6 County Assembly Elections - 5th May 2022

[general_lee]

poots just said they will have mulltiple elections untill they get what they want and they are not backing down

Backward, idiotic, delusional, dangerous, arrogant self important bastards. The two sides of the same coin narrative about Sinn Fein being every bit as bad as this shower needs to die. How they ever managed to power share with that shower is an absolute credit to them.

100%

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

Aye, it's completely the same. No financial scandals or reneging on agreements after consulting with the local brigadier down the lodge or anything. Although I do agree with your last two sentences

[Armagh18]

poots just said they will have mulltiple elections untill they get what they want and they are not backing down

Backward, idiotic, delusional, dangerous, arrogant self important bastards. The two sides of the same coin narrative about Sinn Fein being every bit as bad as this shower needs to die. How they ever managed to power share with that shower is an absolute credit to them.

100%

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

Totally different as well you know. 100% pay cut would be more appropriate.

[seafoid]

Hard to know what will happen.

As I say, what will the EU do/can do?

Seems to me that the brits can do whatever they like with an international agreement (that they negoiated, signed up to and passed in law etc.) and there'll be no punishment.

It's high risk for the UK and DUP
The DUP rejected 3 different backstop and now says no Protocol. International trade doesn't work like that.

[Franko]

poots just said they will have mulltiple elections untill they get what they want and they are not backing down

Backward, idiotic, delusional, dangerous, arrogant self important bastards. The two sides of the same coin narrative about Sinn Fein being every bit as bad as this shower needs to die. How they ever managed to power share with that shower is an absolute credit to them.

100%

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

If you remove all context, then yes, the two actions were the same.

But only a clown would assess a situation without context.

[trailer]

poots just said they will have mulltiple elections untill they get what they want and they are not backing down

Backward, idiotic, delusional, dangerous, arrogant self important bastards. The two sides of the same coin narrative about Sinn Fein being every bit as bad as this shower needs to die. How they ever managed to power share with that shower is an absolute credit to them.

100%

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

Aye, it's completely the same. No financial scandals or reneging on agreements after consulting with the local brigadier down the lodge or anything. Although I do agree with your last two sentences

Yes different reasons but same tactic.

[trueblue1234]

Hard to know what will happen.

As I say, what will the EU do/can do?

Seems to me that the brits can do whatever they like with an international agreement (that they negoiated, signed up to and passed in law etc.) and there'll be no punishment.

If the UK reneges on the withdrawal agreement then the EU can impose sanctions. They would carefully design some sanction which would hit England, there is zero enthusiasm for any hardship in England in this matter. But the French could simply withdraw some customs men for "training" and create a queue for a few days.
There was a reason London signed this Protocol in the first place, they need some kind of trade agreement with the EU.

This is the thing. As disastrous as it would be in the short term for here, I think the EU have to go hard if the UK rip up the protocol. The EU have bent over backwards (without making a complete mockery of their own membership) to try and be accommodating and the UK have thrown it all back in their faces. They should come out and say "these are your options, this is the consequence of each option so you pick what you want. There are no other options and we can not negotiate with a country that reneges on their agreements. "
After whatever number of years now, surely all discussions have been had. I think they need to start be sharper with the UK in their public announcements and not let the UK push this line that the EU are being the protagonists. 

Unfortunately the sh*t show that will follow will affect us all across the island.

[Snapchap]

poots just said they will have mulltiple elections untill they get what they want and they are not backing down

Backward, idiotic, delusional, dangerous, arrogant self important bastards. The two sides of the same coin narrative about Sinn Fein being every bit as bad as this shower needs to die. How they ever managed to power share with that shower is an absolute credit to them.

100%

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

Aye, it's completely the same. No financial scandals or reneging on agreements after consulting with the local brigadier down the lodge or anything. Although I do agree with your last two sentences

Yes different reasons but same tactic.

Except it's not really the same, is it? Consider the reasons for the two collapses. The DUP are refusing to form an executive because they aren't getting their way on the scrapping of the protocol, even though 55% of parties elected do not want it scrapped.

When SF pulled the pin, the DUP had been repeatedly blocking a piece of language legislation that the DUP had agreed to implement as a pre-condition for power sharing (as per the St Andrews Agreement) and a piece of legislation that the majority of parties and MLAs supported being introduced. If SF had agreed to scrap the Protocol in advance of going into the executive, then upon the formation of the executive, blocked the protocol scrapping at every turn, then you could start to talk comparisons.

