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The SF representatives mentioned are stepping down at the next election so again no bye election required.

Gildernew is contesting the European seat in June. Will she step down if elected? She should, but with Westminster election one a few months later I wonder would there be any point.

My understanding is dual mandates are not permitted so she would have to resign. Bye election would depend on if a general election was to be within the 3 months of resignation.

With General Election looming surely now the DUP are looking over there shoulders in South Antrim, East Belfast and now Lagan Valley.

Regarding FST - Sinn Fein will need a strong candidate to hold that seat. No doubt they face a unity Unionist Candidate with it going to the wire.

Will they just wait till the next election or will him stepping down generate a by-election ?

It should generate a by election but will anyone be in a hurry to do this?
Sorcha Eastwood's chances much improved.

If the DUP lose 2 Westminster seats and presuming the Shinners don't a single unionist party will be imperative 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_MPs_for_constituencies_in_Northern_Ireland_(2019%E2%80%93present)

Can someone correct me if I am wrong that they can survive a by-election being called as we are in Election year? Michelle Gildernew, Micky Brady and Francie Molly all stepping down there seats but no by-elections.

However if a by-election is called in Lagan Valley Alliance will need lot to go there way - turnout would need to strong and most by elections turnout figures aren't great.

Want to get a present for someone. Tickets to punchestown in April. What is the best day of the festival?

The Punchestown Gold Cup day or Champion Hurdle usually good days and also you have chance to see some top class horses if they stay fit and well which will feature in those races.

Hard to know if independents will make any impact apart from Sugden and Easton?

Any others?

But could take votes away from the maon parties to make a difference in them not getting the fifth seat.

A lot of momentum behind the Easton campaign in North Down, But would he return to the DUP if they ended on equal seats with SF?

I would feel the same about cornering and all the countries giving arms to Ukraine is not going to help but what do you do. The man is insane. I almost wonder would someone from within stop him too. We can only hope

So truss was the one who made him play the nuclear card. Is there no end to the damage tories do

I am surprised USA hasn't given Ukraine a Iron Dome missile system or THAAD missile defence system which Israel and South Korea have. Also have the Russian not learnt from the invasion of Afghanistan in the 80's??

Jesus what a complete shambles of a season, not even a old firm win to our name and not even a cup. It's now quickly turned from Celts 80% certs to win the league to Rangers 70% going into next season. The longer and longer this Howe decision sits is worrying for us Celts, unfortunately now I have given up hope on getting Eddie. The board should simply be giving Eddie whatever he needs money wise and fresh new backroom team. But again I worry for the Celts with the situation at the minute, we end up with Keane or another useless manager who be gone in year. For all the younger users who may not of supported club through times of Gers 9 in a row in 90s, get ready for history to repeat itself if this mess isn't sorted as the gers are only growing stronger!!

Its very depressing to think that once great venue is now lying how it is.

Theres been lots of faults all along the way in this from the start of the process to now. Closing down Casement while we waited on a planning application to be done and submitted etc was silly. the ground should of been kept open until the last moments.

Was there a public consultation done on the project? Not sure if one was done at that time to gauge the local response to the scheme designs for the ground. I have always got the feeling that the money was there - we all took it and never for once though it all through at all. Just get it done and built seemed to be the thought process.

The balls up made with the health and safety side of things for the fire escapes, large crowd evacuations etc. All signs that the project was just being pushed through to get that public money spent and get it built.

The complete shambles made with the original planning decision. I mean ffs i have a handling sometimes trying to get a house passed for planning through my work and have to jump through hoops just for that to be done lol

The on going mess with the local residents and their concerns. Should of been sorted right back at the very start with a public consultation and meetings for have that all in place before it got into Planning.

There's little can be done with regards to the time and costs going up, thats just a reflection on how things are now, with the GAA being asked to foot more money into this as the money that was ring fenced isn't enough to cover the new costs. As time moves on and nothing happening the cost of construction will also keep rising.

Another smaller scheme would need to go back into Planning and that in itself would just add more years onto a delay in starting. I feel we are where we are now and it wont be changed or reduced down. It will be down to the GAA finding more money as the executive wont be stumping up anymore without a political row.

I doubt anything will ever happen at casement an it is such a pity. I always believed they didn't need this big fancy stadium, tell me why they couldn't of just tidied it up a bit? Surely that's all it needed?! Didn't get over why they didn't build something similar to Owenbeg at Dunsilly, surely that would of done the job.

