Not governing part(ies) February 15, 2017
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
Anyone think this will go anywhere?
The UUP and SDLP have positioned themselves as an alternative partnership government at Stormont to take the place of the long-standing DUP-Sinn Féin-led coalition.
Mr Nesbitt said he personally would be “standing square” behind his vision of a UUP-SDLP-led administration.
“I will be transferring from my Ulster Unionist votes to the SDLP,” he said.
I don’t mean immediately, but in the longer term?
Because in the immediate one will read:
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood did not reciprocate Mr Nesbitt’s pledge.
He said: “We are fighting very hard to retain seats and gain seats and our job as a political party is to get people to vote for us, it’s the same for Mike Nesbitt.”
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
I first heard Nesbitt talking about this a good while back. Maybe after the UUP’s 2016 annual conference. His line was “You vote me, you get Colum; vote Colum, you get me”. Sounded to me that it was the beginning of an effort to offer NI voters an alternative government to DUP/SF, that alternative being UUP/SDLP.
Problem is, and I’d say Nesbitt knew this in his heart of hearts, it probably wouldn’t wash with the great majority of UUP voters and members. Nor with the great majority of SDLP voters and members (but might wash slightly more with the SDLP crowd perhaps?).
You see the ask to voters is to vote 1UUP and 2SDLP and vice versa (or more accurately vote down the line for your UUP candidates and then tranfer down the line to SDLP). And that’s a bridge too far for most northern voters – if you are orange, you vote orange down the line; if you are green, you vote green down the line. So you vote UUP, then transfer to DUP or other unionist; you vote SDLP then transfer to SF or other nationalist. You don’t tranfer across to them ‘uns.
And the immediate electoral problem for Nesbitt is that him saying this now, during an election, may lead to the UUP losing votes to the DUP. Which is probably why Eastwood is being very coy on it – he fears the same dynamic on his side i.e. losing votes to SF.
So that’s where we are now until everyone in NI reads the Communist Manifesto and becomes class conscious and they establish a democracy of soviets. Which will be the year after next according to my latest calculations.
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What time year after next, Joe?
I need to book a flight.
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All things continuing as they are, it is likely to be the generation after next according to my calculations. Still if we work at it intelligently it could be sooner.
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SDLP might be the UUP’s new best friend but there’s the wee problem of 2015 UUP-DUP election pacts
“The deal between the Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party means there will be a single candidate from the two parties.
The DUP will step aside in Fermanagh and South Tyrone and Newry and Armagh.
The UUP will step aside in East Belfast and North Belfast. Sinn Féin has now called on the SDLP to form a pact.
However, the SDLP told BBC NI’s Good Morning Ulster that it was against the idea, calling the unionist move “a sectarian carve-up”.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-31930496
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“An Ulster Unionist councillor has resigned from the party in protest at leader Mike Nesbitt’s pledge to give a second preference vote to the SDLP.”
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/uup-councillor-resigns-over-mike-nesbitts-sdlp-second-vote-pledge-35450579.html
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The SDLP have given a nod and a wink approach in recent days towards second preference voting for the UUP, which may backfire. It has certainly left a bad taste in the mouth of some northern nationalists.
The SDLP refuses any such agreement, informal or otherwise, with SF but is happy to suggest some reciprocation with a unionist party?
It’s irritated quite a few people I know in Fermanagh who would be SDLP friendly.
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examples of their nodding and winking?
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I meant to pay more attention to the election in the north but I discover that I don’t have the strength of spirit.
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The success of such a move depends on spin unfortunately. Voters would be most open to transfers on the basis of keeping SF or the DUP out of power rather than because of a new spirit of cross-community cooperation.
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