Posts Tagged 'Jim Nicholson MEP'

A Big Electoral Swing?

Published June 7, 2009 Opinion 2 Comments
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The indications are that the DUP’s core vote has slumped in Thursday’s European elections.  The intervention of Jim Allister has resulted in a great swathe of voters returning to a clearly anti-Agreement and anti-Sinn Fein agenda.  Rumours from the hills suggest that a significant cohort of voters has become very disenchanted with a DUP that has lost touch with its voter base and is milking the system through power dynasties and double/triple jobbing.

The indications are that the Conservative/UUP vote has held up.  However it has not grown to the extent that many would have hoped given the intervention of the Conservative campaigning machine and the support of Conservative big-hitters like William Hague and David Cameron.

Whether Jim Nicholson is elected remains to be seen.  It’s likely to be a close-run thing if he is.  However the closeness clearly shows that there is a significant opportunity for the Conservatives moving forward.

The TUV is unlikely to be able to muster much in the way of political talent other than Allister.  Whereas there is every possibility that the Conservatives can find a good number of very articulate and talented candidates for the Westminster elections.  The challenge is to ensure that the candidates are more articulate than Jim Nicholson and more clearly define the advantages of a move towards political inclusion in mainstream UK politics.  Nicholson was unable to do this adequately during his campaign.  That is a great pity.  But the more encouraging conclusion is that there is a strong Conservative voter base in Northern Ireland. 

Now we need to step up a gear and sell the project with much more conviction than Jim Nicholson could muster.

None of the Above

Published June 5, 2009 Opinion 6 Comments
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I exercised my democratic right and voted last night in the European Election.  However, judging from the electoral register in front of the official who issued my voting form, I was one of a tiny minority.  She also indicated that, in my Lisburn ward at least, turnout was awful.  Given the number of lines through voters on her sheet I’d estimate turnout of around 30% max at my time of voting (around 9.00pm). 

The line-up of candidates is part of the explanation.  The ‘headline’ DUP candidate, with her excruciating voice, was an utter voter turn-off – not just against the DUP but for local politics in general.  Allister came across as a nasty little man, wittering on about the Protestant community.  The Shinners obviously just regard the whole EU enterprise as a money spinner.  And Jim Nicholson of UCUNF never really mastered the ability to sell the Conservative and Unionist project as anything other than a repackaging of the UUP.  A real opportunity missed and a very dull candidate (regardless of his EU experience).

However young Ian Parsley came across as competent in the campaign (despite an awful Alliance PEB).  And the Green candidate, Agnew, gave a respectable performance – setting himself apart from the tribal antics of the other candidates very well (just a pity the Greens’ manifesto is up the left). 

However, none of this was enough to shake the electorate out of apathy for politics.  No-one cares about the EU – it’s too distant to get enough people away from the opening night of Big Brother and a glass of Sauvignon Blanc.  Throw in the expenses scandal, the terrible line-up of mainstream candidates, a Westminster government in disarray, and an Assembly that gets little if anything done, who could blame people for sitting at home?

Perhaps if we added a “None of the Above” box to the voting paper turnout might improve.

Jim Nicholson and the Tree

Published May 13, 2009 Opinion 2 Comments
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Too green a tree for the UUP?

Too green a tree for the UUP?

As I’ve mentioned before on this site one of the odd things about the Jim Nicholson Euro Campaign election materials is the lack of a logo.  Plus the “Conservatives and Unionists” at the bottom of the posters is so tiny as to be almost unreadable. 

Interestingly, my mother was, yesterday, canvassed in Lisburn by a ”little man” who thrust a leaflet under her nose as she was mid conversation, with a friend, in town.  She felt the canvasser was a tad rude.  So she made clear to him that if he was canvassing for the DUP he had no hope of getting her vote.  “No,” he said, “Jim Nicholson.”  The canvasser made no attempt to explain Jim’s Party affiliation. 

Now, my Mum, in common with most other local citizens, has no idea who Jim Nicholson is or what Party he’s from.  So, on closer inspection of the election leaflet, she was somewhat surprised that he was the Conservatives and Unionists candidate.  And then it came back to her.  He’s the guy from the UUP.  The Conservative thing threw her.

So she called me.  And this was her question: “Is he a member of the Conservative Party?” 

“No,” I said.  “Strange as it may seem, no he’s not.”

“But,” she said, “it says here he’ll be with the Conservatives in Europe.”  Hmm…

And there’s the rub.  Here we have a candidate, standing as the Conservatives and Unionists (sans logo), who isn’t actually a member, as far as I can gather, of the Conservative Party – the Party he’ll be sitting with in Strasbourg.  Ironically, I am a member of the Conservative Party but I am not permitted to hold office in the Conservative Party, because I was critical of another political Party – the UUP.  Indeed, I expect I would be unable to stand as a Conservative candidate, despite being a fully paid up member of the Conservative Party.

And now back to the tree.  I can today reveal the key reason why the UUP couldn’t countenance using the Conservative logo on its elections materials.  The Conservative tree logo is green.  Yes, green trees and the UUP just don’t get on.  They could live with a blue tree, or even a union jack tree, but a green tree?  No, that wouldn’t do.  That wouldn’t do at all.

The Weird Logic of Alex Attwood

Published February 16, 2012 News 2 Comments
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Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

The DVANI should be closed as soon as possible and its services transferred to DVLA in Swansea.

When the vehicle licensing office opened a new office in Belfast a few years ago – at the revitalised Gasworks Business Park – there was a wonderful irony about the choice of location. Presumably the powers that be had some inkling that hordes of motorists would come visiting – to renew their road vehicle licences. Therefore, it stood to reason that one of the least citizen-friendly of our local quangos should make it impossible to park anywhere near their gleaming new offices. Weird logic.

The Minister responsible for this particular rotten spud of local administration gone crazy is none other than the hapless and often indiscipherable Alex Attwood (he of North of Ireland fame).

It turns out that the local Vehicle Licensing Agency has recently discovered that its “customers” may like to use a new-fangled contrivance called The Internet to order and pay for their new tax discs, driving licences and what-have-you. Heaven forbid that such modernistic services could be provided by the DVANI. But here’s the rub – it would be relatively easy to close down the entire shambolic edifice of DVANI and transfer all the operations to the DVLA in Swansea.

Now Alex is all for improving services and introducing efficiencies. But, God forbid that any of the DVANI staff should lose their jobs.

So, while private businesses struggle to make their payroll every month, while retail businesses close up shop across Northern Ireland, while call centres lay-off hundreds of staff in their quest for efficiencies – Alex simply won’t have any DVANI staff lay-offs, not on his watch.

The Attwood, “It’s Logic Jim, but not as we know it” attitude to governance is indicative of the malaise at the heart of Northern Ireland’s puny-minded government. Every effort should be made to get rid of the absurd, inefficient and moribund agencies that long ago lost any fitness for purpose.

DVANI should be closed as soon as is practicable and the “services” it provides transferred to a central facility, servicing the majority of the Kingdom. Economies of scale, Alex. Crazy but true.

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