NORTHERN IRELAND'S FIRST MINISTER VOTED OUT! YEAY!

[Goonerman]

I'm so happy- my party, the Alliance Party, have finally got a seat in Westminster! Naomi Long, who I know personally, has ousted Peter Robinson, who I have never voted for! She looked stunned. Peter Robinson, in fairness, was gracious in defeat. At last the people of East Belfast have proved to be more than sheep. A kick in the teeth for sectarianism. My mum would have loved to have lived to have seen this. In fairness, though, the Robinson saga played a major part in their own downfall, though Naomi pushed Peter very close in the Assembly elections.

 

 

Good night. See you in 2011, maybe...

 

Oh, the irony is, I would be a Tory voter if I lived in England. The Alliance Party are the equivalent of the Liberal Democrats. So while the Tories have allied themselves with the Ulster Unionists, who are standing under the Consevative umbrella, the different political realities of Northern Ireland made me stick with Alliance. So that first 'Liberal Democrat' seat you see mentioned at the top of the screen on BBC at the moment is actually Naomi Long's winning of East Belfast for Alliance, which in national terms is Liberal Democrat. I'm encouraged by the swings to the Tories so far even in safe seats of Labour, which might indicate that they might gain overall power. It will give us and the Queen less of a headache. Time for bed.

[fugtifino]

Happydiddlyoodly for you, Ned, well done!

[Peter T]

Goonerman, You'll get lost on here. Nice to see that you are still around, though I bet obs is twitching.lol

[Goonerman]

Just before I read the replies, I wish to correct my mistake in saying that Alliance were counted as Lib Dems, in fact they were counted as Other, it's just that the moment the East Belfast result came through, the yellow patch switched from 0 to 1 and the other panel had not appeared yet. But the Alliance Party do take the Lib Dem whip in Parliament just as the Ulster Unionists take the Tory whip and the SDLP the Labour whip.

[Goonerman]

Maybe I should copy down the arguments over the first five books of the Bible I am currently having on Theology Web with sceptics over the JEDP Documentary Hypothesis!

 

There are some disturbing repercussions from Peter Robinson's defeat. Given he is no longer an MP, his leadership of the DUP is surely doomed. The problem with Nigel Dodds is he dithers and does nothing (hence why I still have no dratted backpay after TWO YEARS ), so he would be a lamb to the slaughter as First Minister, Sinn Fein would crush him, then there is Mr Nasty, Ian Paisley Junior, who constantly said, "Moo! Moo! Moo!" non-stop, as the Women's Coalition leader spoke in the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation years ago. Then there is Sammy Wilson the idiot. (He doesn't even know there is a potential backpay for police civilian workers. He's supposed to be our Minister of Finance and Personnel, or that the NIO are the ones to go to on this issue. Maybe he should write to the Queen, I did and she passed through her Senior Correspondence Officer the information that the Secretary of State is who I need to contact, which was great after months of spoof, misinformation and union reps telling contradictory tales.)

 

I'll have to send Naomi (our current Lady Mayor) my personal congratulations. I was as emotional as she was. I had tears in my eyes, to be honest.

[observer]

Not twitching at all; in fact I share Gmans enthusiasm for this Alliance success, it shows the emergence of some modern political maturity by an electorate that's been force fed with sectarian politics for generations. One other thing it brings to notice; is the fact that Sein Fein MPs pick up an MPs salary but don't attend the UK parliament; also, that one individual could be an Ulster Parliamentary MP; a UK MP and even an MEP; PICKING UP 3 salaries and not having the time for any of those jobs.

[Goonerman]

Just a little insight into my thinking, Obbs- but if I lived in a predominantly nationalist area of Northern Ireland where there wasn't a sniff of a chance of an Alliance win or any Unionist win, the SDLP would get my vote. Alliance will always get my vote if I lived in an are with lots of Unionist voters. If the Tory-Ulster Unionist vote got stronger, I might think a little harder, but no, Alliance come first.

 

What matters is a democratic party with candidates prepared to do their job. Peter Robinson did nothing for us, in spite of what DUP supporters strongly and scornfully told me down the years. His only interest was the Border and the Castlereagh area (no offence to the people of Castlereagh), and his own power. I still remember with embarrassment and anger his antics in Clontibret, Co. Monaghan in 1983, and had to put up with an MP who talks like a Dalek. I'm a bit irritated though that the attention is on Peter Robinson though and not on Naomi Long- a woman who will make Parliament that little bit more locquacious- she's a chatterbox, intelligent, opinionated, hard-working, as loveably infuriating to those who disagree with her as Margaret Thatcher was at her best, and totally focussed on bread and butter matters and on strongly arguing for consensus politics. Peter Robinson acknowledged that his successor will do the job well.