Forum Topic

NI election results

I wonder if separatism will prevail.United Kingdom of Great Britain soon?If so, well done Boris!  Not!!!!!

Ivonne Holliday ● 1368d4 Comments

Ivonne, as Michael says the Alliance Party had a larger increase than Sinn Fein on the first preference.I still think you are mixing up majority with the biggest party.Sinn Fein do not have a majority in the Assembly they have 27 out of 90 seats.Sadly not every party supports the GFA, but the majority I believe do.Turnover wasn't great so we also have to be careful there too.The real question is will the Alliance Party continue to grow and become the second largest party?

Ed Robinson ● 1367d

Interesting - and encouraging? - that the cross community Alliance Party seems to be doing well by moving into third place from fifth in this election, while the unionist vote has been further dispersed between the DUP, UUP & TUP. NI voted to remain in the EU so perhaps many like the NI Protocol? If I remember correctly Johnson told the unionists there'd be no border between GB and NI; perhaps a good reason for not supporting a leader who is economical with the truth? But I wouldn't like to predict where NI is going with Irish unity or remaining the UK … either way one group is going to be unhappy. A great pity as the GFA worked so well when the UK was part of the EU :-(

Michael Ixer ● 1368d

I wonder, Ed, I wonder.Sinn Fein has the majority in its Assembly and its aim is for Northern Ireland to leave the UK and become one country with Ireland.Of course they are all in support of the GFA; it is an absolutely brilliant instrument.But they are certainly very much against the "border" in the middle of the Irish Sea introduced by the NI Protocol.  Of course, Johnson said in November 2019:  "Northern Ireland has got a great deal. You keep free movement, you keep access to the single market but you also have, as it says in the deal, unfettered access to GB."  Many politicians have made many mistakes throughout history.But I would say that, in this instance, the NI Protocol takes the ticket.

Ivonne Holliday ● 1368d

"I wonder if separatism will prevail."I do not think it will.I suspect the vast majority in NI support the GFA and do not want borders on the island of Ireland and want to be within the EU. The current arrangement gives them most of that But I guess that is not the specific separatism your refering to.I'm not seeing anything in the results that show a significant change towards a united Ireland. The Unionist vote is split it hasn't significantly changed overall. Now if the current arrangements were to change forcing people to choose then that would be a different situation.Language from Labour and Starmer isn't helpful either. When they have a go at dual nationals they are actually targeting a very large group including everyone in NI.I would not put all the blame on Boris. Corbyn dropping his soft Brexit policy to prevent a split in the Labour party has to take some blame too!

Ed Robinson ● 1368d