I know the basics about the troubles. My dad was from Southern Ireland so I'm half Irish, could get an Irish passport if I wanted. We were once in a pub in Dublin before we got the ferry home and exactly 7 days later it was bombed by the IRA.

Edited December 11, 20195 yr by Crazy Chris-tmas

You should really get a European passport then Chris :P

You should really get a European passport then Chris :P

 

 

LOL. Stop stirring. :heehee:

Liberty/freedom/equality!!

I don't understand why Labour don't stand in NI?

The party is organised here but they aren't allowed to stand for Westminster according to the nec.

 

They generally avoid the border issue which is a vote loser here.

 

The SDLP and SF both take the progressive social democrat position here.

And is it the same for the Tories and Lib Dems?

The Lib Dems aren't organised at all in NI but consider the Alliance apart as their sister party here. The tories organise and stand but barely get a few hundred votes in certain constituencies, the most in North Down or South Belfast.

 

Their views are taken up by the 2/3 unionist parties.

 

Indeed before the nationalist vs unionist arguement from the 1860s the nationalist or Catholics throughout the island were represented by the gladstonian liberals and the unionist Protestant people were represented by the Tory party. In the elections of the 1860/70s the political divide was liberal throughout the south and west while the north and east which is now NI were dominated by Tory mps( also a few tories in posh Dublin seats and the universities). Then this changed from 1870 onwards to unionist and nationalist nearly along exactly the same divide.

 

 

There is such a thing as the Northern Ireland Conservative Party but they're notionally independent from the GB party and they've not had much success. The Tories have historical ties with the UUP and, recently, the DUP.

 

Alliance are basically a sister party of the Lib Dems.

 

SDLP are pretty similar to Labour and would usually support a Labour government if necessary.

So why is Labour not allowed to stand for parliament there, but it's okay for the Tories?

It's to do with the Labour NEC not allowing it as they want to the SDLP to stand for their views. It's wrong tho!

Alliance are saying that they're close to the DUP in North Down! That would be significant.

Good news at last!

The election felt quite different for Northern Ireland as a whole. If I'm reading it right, there was less of the 'stop DUP/stop Sinn Féin' motivation that can sometimes take hold of both communities respectively, which in fact leads to large voteshares for both, such as in 2017.

 

People seemed to have turned against both of them and felt much less hesitant about voting for more moderate parties. Alliance and SDLP did very well (although Naomi Long in Belfast East didn't do too well when you compare elsewhere), the UUP less so. Even safe seats might be vaguely vulnerable next election: Alliance's growth at the DUP's expense in Lagan Valley was stunning.

Edited December 13, 20195 yr by Harve

Yeh I can see Stormont coming back in 2020 now...

The election felt quite different for Northern Ireland as a whole. If I'm reading it right, there was less of the 'stop DUP/stop Sinn Féin' motivation that can sometimes take hold of both communities respectively, which in fact leads to large voteshares for both, such as in 2017.

 

People seemed to have turned against both of them and felt much less hesitant about voting for more moderate parties. Alliance and SDLP did very well (although Naomi Long in Belfast East didn't do too well when you compare elsewhere), the UUP less so. Even safe seats might be vaguely vulnerable next election: Alliance's growth at the DUP's expense in Lagan Valley was stunning.

 

Indeed our very own 'red wall' in NI (DUP is often represented on the map with the colour red) may soon be at risk of going the same way as the Labour one did. The massively increased Alliance vote was largely a anti-Brexit protest vote from some usually DUP voting unionists.

I would say a lot of them might stay with Alliance in future though, the dup have to look to move forward more progressively instead of he old bigoted mentality of the 1960s or they will lose their power and possibly country.