Stormont Assembly Elections 2017

[north_antrim_hound]

The Irish Language act only became an issue when Paul Givan ended/"couldn't find" the £50k funding. How many Programmes for Government have SF & DUP signed up for without an Irish Language act?

And how much did the election cost?

Wouldn't have cost anything if fister would have stepped down and her party would still have petition of concern

SDLP want her to step aside as well and rightly so
Shinners will always have some bashers and some of the criticism justified but to say they are no better than DUP i find laughable

No fan of the DUP myself, but the SF mantra about Respect, Integrity etc is a bit hard to swallow when you consider what the Republican movement was up to not too long ago.  Granted we should try to look forward, but the whiter than white impression taht they try to project is a bit OTT / hard to  take.

Well until an Irish version of ghandl comes along I don't know any party that's gonna challenge the DUP regime with the moral ethics required to some on here
I never supported SF when they were connected with the recent times you mentioned
But Mc Guinness walking out and refusing to work with them to they get their house in order was more than any other party done and a move that commanded my respect
Lesser of the two evils all day long in my view
If your looking for conventional politics you where born in the wrong place
DUP and their precious POC so they can delegate against minorities is not my idea of power sharing 

[AhNowRef]

actually think that SF should not have pushed the end of unionist domination point, subtly they should have pushed shared future, working together etc
then appeal to sdlp supporters that they need a bigger mandate to push the equality points etc

the way it is going they are now portrayed as the boogeyman and its playing into the united unionism hands
if we don't stick together you will be frog marched into a united Ireland

Yes, I think you're right.
It's very difficult to do though. It was a major talking point among journalists and very hard to play down a victory. it could back fire now though.

Unionists could seek another election and their only target is one or two more seats and it's a victory. it's easy to see where unionism went wrong in this election but it's not easy to see where nationalism went right. If SF bringing down Stromont was a boost to them, they've played that card. It's impossible to know if the nationalist community are angry. They had their vote and got a result. Is that anger still there? Have the DUP been punished enough?
You seen with the reaction to FF after the economy went tits up, the electorate felt they'd punished them enough very soon after that. Also, with the loss of the majority and the veto and the widely accepted fact that nesbitt made a mistake, it's hard to see Unionism transfer across as much in a new election.

If the Brits & Unionists collude (there's something we never thought of  ) re another election because the last one didnt suit them, then the Nationalists "should" be very very angry indeed .. how would we not be ... I would be totally gobsmacked if the nationalist vote didnt respond ..

[michaelg]

The Irish Language act only became an issue when Paul Givan ended/"couldn't find" the £50k funding. How many Programmes for Government have SF & DUP signed up for without an Irish Language act?

And how much did the election cost?

Wouldn't have cost anything if fister would have stepped down and her party would still have petition of concern

SDLP want her to step aside as well and rightly so
Shinners will always have some bashers and some of the criticism justified but to say they are no better than DUP i find laughable

No fan of the DUP myself, but the SF mantra about Respect, Integrity etc is a bit hard to swallow when you consider what the Republican movement was up to not too long ago.  Granted we should try to look forward, but the whiter than white impression taht they try to project is a bit OTT / hard to  take.

Well until an Irish version of ghandl comes along I don't know any party that's gonna challenge the DUP regime with the moral ethics required to some on here
I never supported SF when they were connected with the recent times you mentioned
But Mc Guinness walking out and refusing to work with them to they get their house in order was more than any other party done and a move that commanded my respect
Lesser of the two evils all day long in my view
If your looking for conventional politics you where born in the wrong place
DUP and their precious POC so they can delegate against minorities is not my idea of power sharing

Good post.  Couldn't agree more about the POC.  Excuse my ignorance, but how could the POC be removed?  Could its removal be included in any new agreement reached?

[AhNowRef]

So people complain that the media keep referring to NI politics and Green and Orange... the vast majority of this thread has been the same thing.

The odd post relates to education/jobs/welfare/hospital waiting lists/welbeing/infrastructure/wages/less tax on the poor more tax on the rich....

Dire stuff indeed.. get out and vote so that we can keep themus out!! Anyone who votes based on that is a clampit (IMHO) 

You are basically saying that the DUP & Sf are exactly the same ... Yet again that is simply not true ... SF weren't involved in "any" of the scandals (dont need to list them again) and even bent over backwards to keep big arnie in position .. but her intransigence, arrogance and just basic bitterness wouldnt allow her (them) to admit to it and take the necessary steps that would have to be taken in any other modern society..

And if the DUP, UUP & TUV etc.. want to dredge up the past and hold their noses etc.. why dont they do the same with all the loyalists they constantly have no issues associating with .. why dont the Orange Order have any issues with them either .. It also shouldnt need pointing out to them that Sf have moved a long long way and they ALL knew the legacy issues when they signed up to this but they just keep bringing us back .. Mind you, considering they seem to deny agreements that were made or renege on them at will seems to be par for the course for them..

