UUP Leader Elect Elliott : My Reader

Last night the Ulster Unionist Party elected Tom Elliott MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone as their new leader. This morning he said:

"What I want to see is a party that actually represents the population of Northern Ireland.

"I want to see for the Ulster Unionist Party the same as I want to see for the people of Northern Ireland - that is a working together, that is an integration, not a carve up between two parties or two sections of our community.

"I want an all-embracing party that actually represents Northern Ireland."

However, how all-embracing a party can it be if the leader of the UUP is not prepared to attend Pride events of GAA sporting events. As my friend and colleague Mícheál pointed out not in certain communities. 3000 Versts asks questions about what direction the UUP is going to take, again asking will it retreat back to Orange Order and the 'unionists'. Over at Slugger O'Toole there is still a warning that the party need to take off the brake and come out of reverse, something that must not be forgotten simply by the size of Elliott's victory.

Slugger carries this analysis of the result, much in line with the feeling on BBC Northern Ireland's Hearts and Minds last Thursday:

"The DUP will be happy tonight. Alliance will be happy that the UUP won’t be steering too far into their centre ground. And the SDLP will be upset that they’ll still not have a credible ally in the centre ground – the UUP and SDLP tend to succeed together and fail together."

So the reforming campaign of Basil McCrea had fallen by the wayside. Does it seem that the UUP have taken the lesson from the 2010 election that being too liberal is not the way to reach out to Northern Ireland? If it is and Elliott retracts to the right the fight for certain parts of the community of Northern Ireland will become harder once again.

Ulster [Unionists] Say No!

Strange to think that today it was the Ulster Unionists that said 'No'. That used to the be single word epithet us from Northern Ireland used to place with the DUP.

If this had been the first assembly there wouldn't have been the cross community agreement to devolve police powers. But that was was when the UUP were a bigger Unionist voice than the other Unionist parties now that role is reversed.

There is of course one dissenting UUP voice, Lady Sylvia Hermon MP is the widow of former RUC Chief Constable Sir Jack Hermon. She herself trained in law and was a professor at Queens alongside David Trimble for a time. In February while the talks about devolution of policing and justice were ongoing she asked Shaun Woodward in the Commons:

"For those of us who definitely do not want to go back to direct rule and who want devolution and the talks at Hillsborough to succeed, with the principles of tolerance and respect at their core, what more can we in this House do to encourage those in the negotiations to take them forward and make them successful, in the interests of everyone in Northern Ireland?"

Interesting that the sole UUP representative with inside knowledge both of the upper echelons of Northern Irish policing and law should take such a different stance from Economist and leader Reg Empey.

I think her independence from a bizarrely shaping up UUP and Tory marriage, is probably all that is going to be needed to return my home seat to becoming held by some form of independent Unionist once again after 9 years or experiencing the mainstream. Or is having the only UUP member for the last 5 years really the mainstream?

Euro Election Reflections 3

Coming as I do from that hot bed of political oddity known as North Down I'm sure that one group of the strange North Down political landscape will be rejoicing.

From the days of Jim Kilfedder and his Ulster Popular Unionist Party (basically him), through Robert McCartney United Kingdom Unionist Party (again basically him though it did elect others to the first assembly) to now being the sole Ulster Unionist MP with Lady Sylvia Herman North Down has often stood in the face of the traditional Unionist parties of the province. Indeed the largest party on the council has at times been the Better Bangor Campaign and the NI Conservative Party. Yeah that in most parts of the UK isn't an oddity but the Conservatives have been the biggest party on North Down Council in the past.

Therefore I've no doubt that Laurence Kennedy (who actually came second to Kilfedder in the 1992 GE) and the rest of the North Down Branch will be rejoicing at the first Conservative (OK Ulster Conservatives and Unionists - New Force) elected to Parliamentary office since 1972 in Northern Ireland in Jim Nicolson.

Of course whether it is a surge in Ulster Unionist support following its merger with the Conservatives that brought about this hardly surprising election to one of Northern Ireland's three European seats ahead of the DUP remains to be seen. But estimates are putting the DUP at losing 5 of its Westminster seats on this weeks performance who to is the issue with Traditional Unionist Voice also polling well on first preferences.

Unionist Says No to Cameron: Just Who Will Speak for the Poor?

Ulster Unionist MLA Chris McGimpsey has put his own person kibosh on Dave "caring" Cameron's plans to merge the Conservatives and Unionists once more. Interesting in light of Dave's apparently more considerate and caring conservative brand one of the key reasons that Mr McGimpsey, who's bother Michael is the Health Secretary in the Assembly, is that it would "deprive working-class Northern Ireland of an important voice".

Now that is a sting in a tail not just to the merger but to the Conservatives appearance as reaching out across the political divide. All the more reason for the Lib Dems to stand up for hard working people everywhere, not just as Jennie Rigg rants about just those in families Nick. If the Tories aren't viewed as standing up for the working class and Labour are only happy with them as long as they fleece more taxes out of them the working class need a voice. Liberals down through history have long been radical in workers rights and reforms and are ideally placed to be so once more, lets not be branded like the other two main parties for the sake of sameness being less of an issue. We always have been looking for fairness to those most affected by poverty so let's take the argument to the place it needs to go rather than follow the headless chickens in the wrong direction.

DUP Says No! Again!

The headline on the BBC news site has just changed to DUP rejects Government plan. I expect the story will catch up soon.

Also nothing yet on the Ulster Unionists Blog of the talks.

UPDATES

3:00 pm Headline has been reset to 'Hope Rise in NI Talks Agreement. Who knows what is going on? Such is the nature of Northern Irish politics.

3:19 pm The UUP blog has now said that while they expect to leace at 5:00pm anything is possible. They were just going into the plenary session to hear what the deal is laying out apparently. The BBC may have jumped the gun somewhat.