SF also pulled the pin because the DUP leader refused to take responsibility for her mismanagement of the RHI scheme which cost the taxpayer around £500m. SF and Martin McGuinness actually made every effort to keep the assembly in place by scaling back their demand for resignations to merely asking Foster to step aside on a temporary basis, to allow an investigation. A fairly modest request given the circumstances, but not one the DUP would accept. Are you trying to suggest that there a parallel to that going on now? Are you suggesting the DUP tried every possible avenue to avoid the collapse, as McGuinness/SF did in 2017? You may remember McGuinness being visibly upset at the course of action he had to take purely because the DUP couldn't meet him half way. Are you suggesting Jeffrey tried his very best to keep the assembly going this time? And that he was genuinely emotionally upset at having collapsed it?

[yellowcard]

Both the DUP and the ERG/Tories want rid of the protocol for differing reasons. The DUP for identity reasons as they think it dilutes their Britishness. They are being totally disingenuous when they try and present it as detrimental to the NI economy. It is guarding us against the worst excesses of Brexit and opens up plenty of investment opportunity since the north has access to both markets. However there will be many companies who may consider investing in the north but will be holding off at present until they can be sure of the final Brexit outcome. So already the economy will be losing out on inward investment because of the instability. The DUP should just admit they are doing it for perceived constitutional reasons only and not for economic reasons, however that is not very likely to happen.

The Tories on the other hand I believe, want this instability and uncertaintly to continue. They do not want the north to flourish whilst their economy is continuing to perform very poorly since Brexit. A successful protocol would only serve to highlight the folly of Brexit.

Therefore we have a large minority of people (the DUP) who want everybody here to feel the worst effects of Brexit as those in England, Scotland and Wales.. Just as long as they are able to feel just as British as those in Finchley due to an invisible limited sea border.   

[93-DY-SAM]

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

Aye, it's completely the same. No financial scandals or reneging on agreements after consulting with the local brigadier down the lodge or anything. Although I do agree with your last two sentences

You cannot compare the two situations. SF collapsed the Assembly (for far too long IMHO) because of one of the biggest financial scandals to hit these islands overseen by the DUP which to this day has been swept under the carpet and there has been no real accountability. Further to that, language legislation for Irish and Ulster Scots was agreed as part of St. Andrew's but years later the DUP are still blocking something they agreed to. And yet again with the Protocol, we have the DUP reneging on something else they signed up to. All because their Loyalist taskmasters said so.

One thing for sure is that the DUP & TUV don't care one iota for the welfare of their ordinary voters sucked in by their lies. They are the ones who will pay the price for this when the cost of living gets much worse. Jeff / Jim and their mates won't be the ones scrambling around for a few quid to feed their families and pay the bills. Everything else can go to hell so long as the Union trumps everything else. For things to get better here it will need to get a hell of a lot worse first. I don't think we have even hit rock bottom yet.

You are 100% right on the pay cut.

[Milltown Row2]

The DUP will be there on Friday to sign up to their payments/wages that is.... They should ensure that doesn't happen, but no doubt the rules will have it that they can't stop their money and I wonder who made these rules up? Hmmmm

[tiempo]

poots just said they will have mulltiple elections untill they get what they want and they are not backing down

Backward, idiotic, delusional, dangerous, arrogant self important bastards. The two sides of the same coin narrative about Sinn Fein being every bit as bad as this shower needs to die. How they ever managed to power share with that shower is an absolute credit to them.

100%

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

Aye, it's completely the same. No financial scandals or reneging on agreements after consulting with the local brigadier down the lodge or anything. Although I do agree with your last two sentences

Yes different reasons but same tactic.

That settles the good IRA/bad IRA debate then, they're both good or both bad, you got the balls to declare?

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

poots just said they will have mulltiple elections untill they get what they want and they are not backing down

Backward, idiotic, delusional, dangerous, arrogant self important bastards. The two sides of the same coin narrative about Sinn Fein being every bit as bad as this shower needs to die. How they ever managed to power share with that shower is an absolute credit to them.

