Messages

In our house we all went with the opposition:  1.SDLP   2.UUP   3.Green   4. Alliance in West Tyrone

[Do the Ukraine government fly the Russian flag because a certain percentage of Ukrainians are of Russian extraction?]

So what "equality" do nationalists not have at the minute ? Curious and not trolling

Just my opinion but I feel that the DUP and a large cohort of UUP supporters don't regard my Irish identity as equal to their British and don't regard my desire/aspiration for a United Ireland as equal to theirs to remain a part of the UK, my flag doesn't fly over any public building and I live my life almost totally framed in a "Northern Ireland" context because that's the official position.

Remember, you cannot legislate to change someone's opinion.

Northern Ireland is where you live like it or not. Why do you expect the flag of a foreign country to be given the same status as the flag of the UK.
Do the Ukraine government fly the Russian flag because a certain percentage of Ukrainians are of Russian extraction?
Your attraction to another country can be solved by going to live there. Otherwise continue where you are until a majority there believe that they would be better off in a united Ireland. Thats the G.F.A. position Gerry and the boys accepted

Is that you Arlene??  I am not of Irish "extraction".  I am Irish.

You are an Irish citizen.

Absolutely excellent!

RHTOM, what is ur suspicion? do you think a tyrone senior player actually sent this email?

I've nothing to base this on but my gut instinct tells me that no player sent an email. There are factions at county board level and I suspect this could be one of them trying to stir it up and expose things that are normally kept quiet.

An article which appears to explain financial problems but then goes into the area of player issues..........

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/money-isnt-everything-but-it-would-damn-help-tyrone-face-150000-postbrexit-extra-bill-for-training-centre-35488469.html

Farmers should look to N.Zealand to see what will happen outside the EU.  When NZ was cut off by UK when it joined the single market, its farmers lost all subsidies and the industry was allowed to drift until it found its own level.  While farms in NZ are fairly large, those in N.Ireland are relatively small and less likely to survive without EU subsidies.

UK government cares little for its agriculture industry, its first concern is the provision of low cost food regardless of quality.  It can import food cheaply and of lower quality under the guise of removal of regulations.  Any rise in food prices is immediately a cause for concern for the government given the unrest it will bring and the rise in inflation.  So, imports will replace subsidised food from local farmers.  Farmers only need to look at the power of the supermarkets with the milk industry as an example.

I might be talkin shite but if there is an irish language act would mean that it can be offered as a GCSE subject in the schools instead of French etc.

Irish has and always had equal status in the N.Ireland curriculum with any other modern European language. In fact, it has been possible for some time to take the GSCE in Irish Literature for those children whose skills in Irish exceeded GCSE Irish.

Irish has never been discriminated against by any curricular regulations.  Irish in many schools has been rejected by parents and pupils where it has been offered as an alternative to any other modern European language.  In some schools the numbers taking Irish has dwindled to class sizes that are no longer economically viable and the numbers taking Irish for A level has been reduced to zero in  schools where it had been.  The reasons for the decline of Irish are many but it is strange where the interest in the language outside schools and through IM schools has never been greater.  It has to be said that when all languages are offered in a non-compulsory manner from Year 11 onwards then there has been a serious decline in the numbers taking all of them. 

Having an Irish Act will not impinge on schools.

[Early warning to Tony Fearon!]

Early warning to Tony Fearon!

When booking your hotel for the All Ireland football weekend, please note the final will be on the last Sunday in August in 2018.

[Alliance Kellie Armstrong]

Peter Weir a shambles on the Nolan radio show this morning.  Stumbling through most of it - hard to believe he is a former barrister

That interview wasn't a car crash, it was a mass pile up.  It was actually worse than Chris Hazzard's last time on the economy. I've never heard the DUP as bad at communicating as they have been since the RHI came to the fore.  In any normal society they'd get about 10 votes.  Incredibly and unfortunately they'll probably be the biggest party.

Peter Weir is in serious trouble.  He was moved from his current constituency of North Down into Strangford to replace Jonathan Bell but Bell will retain much of his support.  This will mean that he is competing for a seat against fellow ministers Simon Hamilton and Michelle McIlveen. One DUP minister will fall.

Strangford Candidates:
Alliance   Kellie Armstrong      
UUP   Mike Nesbitt      
UUP   Philip Smith   
Ind.   Jonathan Bell      
DUP   Simon Hamilton      
DUP   Michelle McIlveen      
Green (NI)   Ricky Bamford      
NI Conservatives   Scott Benton      
SDLP   Joe Boyle      
TUV   Stephen Cooper      
Sinn Féin   Dermot Kennedy      
Independent   Jimmy Menagh         
DUP   Peter Weir

This was a tight constituency in 2016 with a quota of just 4,663, only Nesbitt and McIlveen scraped quotas and all parties needing transfers from those eliminated.

Yeah, I smell a rat .. they were visibly crapping themselves about this a few days ago and now this ... its all a bit too sanitary 

You have to be in the mindset of the DUP to understand why they were concerned about the donation.  First of all it was £200K more than was being considered a scandal and secondly the average core DUP supporter is in middle to later life and usually a parsimonious, God fearing individual.  So their true fear was how their hardcore supporter would react.  Hence the spin that it was a move to retain the union when it had nothing to do with the union.

They are admitting to retain £9K of the donation for their own use.

The DUP are saying that they spent it all on the leave campain. Don't believe that for one second. They really have been looking after themselves while the rest of the people have been made to suffer

Look's like it was all raised and spent. 