Conservative majority now at 4/7. No overall majority at 13/8 with Labour majority at 20/1.

As they say, bookies rarely get it wrong!

Oh dear. Border down the Irish sea. The DUP will find this rather upsetting.

Oh won't they just, another Conservative government selling the Ulster men out lol! It just be like 1985 Anglo Irish Agreement all over again. Arlene,Dodds,Wilson,Campbell an co. will take to streets again. What's chances of another NEVER NEVER NEVER speech - Ulster says no campaign be on the cards.

Firstly, best wishes to Sylvia Hermon really sad to see her stepping down. North Down now looks a complete banker for DUP. I heard rumours few weeks ago that Diane Dodds was going to run for that seat, however her name has popped up to run for Upper Bann.

Brexit Referendum 2016
Total electorate: 65,660
Turnout: 44,211 (67.3%)
Votes to REMAIN: 23,131 (52.4%)
Votes to LEAVE: 21,046 (47.6%).

NI Assembly Election 2017
DUP 14,152 (37.5%) 2 seats
UUP 8,115 (21.5%) 1 seat
Alliance 7,014 (18.6%) 1 seat
Green 5,178 (13.7%) 1 seat
Ind 1,369 (3.6%)
SDLP 679 (1.8%)
Con 641 (1.7%)
SF 591 (1.6%)

Westminster Election 2017
Sylvia Hermon (Ind) 16,148 (41.2%)
Alex Easton (DUP) 14,940 (38.1%)
Andrew Muir (Alliance) 3.639 (9.3%)
Steven Agnew (Green) 2,549 (6.5%)
Frank Shivers (Con) 941 (2.4%)
Therese McCartney (SF) 531 (1.4%)
Caoimhe McNeill (SDLP) 400 (1.0%)
Gavan Reynolds (Ind) 37 (0.1%)

After closing analysing the figures for this there is still hope for DUP to be defeated here. Could the Pro-Remain side run a independent candidate?? Does the UUP believe they can gain back this consistency? Finally does Alliance have a chance?? Views folks

Key Battleground of South Belfast:

Brexit Referendum 2016:
Total electorate: 66,664
Turnout: 44,583 (66.9%), 3/18.
Votes to REMAIN: 30,960 (69.5%);
Votes to LEAVE: 13,596 (30.5%).
Third highest REMAIN vote share in Northern Ireland

Westminster Election 2017:
Emma Little Pengelly (DUP) 13,299 (30.4%)
Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP) 11,303 (25.9%)
Paula Bradshaw (Alliance) 7,946 (18.2%)
Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (SF) 7,143 (16.3%)
Clare Bailey (Green) 2,241 (5.1%)
Michael Henderson (UUP) 1,527 (3.5%)
Clare Salier (Con) 246 (0.6%)

Surely the Pro-Remain parties must do a election pack here, but if they do who gets the free run? It either have to be Claire Hanna (SDLP) or Paula Bradshaw (Alliance). Views Folks??

It is 8/11 for the vote to pass tomorrow in HOC.

Surprised it is favourite considering the outcry about how shite it was yesterday.

Over the past 24 hours I've noticed a swing towards this deal. Most of the 'British' national newspapers covering the story seem to be in favour of this deal, however one of the newspapers I think it was The Times(correct me if am wrong) states 65% of leave and remain voters want there MPS to support this Deal. I did say last night that I could see Boris edging this, I can see most Labour MPS for Leave constituencies backing this because they face being destroyed in a general election. Someone did say how 'Lady' Hermon will vote on this? I actually see her voting for this deal, it's not the worse of deals for the north of Ireland.

My figures have it the Deal will be rejected 321  - 318. Had 7Labour MPs voting in favour of the Deal however a few journalists are predicting 10-12 Labour could vote in favour, I still wouldn't rule out Boris edging this.

Former Antrim star and highly regarded coach Kevin Madden is to join Tyrone's backroom team.

Confirming Madden's arrival on the Tyrone scene, manager Mickey Harte said: "He's joining our backroom team for the 2020 season and we're all very pleased to have him.

[That's a pretty good compromise even if it's not perfect.]

So if we went for a starred game system Slaughtneil would have went out to play certain games less 7 county hurlers and 7 county footballers, almost all of which are duel players.  Hardly a great reward for a team sending players to play for the county.  A better solution would need to be found than this.