100%

SF did use the same tactic if we're being totally honest now. That is coming back to bite them.
What should happen is that any party refusing to nominate FM/DFM those MLAs should take a 2/3rd pay cut. Would focus minds.

Aye, it's completely the same. No financial scandals or reneging on agreements after consulting with the local brigadier down the lodge or anything. Although I do agree with your last two sentences

Yes different reasons but same tactic.

Except it's not really the same, is it? Consider the reasons for the two collapses. The DUP are refusing to form an executive because they aren't getting their way on the scrapping of the protocol, even though 55% of parties elected do not want it scrapped.

When SF pulled the pin, the DUP had been repeatedly blocking a piece of language legislation that the DUP had agreed to implement as a pre-condition for power sharing (as per the St Andrews Agreement) and a piece of legislation that the majority of parties and MLAs supported being introduced. If SF had agreed to scrap the Protocol in advance of going into the executive, then upon the formation of the executive, blocked the protocol scrapping at every turn, then you could start to talk comparisons.

SF also pulled the pin because the DUP leader refused to take responsibility for her mismanagement of the RHI scheme which cost the taxpayer around £500m. SF and Martin McGuinness actually made every effort to keep the assembly in place by scaling back their demand for resignations to merely asking Foster to step aside on a temporary basis, to allow an investigation. A fairly modest request given the circumstances, but not one the DUP would accept. Are you trying to suggest that there a parallel to that going on now? Are you suggesting the DUP tried every possible avenue to avoid the collapse, as McGuinness/SF did in 2017? You may remember McGuinness being visibly upset at the course of action he had to take purely because the DUP couldn't meet him half way. Are you suggesting Jeffrey tried his very best to keep the assembly going this time? And that he was genuinely emotionally upset at having collapsed it?

Everyone still got paid didn't they? 15 million quid or there abouts. BTW they went back in with no Irish language act and no resolution to RHI. WTf was it all about, meanwhile our health service went into further infrastructural decline. People have a very short memories

[trailer]

The mental gymnastics on this thread is frightening. SF collapsed the Assembly and kept it down by not appointing a DFM. The DUP are doing exactly the same and SF will have to accept that. You can justify the reasons all you want but those are the facts. And to cap it all off SF went back into government after 3 years having achieved precisely none of their aims.

[Snapchap]

Everyone still got paid didn't they?

They did. And I'd support paying them. Just not the full amount. Sitting in an assembly chamber is only a fraction of an MLA's workload. Most devote their time to constituency work and their constituency work still goes on, and their office staff still need paid.

BTW they went back in with no Irish language act and no resolution to RHI. WTf was it all about, meanwhile our health service went into further infrastructural decline. People have a very short memories

On an Irish Language Act - They went back in with a commitment to enact language legislation with insurance from the government - would you prefer they didn't, is that it?
On RHI "not being resolved" - WTF do you mean by "resolved? How could it have been "resolved"? The damage was done - the money gone. There was no "resolution". SF were only asking Foster to step aside for the duration of an inquiry. Since she wouldn't do so, SF removed her from office.

All that is besides the point though, isn't it? The debate was whether the two collapses were essentially for the same reasons. Are you suggesting they are? Are SF currently reneging from a previous commitment to scrap the protocol? Did the DUP just collapse it because SF were suspected of corruption/mismanagement of a £500m energy scheme?

SF collapsed the assembly when the DUP blocked legislation that was supported by a majority of parties & MLAs. The DUP have collapsed it because they want a piece of legislation brought it which is opposed by by a majority of parties & MLAs. It takes some chip on the shoulder about SF to pretend that those are the same reasons for a collapse.

[Snapchap]

The mental gymnastics on this thread is frightening. SF collapsed the Assembly and kept it down by not appointing a DFM. The DUP are doing exactly the same and SF will have to accept that. You can justify the reasons all you want but those are the facts. And to cap it all off SF went back into government after 3 years having achieved precisely none of their aims.

How is it mental gymnastics? As you yourself said, the tactic (collapse) is the same, but crucially, that the reasons were different. Interesting that despite accepting that he reasons are different, you don't want to get into a discussion about just how vastly different those reasons really are.

Like all good SDLP folk, you are over-keen to play the "two parties are as bad as eachother" card, but not so keen to be challenged on the details to back up the proposition.