Although apparantly, he has relented:

 

Gerry Adams has accepted an "office of profit under the crown" in order to resign his Westminster seat, the prime minister has told the House of Commons.

 

However, a Sinn Fein spokesperson has denied that Mr Adams has agreed to the procedure.

 

Parlimentary rules mean MPs cannot officially resign and have to accept a crown office to give up their seat.

 

The prime minister told MPs Mr Adams had accepted a role as "Baron of the Manor of Northstead".

 

Speaking in response to a question from DUP MP Nigel Dodds, the prime minister said he was glad that the rules had been followed.

 

To laughter from MPs, he added: "I'm not sure that Gerry Adams will be delighted to be Baron of the Manor of Northstead. But nonetheless I'm pleased that tradition has been maintained."

 

However, a spokesperson for Sinn Fein said that Mr Adams' only communication with the House of Commons had been a letter of resignation to the speaker.

 

The spokesperson added that he did not know from where Mr Cameron had got his information.

 

On Tuesday, the Speaker's Office told the BBC that it was its understanding that Mr Adams had not applied for the crown position and therefore remained an MP.

 

As someone from a nationalist background, I've found the whole process to be ridiculous on both sides. It seems almost archaic in this day and age that an MP cannot formally resign as a minister, instead having to instead accept either the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead owing to a 400-year old rule, and that a formal resignation is not deemed acceptable under the current structure.

 

I was slightly looking forward to one of the possible ways that Gerry Adams could've wriggled out of his seat. Given that he had not sworn his oath to the Queen, if he attended parliament, he would've been automatically disqualified from the position, thus triggering a by-election. It would've been a great PR coup for Sinn Fein.

 

Any thoughts? Could you even care less?

It is all rather ridiculous isn't it? When I read about this a few days ago it looked like he would attempt to attend the House Of Commons without swearing the oath. As you say, that would have been a good bit of PR for Sinn Fein.

 

Of course, he could just have fiddled his expenses and pleaded guilty to false accounting :lol:

Of course, he could just have fiddled his expenses and pleaded guilty to false accounting :lol:

 

He'd fit right in at the Dáil then.

 

The story now is that Gerry Adams did not accept the Northstead Manor regardless of what Davy C's rhetoric says, and the PM's press office has apologized to him for stating otherwise (David Cameron lying during PM's questions, who would've thought it). This has the potential to become an embarrassing issue for everyone involved, so I hope that the government just bite the bullet and accept his formal resignation and get this issue over with.

The writ for the election has finally been called by the chief whip, and is due to be held on June 9th. (If someone could edit the topic title, I would be grateful) I don't know why they couldn't get around to doing it earlier, they could've got it to coincide with the assembly elections and saved a bit of time and money.

 

I see this being a sure fire Sinn Fein win. Adams had gained 71% of the vote at the last election, and West Belfast has an overwhelming nationalist majority, so anything else would me miraculous. I wouldn't be surprised if the DUP/UUP sit out of this contest, given how unlikely they are to even reclaim their deposit, let alone win.

Of course, he could just have fiddled his expenses and pleaded guilty to false accounting :lol:

 

If I was Sinn Fein MP, you'd bet your life I'd do that one.... :lol: :lol:

 

The candidates for the election on June 9th are:

 

Paul Maskey - Sinn Fein

Alex Attwood - SDLP

Brian Kingston - DUP

Bill Manwaring - UUP

Aaron McIntyre - Alliance Party

Gerry Carroll - People Before Profit

 

Paul Maskey should walk this election no problem. Gerry Adams had a majority of 17,000 and with the exception of his death or lurid stories coming out in the press, Sinn Fein will get the seat comfortably (then refuse to sit in it)

Paul Maskey of Sinn Fein has been elected, taking 16,211 votes, 70.6% of all votes cast. Not a real shock there.

The lowest ever turnout for a byelection in NI.

I think the main reason for the low turnout is the fact that a Sinn Fein win seemed like such a foregone conclusion in the deeply nationalist West Belfast that many people just didn't think it was worth their effort voting. I was surprised to see People Before Profit come third and save their deposit.

People Before Profit won a couple seats in the Dail so they've got some support. I'm sure the fact that there was no doubt about the result led to a lot of people not bothering.