EDIT - The DUP & Tory's didnt like the result so may well force another election .. Babies spitting the dummy out comes to mind ..
FFS the lovely uber DUP man Jim Allister basically said on radio yesterday that Stormont should be shut down for ever now as themuns are getting too close to a majority .. its like one football team beating another team for 100 years straight, getting all the prizes etc.. and then when the other team has the downright audacity of getting a draw (a bloody draw for christs sake  ) the first team huffs and says we're not playing you anymore, (cause ye might bate us  ) ... its feckin rediculous .. how do you do proper politics with a shower like that ?

Both sides are NOT the same and I have no problem voting for SF as long as they dont start behaving like the DUP .. then I would change immediately ..

The DUP & BrokenPromises have cobbled together what they think is a solution to their problems .. we end up getting trod upon yet again..
I sincerely hope it doesnt work out for them and if Im a clampit for getting p1ssed off the DUP then I hope to God Im not alone

(I do wish Adams would stay the feck off the TV though)

[AhNowRef]

The Irish Language act only became an issue when Paul Givan ended/"couldn't find" the £50k funding. How many Programmes for Government have SF & DUP signed up for without an Irish Language act?

And how much did the election cost?

Wouldn't have cost anything if fister would have stepped down and her party would still have petition of concern

SDLP want her to step aside as well and rightly so
Shinners will always have some bashers and some of the criticism justified but to say they are no better than DUP i find laughable

No fan of the DUP myself, but the SF mantra about Respect, Integrity etc is a bit hard to swallow when you consider what the Republican movement was up to not too long ago.  Granted we should try to look forward, but the whiter than white impression taht they try to project is a bit OTT / hard to  take.

Well until an Irish version of ghandl comes along I don't know any party that's gonna challenge the DUP regime with the moral ethics required to some on here
I never supported SF when they were connected with the recent times you mentioned
But Mc Guinness walking out and refusing to work with them to they get their house in order was more than any other party done and a move that commanded my respect
Lesser of the two evils all day long in my view
If your looking for conventional politics you where born in the wrong place
DUP and their precious POC so they can delegate against minorities is not my idea of power sharing

Agree with that 100% .. 

[AhNowRef]

The Irish Language act only became an issue when Paul Givan ended/"couldn't find" the £50k funding. How many Programmes for Government have SF & DUP signed up for without an Irish Language act?

And how much did the election cost?

Wouldn't have cost anything if fister would have stepped down and her party would still have petition of concern

SDLP want her to step aside as well and rightly so
Shinners will always have some bashers and some of the criticism justified but to say they are no better than DUP i find laughable

No fan of the DUP myself, but the SF mantra about Respect, Integrity etc is a bit hard to swallow when you consider what the Republican movement was up to not too long ago.  Granted we should try to look forward, but the whiter than white impression taht they try to project is a bit OTT / hard to  take.

Well until an Irish version of ghandl comes along I don't know any party that's gonna challenge the DUP regime with the moral ethics required to some on here
I never supported SF when they were connected with the recent times you mentioned
But Mc Guinness walking out and refusing to work with them to they get their house in order was more than any other party done and a move that commanded my respect
Lesser of the two evils all day long in my view
If your looking for conventional politics you where born in the wrong place
DUP and their precious POC so they can delegate against minorities is not my idea of power sharing

Good post.  Couldn't agree more about the POC.  Excuse my ignorance, but how could the POC be removed?  Could its removal be included in any new agreement reached?

It cant be removed, or at least it shouldnt .. its a very good thing when operated in its correct terms as it protects minorities ,,, it was never intended for the way the DUP abuse it .. i.e. Protecting (allegedly ) Corrupt DUP ministers & SPADs or vetoing any little thing that they dont 100% agree with like same sex marriage etc...

Maybe the terms of it can be altered to prohibit its abuse..

[Windmill abu]

The POC needs to be retained to prevent abuse of power by the majority over any number of minorities. But it should not be a veto, rather a protest which allows the decision to adjudicated upon by a higher authority. Possibly a British/Irish Judicial Council.

[Applesisapples]

Homeless don't vote,  small percentage of the poor vote while the  Gaeltacht hasn't many votes.
And of course Stew had to let out the xenophobia.
Try Identity Ireland for that sort of stuff.

Apples, Education is free unless you want to go to a rubby fee paying school.

Can you read? I did not say these were my concerns, nor did I say they were based on fact. But some so called nationalists have issues surrounding the provision of these and other benefits in a UI.

[Rossfan]

They're  living in the 60s still

[seafoid]

The Irish Language act only became an issue when Paul Givan ended/"couldn't find" the £50k funding. How many Programmes for Government have SF & DUP signed up for without an Irish Language act?

And how much did the election cost?

Wouldn't have cost anything if fister would have stepped down and her party would still have petition of concern

SDLP want her to step aside as well and rightly so
Shinners will always have some bashers and some of the criticism justified but to say they are no better than DUP i find laughable

No fan of the DUP myself, but the SF mantra about Respect, Integrity etc is a bit hard to swallow when you consider what the Republican movement was up to not too long ago.  Granted we should try to look forward, but the whiter than white impression taht they try to project is a bit OTT / hard to  take.

