Sinn Fein? They have gone away, you know.

[imtommygunn]

I do think the DUP have basically stuck the boot in with Beattie and yes you're right. It's the usual - SF vs DUP. Depressing.

[Snapchap]

People are entitled to vote for SF, the DUP, or whomever. The constitutional issue is the single greatest political issue we face in the north. Everything else - health, economics etc depends on how it is resolved. You can't therefor expect people not to vote for the parties they feel best represent their stance on that issue. Wanting a united Ireland is not sectarian. Wanting union with Britain is not sectarian. Voting for the parties which you feel best protect your interest in that regard, is not sectarian.

Lazily terming the strength of SF and DUP as a "sectarian headcount" is just SDLP-esque analysis - 'if you don't vote for us, you're a big sectarian'.

Pure nonsense.

[RedHand88]

Never understood the whole "we have to make NI work first".

Why? It's been proven extensively that a statelet so small is completely incapable of "working".

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

People are entitled to vote for SF, the DUP, or whomever. The constitutional issue is the single greatest political issue we face in the north. Everything else - health, economics etc depends on how it is resolved. You can't therefor expect people not to vote for the parties they feel best represent their stance on that issue. Wanting a united Ireland is not sectarian. Wanting union with Britain is not sectarian. Voting for the parties which you feel best protect your interest in that regard, is not sectarian.

Lazily terming the strength of SF and DUP as a "sectarian headcount" is just SDLP-esque analysis - 'if you don't vote for us, you're a big sectarian'.

Pure nonsense.

My point is both sides have people who haven't a clue about policies but will vote to ensure the other doesn't get first minister.

[Denn Forever]

I'd say it is the UK government that is worried as the Welsh That may break up the UK. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-58954054

[Snapchap]

People are entitled to vote for SF, the DUP, or whomever. The constitutional issue is the single greatest political issue we face in the north. Everything else - health, economics etc depends on how it is resolved. You can't therefor expect people not to vote for the parties they feel best represent their stance on that issue. Wanting a united Ireland is not sectarian. Wanting union with Britain is not sectarian. Voting for the parties which you feel best protect your interest in that regard, is not sectarian.

Lazily terming the strength of SF and DUP as a "sectarian headcount" is just SDLP-esque analysis - 'if you don't vote for us, you're a big sectarian'.

Pure nonsense.

My point is both sides have people who haven't a clue about policies but will vote to ensure the other doesn't get first minister.

Surely the First Minister sideshow had been a debate entirely within unionism? It's the unionist parties that have been challenging each other to state if they would work in the Assembly under a SF First Minister.

SF have often suggested they would change the titles to Joint First Ministers if they were to get the opportunity. Certainly I have never heard of anyone giving the First Minister role reason for wanting to vote SF. Besides, this is the first time SF are in with a genuine shout at becoming first minister, yet the lazy bullsh1t line of "sectarian head-count" has been fired at them and the DUP by people (SDLP in particular) going back a heck of a lot longer.

[armaghniac]

Woman overboard
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/politics/arid-40816254.html

It seems to me that Violet-Anne Wynne was not exactly traditional SF and she likely didn't fully fit in with the cult and likely wouldn't in any party. 
I expect though that Jim Allister will say that she left because she as a Protestant!

[Rossfan]

There must be as many Shinner "gene pool" Independents now as Blueshirt and Builders Party ones?

[armaghniac]

The Irish Times today notes the SF has not only changed its tune on Russia, but have deleted a lot of "outdated" statements from their website that do not suit the new position. There doesn't seem to be much reflection on why they ever supported Russia.

Among the pronouncements Sinn Féin presumably wishes to forget are then-MEP Lynn Boylan's suggestion in 2019 that the EU was being "overly confrontational" towards Russia. Four years earlier, Boylan joined the party's other MEPs in abstaining on an "unbalanced" resolution condemning rights abuses in Russia and criticising Russia's annexation of Crimea.

In 2018, party leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed Ireland had breached its military neutrality when it expelled a Russian diplomat after Russia's deployment of a chemical weapon in England. Former foreign affairs spokesman Seán Crowe called for the abolition of Nato, a "Cold War relic" whose positions "have always been wrong".

[general_lee]

It's interesting how newsworthy this is, in comparison to other parties doing the exact same.

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

the party has been infiltrated by communists a long time ago

[armaghniac]

It's interesting how newsworthy this is, in comparison to other parties doing the exact same.

Which other parties of any use abstained on the vote condemning the Russian invasion of Crimea?
I genuinely want to know so I can avoid them too.

[general_lee]

It's interesting how newsworthy this is, in comparison to other parties doing the exact same.

Which other parties of any use abstained on the vote condemning the Russian invasion of Crimea?
I genuinely want to know so I can avoid them too.

Do you think a party changing positions is good or bad?

[Fear Bun Na Sceilpe]

It's interesting how newsworthy this is, in comparison to other parties doing the exact same.

Which other parties of any use abstained on the vote condemning the Russian invasion of Crimea?
I genuinely want to know so I can avoid them too.

Do you think a party changing positions is good or bad?

Must be good for SF anyhow because they were anti EU few years back as well

[RedHand88]

Id have thought a party changing position was a good thing and was something to be commended, particularly in the light of an unprovoked invasion.
To do so otherwise shows stubbornness.
Yet trash will try to make a story out of something because folks who dislike SF will lap the story up and buy their newspaper, increasing circulation numbers and advertising revenue.

Maybe these people would prefer SF were like the TUV?