The Tories will contest every seat in Northern Ireland
James Forsyth 7:21pmOn the Today Programme this morning, Sarah Montague kept pressing Sammy Wilson of the DUP on whether his party would enter into an electoral alliance in certain seats with the new Conservative and Ulster Unionist grouping. Wilson suggested that the DUP would stand but would welcome it if other unionists stood aside. But that’s not going to happen. The Conservatives are determined to contest every seat in Northern Ireland. They see this as crucial to their attempt to move politics there beyond the sectarian and constitutional issues. They must also surely know that any kind of electoral alliance with the DUP could, given the views of some DUP politicians, cause problems for them on the mainland.
Having said that, I suspect we will find over the next few months that Northern Ireland is not beyond the constitutional issues. The whole executive might well end up collapsing over the devolution of policing and justice.
Previous
David Ossitt
January 25th, 2010 7:42pm Report this commentAbsolutely; every single seat in the UK.
Dirty Euro
January 25th, 2010 9:09pm Report this commentMaybe the English tory ladies want some of those young Irish men, we are hearing so much about. Hey tory men, Better watch out if your wife wants to be a candidate in Ulster Is she a cougar on the prowl?
Ouch, the tory ladies are on the prowl.
Kirsty Richards
January 25th, 2010 11:37pm Report this commentBy doing this the Tories could split the Unionist vote and allow Sinn Fein to become the largest party in NI. Surely that is the total opposite of what REAL Unionism should be aiming for. What is Cameron playing at?
AAE
January 26th, 2010 12:49am Report this commentKirsty Richards - Of course, to you and I that is the outcome which screams at us. Dear oh dear oh dear. As they say in N. Ireland, they're all as THICK AS CHAMP! Think of the lives and untold misery we could've saved if only we'd handed over the government of N. Ireland and the RUC to the IRA all those years ago. Clearly we were badly let down by Whitelaw and Carrington not being quite abject enough.
Mark Cannon
January 26th, 2010 7:33am Report this commentBut the Unionist vote is already split between the UUP (fairly sensible) and the DUP (bigots). So is the Nationalist vote between the SDP (fairly sensible) and Sinn Fein (at best apologists for terrorism). It is one of the great achievements of the present London government that Northern Ireland enjoys a government made up of the DUP and Sinn Fein.
2trueblue
January 26th, 2010 12:11pm Report this commentKirsty Richards, Quite right. Not a very sensible path to allow Sinn Fein any more wiggle room.
I shudder when I see Adams and McGuiness all sanitised and accepted.
Mark
January 27th, 2010 8:15am Report this commentIn Northern Ireland no-one votes for the Conservatives so they can stand in every constituency and make no difference at all. The Ulster Tories are made up of spotty adolescents who affect what they think are RP accents and who think the whole of Ulster is like their little bit of the wealthy east, egotistical atheists and failed returnees. They also seem to think that the way to win support is to insult the electorate.
None of these attributes are at all popular with any section of the electorate here. The problem is that, because of the UUP allliance, this policy may mean that two constituencies in which the combined unionist vote is the majority will return Sinn Fein MPs and be unrepresented in Parliament.
I've always voted UUP, but this stupid policy means that I will vote for whatever unionist party is most likely to win in my constituency.
Back to top