This is a good point to be fair.
However, this is more the exception than the norm and in this case Slaughtneil are a victim of their own success. Its not very often any single club team supplies so many county players, there's rarely more than 2-3 from a club.
It's impossible to come up with a perfect solution, so I still think the starred games are the answer as they will generally mean most teams are affected the same way.
I think someone mentioned earlier, that in Tyrone for the teams who are affected by starred games the fixtures are set in such a way that they will be playing teams in a similar position. So lets say, Glen and Lavey are both down 3 county men, they are fixed to play each other so neither should have more or less of an advantage.
Again, not perfect...but it gives the clubs competitive games and the fringe players in the clubs a chance to progress too.
The biggest negative to this is the fringe county player who isn't getting county matches also missing club games. That's where the county management and club management need to work together.

Next year we're likely to have Danny, Mcevoy, clucker and Odhran Lynch on the county panel. If we have to play 5/6 league games in the middle of the season without these players it means it's unlikely we've a chance of winning the league. Slaughtneil the same. That devalues the competition and takes away from whoever wins it. At the moment not one county player misses a league game because of county commitments. Non county players continue to have games every week for the duration of county championship. That's a pretty good compromise even if it's not perfect.

Its a good compromise for who? County players are not compromising as they are playing all county and club games (although fringe players could possibly get no games).
Clubs are not compromising as they get all their county players for league games, but the fringe players in the club don't get any league games.
Club players are the ones making the compromises. They have to settle for a large section of the season playing meaningless games only to possibly lose their place when the county men come back.
It all depends on your perspective of who you are trying to please with the setup. For me, the current setup suits everyone except the non-county club players, which are in the majority.

The starred games approach, puts the club players first. Clubs still have their county players for the championship, club players get meaningful games and a chance to earn a championship place, club supporters still have meaningful games to follow during the summer months and in my opinion this approach has more advantages than disadvantages.

The players who'll lose their place when the county men come back are the same players who wouldn't have played any games if the county men were there all the time. It's these players who get the most out of the league cups. They're getting games for the first team that they normally wouldn't get.

Jaysus Lenny,
Do you have an agenda here?

It is one of the worst systems in the country.
What players from other counties would love the Derry system?
What players within the county love it bar the select few?

It is a shitshow from start to finish and it seems you deflect or act like a politician when someone makes a good point or asks a decent question

Wtf are you talking about? Every post I've made has specifically addressed points made to me. There has been no deflection. A couple of the players I've spoken to are from Tyrone clubs. They went 7 or 8 weeks of summer weather with one league match and they're sick of it. Every year the county team go well it means very few games in the summer with absolutely no idea when the games will be fitted in. At this stage clubs in Tyrone have played 8 games, in Derry they've played 6 not a massive difference. The big difference is the club players in Derry have had another 7 or 8 games organised for them in the form of league cups.

.

Wise up Lenny. I am a Tyrone man first of all. Of course our lads are gutted at one game in 7 weeks but under NO circumstances would they accept no game in 12 weeks and certainly not glorified cup competition in that time. All our clubs are not happy but much happier than their Derry counterparts - the Derry set up is shambolic and your senior team lost 6 weeks ago! If your county team for example qualified for the super 8's then to date this year your club players would have played 4 games so far - horrendous stuff. 4 games in 4 months! It is not easy admittedly to keep everyone happy but I can guarantee you every Tyrone player (albeit currently unhappy) would accept their system over the Derry system - 100% certain about that

No senior or reserve league games  in 12+ weeks is a complete joke!! If you don't play for the county the county board simply don't give to craps about you! Hopefully the clubs don't stand for this next year.

[get out and and vote]

Agreed. As much as i like naomi having 2 actual nationalists will be even sweeter so I hope Collum gets it. If transfers follow the latest lucid talk poll then naomi will sneak it. If transfers follow the recent council elections then collum will get it. Either way kennedy is toast snd just as well as he has been crap in the debates

If you are in the occupied territories, get out and and vote and make sure to transfer.

All the unionists spinning the line....it's all about the union.  Worst thing that can happen would be a 6 county pro-Brexit vote so, as you say, everyone needs 1,2and 3 for pro remain parties.

I couldn't agree more folks! Everyone needs to get out on Thursday an vote for Pro Remain Parties. Electing 2 Remainers should send the message loud an clear, just like 2016 us in the North of Ireland want to REMAIN in the EU!! 1.Anderson 2.Eastwood 3.Long for me!!