Here's how they spent it:

£890.00    17/06/2016   Oasis Design Studio   A3 Ash Building, Willowbank Business Park, Larne, BT40 2SF,
£600.00    17/06/2016   Independent News and Media Ltd   124-144 Royal Avenue, Belfast, BT1 1EB
£99,616.00    10/06/2016   Soopa Doopa   Richmond House, Broad Street, Ely, CB7 4AH,
£3,120.00    17/06/2016   Independent News and Media Ltd   124-144 Royal Avenue, Belfast, BT1 1EB,
£1,800.00    22/06/2016   Independent News and Media Ltd   124-144 Royal Avenue, Belfast, BT1 1EB,
£32,750.73    20/06/2016   Aggregate IQ   240-560 Johnson Street, Victoria, V8W 3C6, Canada
£2,570.40    17/06/2016   Johnston Publishing   2 Esky Drive, Portadown, BT63 5YY,
£108.00    22/06/2016   Alpha Newspaper Group   Unit 179 Moygashel Mills, Dungannon, BT71 7HB,
£90.00    22/06/2016   Alpha Newspaper Group   Unit 179 Moygashel Mills, Dungannon, BT71 7HB,
£432.00    22/06/2016   Tapestry   51-52 Frith Street, London, W1D 4SH, United Kingdom
£282,000.00    21/06/2016   Associated Newspapers Ltd   A&N Media Finance Services, PO Box 6795, Leicester, LE1 1ZP
£1,645.00    14/06/2016   Belfast Mall and Marketing   Suite 2, 100 University Street, Belfast, BT7 1HE,

[Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P. £425,622]

Just look at how much DUP spent compared to others:

From the Electoral Commission:

Leave campaigners   Reported spend (£)

Brexit Express   £630,236
Democracy Movement   £421,308
Democratic Unionist Party - D.U.P.   £425,622
Labour Leave Limited   £494,897
Leave.EU Group Ltd   £693,022
Mr Peter Harris   £421,433
UK Independence Party (UKIP)   £1,354,393
Vote Leave Limited   £6,789,892
WAGTV Limited   £303,623

Leave total   £11,534,426

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/journalist/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-donations/details-of-major-campaign-spending-during-eu-referendum-published-by-electoral-commission

[Issues under consideration]

Looks like trouble ahead for those donating and spending money in the referendum:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39075244

From the Electoral Commission:

Issues under consideration

Issues under consideration include the following, although further issues involving these or other campaigners may come to light:

Both the lead campaigners – The IN Campaign Limited ('Britain Stronger in Europe') and Vote Leave Limited – do not appear to have delivered all the necessary invoices and receipts to support their returns. There are also issues with the delivery of all the details required in the return, including supplier details for a number of payments. The Liberal Democrats spending return also appears to be missing some details including invoices, receipts and supplier names.
One campaigner, the European Movement of the UK Limited, declared a total spend of £329,000 but has supplied payment details of only £290,000.
Two campaigners, Labour Leave and the UK Independence Party submitted returns with discrepancies in the way they reported the same campaigning activity.
One campaigner, Mr Peter Harris, delivered his spending return late and without the required audit report. Another campaigner, Conservatives IN, appears to have delivered a donation report late.
The Commission has not yet determined whether any offences have been committed in respect of these issues.

SF voters are generally as much plumpers as any unionist, they won't even transfer a vote to any other non-unionist for fear of allowing any progress other than for their own party.

I think that's an inaccurate analysis TYP.

In the 2016 election, SF voters transferred 21,672 votes. 
Alliance got 768, Cons 1, DUP 111, Greens 878, Independents 83, PBP 67, PUP 10, SDLP 3049, SF 15,687, TUV 11, UKIP 31, UUP 224, WP 750.

72% of SF transferred votes went to SF candidates.  Only 14% to SDLP and 13% to non-nationalist parties.

61% of DUP transferred to DUP.

What was the sdlp transfer rate?

SDLP voters transferred 15,202 votes.
Alliance got 4,143, Cons 2, DUP 379, Greens 1,566, Independents 386, PBP 615, SDLP 5,092, SF 2,083, TUV 17, UKIP 34, UUP 759, WP 126.

34% of SDLP transferred to SDLP
13% of SDLP transferred to SF

The SDLP only ran 24 candidates so in most constituencies they would have just had 1 candidate. SF ran 39 so they would have much more opportunity to transfer to another SF candidate.

That's why percentages are more relevant.

SF got 166,785 1st pref votes and transferred 21,672 - 13% which is poor vote management given the number of constituencies with two or more SF candidates as only 15,687 SF voters transferred to the party's other candidates.

Only 3.3% Of SF voters transferred to other parties, i.e. just over 96% of SF voters plumped for SF.

SF voters are generally as much plumpers as any unionist, they won't even transfer a vote to any other non-unionist for fear of allowing any progress other than for their own party.

I think that's an inaccurate analysis TYP.

In the 2016 election, SF voters transferred 21,672 votes. 
Alliance got 768, Cons 1, DUP 111, Greens 878, Independents 83, PBP 67, PUP 10, SDLP 3049, SF 15,687, TUV 11, UKIP 31, UUP 224, WP 750.

72% of SF transferred votes went to SF candidates.  Only 14% to SDLP and 13% to non-nationalist parties.

61% of DUP transferred to DUP.

What was the sdlp transfer rate?

SDLP voters transferred 15,202 votes.
Alliance got 4,143, Cons 2, DUP 379, Greens 1,566, Independents 386, PBP 615, SDLP 5,092, SF 2,083, TUV 17, UKIP 34, UUP 759, WP 126.

34% of SDLP transferred to SDLP
13% of SDLP transferred to SF