourable to Unionism. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/17/plans-rebalance-electoral-system-towards-tories-could-get-go/
Most of the article is hidden behind a paywall, but the basic message is that the DUP have been reassured by certain commentators that they don’t stand to lose seats if the cake is carved in a certain way.
“But the DUP was cheered by a submission to the Commission from Nick Whyte, a well-respected independent elections expert in the Province two weeks ago, who said the DUP do not need to lose any MPs.”
Nicolas Whyte’s submission can be read here: 2889923.html
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The proper link to Mr Whyte’s submission: https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2889923.html
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This was always going to be the case. It didn’t take very long for the number crunchers to work out SF would get 9 seats and DUP 6 or 7 on the new boundaries something that was never going to be accepted by the likes of Dodds who will hold onto his seat until he drops by any means possible. With the DUP by the Tories side expect any changes to be favourable to unionism despite the constant demographic shift.
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Some interesting stats in the latest lucid talk poll.
34% would vote for a UI tomorrow
That figure becomes 45% in the event of a hard/difficult brexit
Most interesting 55℅ of 18-44 yr olds want a UI tomorrow regardless of brexit.
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Some more stats released from the lucid talk survey. More alliance, green and others voters want a UI than to stay in the UK again this isn’t taking into account hard or soft brexit just if there was a vote tomorrow. Some of these findings must be worrying for unionism again considering this is lucid talk which historically has support for a UI at a ridiculously low level.
http://lucidtalk.co.uk/news/239-oct-2017-tracker
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All over it Boondock, first reaction? Wow
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It looks like its older nationalist voters that are more of an obstacle to a UI than the others – strange
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This poll subverts many of the ideas that Unionists like to reassure themselves with, for example that younger Nationalists don’t care about an UI or that there is an emerging ‘centre ground’ who don’t care much for unity. Turns out both are wrong.
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Faha’s take on the poll will be published here in the morning, currently editing it
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Looking forward to it.
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Greening up nicely, thank you very much.
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/catholic-representation-in-civil-service-up-7-3-since-2000-1-8234859
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