Well until an Irish version of ghandl comes along I don't know any party that's gonna challenge the DUP regime with the moral ethics required to some on here
I never supported SF when they were connected with the recent times you mentioned
But Mc Guinness walking out and refusing to work with them to they get their house in order was more than any other party done and a move that commanded my respect
Lesser of the two evils all day long in my view
If your looking for conventional politics you where born in the wrong place
DUP and their precious POC so they can delegate against minorities is not my idea of power sharing

Good post.  Couldn't agree more about the POC.  Excuse my ignorance, but how could the POC be removed?  Could its removal be included in any new agreement reached?

It cant be removed, or at least it shouldnt .. its a very good thing when operated in its correct terms as it protects minorities ,,, it was never intended for the way the DUP abuse it .. i.e. Protecting (allegedly ) Corrupt DUP ministers & SPADs or vetoing any little thing that they dont 100% agree with like same sex marriage etc...

Maybe the terms of it can be altered to prohibit its abuse..

A lot of the GFA Stormont mechanisms are out of date given the demographics  and the unionist capacity to do a reverse ferret for the sake of power.

NI doesnt need guaranteed cabinet seats for everyone. It can tolerate an opposition. It needs one now anyway because of Brexit.

1998 or whenever is a different world. Back then SF was a pariah . The mechanisms were set up to allow it to share it in power as a minority a long way from the scale of unionism.
Two things have changed.

All the "principled" Ulster Unionists like Foster and Donaldson who left the party  over SF ended up.working with them in the DUP. And the main unionist party is barely bigger than SF now. The conditions that allowed the Unionists to run a caste system no longer exist.

Stormont is stuck in a time warp.

[Avondhu star]

The POC needs to be retained to prevent abuse of power by the majority over any number of minorities. But it should not be a veto, rather a protest which allows the decision to adjudicated upon by a higher authority. Possibly a British/Irish Judicial Council.

Thats exactly what is needed, another bloody quango!
When the politicians from both sides enter puberty there may be progress but for the time being they can continue breastfeeding from their Westminster mammy

[Dougal Maguire]

The POC needs to be retained to prevent abuse of power by the majority over any number of minorities. But it should not be a veto, rather a protest which allows the decision to adjudicated upon by a higher authority. Possibly a British/Irish Judicial Council.

Yup, I see merit in that arrangement as long as both the British and Irish were involved in the process.

[Milltown Row2]

So people complain that the media keep referring to NI politics and Green and Orange... the vast majority of this thread has been the same thing.

The odd post relates to education/jobs/welfare/hospital waiting lists/welbeing/infrastructure/wages/less tax on the poor more tax on the rich....

Dire stuff indeed.. get out and vote so that we can keep themus out!! Anyone who votes based on that is a clampit (IMHO) 

You are basically saying that the DUP & Sf are exactly the same ... Yet again that is simply not true ... SF weren't involved in "any" of the scandals (dont need to list them again) and even bent over backwards to keep big arnie in position .. but her intransigence, arrogance and just basic bitterness wouldnt allow her (them) to admit to it and take the necessary steps that would have to be taken in any other modern society..

And if the DUP, UUP & TUV etc.. want to dredge up the past and hold their noses etc.. why dont they do the same with all the loyalists they constantly have no issues associating with .. why dont the Orange Order have any issues with them either .. It also shouldnt need pointing out to them that Sf have moved a long long way and they ALL knew the legacy issues when they signed up to this but they just keep bringing us back .. Mind you, considering they seem to deny agreements that were made or renege on them at will seems to be par for the course for them..

EDIT - The DUP & Tory's didnt like the result so may well force another election .. Babies spitting the dummy out comes to mind ..
FFS the lovely uber DUP man Jim Allister basically said on radio yesterday that Stormont should be shut down for ever now as themuns are getting too close to a majority .. its like one football team beating another team for 100 years straight, getting all the prizes etc.. and then when the other team has the downright audacity of getting a draw (a bloody draw for christs sake  ) the first team huffs and says we're not playing you anymore, (cause ye might bate us  ) ... its feckin rediculous .. how do you do proper politics with a shower like that ?

Both sides are NOT the same and I have no problem voting for SF as long as they dont start behaving like the DUP .. then I would change immediately ..

The DUP & BrokenPromises have cobbled together what they think is a solution to their problems .. we end up getting trod upon yet again..
I sincerely hope it doesnt work out for them and if Im a clampit for getting p1ssed off the DUP then I hope to God Im not alone

(I do wish Adams would stay the feck off the TV though)

I said nothing of the sort! I'm basically saying that I've not heard one proper policy from either crowd on the things I've mentioned... now in your twisted logic if that makes them the same then grand..

Give me a party that will tackle the main issues as that's what really matters

[Dougal Maguire]

When they were in government houses, schools, roads etc were built and maintained, a new major health strategy was drawn up, the vulnerable were protected through NI specific changes to the welfare reform measures. Is that not enough to be getting on with.

[Milltown Row2]

When they were in government houses, schools, roads etc were built and maintained, a new major health strategy was drawn up, the vulnerable were protected through NI specific changes to the welfare reform measures. Is that not enough to be getting on with.

So you're satisfied with how our politicians have performed then? Good man