Posts Tagged 'UUP'

Another UUP Leader

Published March 12, 2012 News 16 Comments
Tags: , , , ,
Mike Nesbitt

More of the same. Mike Nesbitt is one of the hopefuls to take over the UUP "chalice". Image via Wikipedia

So Tom has finally thrown in the towel and we are to have another UUP leader.

Alex Kane does a good job over at the News Letter in outlining the likely contenders and just how poisoned a chalice the UUP leadership is. Although I’d question whether the UUP is even up to a chalice these days. More a nice cuppa tea with a ham sandwich (made with pan-loaf and margarine).  Served in a nice, fusty Orange Hall.

The UUP has been dying for years. And, according to the various whispers I’m receiving via the bongo drums of the the political anorak class (the metaphors are all over the place in that sentence, sorry) defections will continue in the coming weeks. Some big-hitter UUP members, I’m told.  Although I wasn’t aware there were any of those left.

As Alex points out in his article, the new-fangled NI Conservative thingy is due to be launched in a few weeks. I gather that the plan is that this will be pitched as very much a cross-community entity. Some Alliance types have been sniffing around it and the grandees of the Conservative Party in London will publicly bless the thing. However, as I’ve written before, without a better leadership roster in front of it the new Party will fizzle little brighter than than a new-leadered UUP.

The problem is that the new political order of DUP/Shinner coalition is bedding down. The two Parties are made for each other because they both want the same things i.e. more power wrested from Westminster.  Collectively the Dupshinners are the manifestation of Ulster-Irish nationalism – the NI equivalent of the Scots Nats.

The DUP and Shinners are politically melded like the two tubes in an epoxy-resin kit. And tit-for-tat niceness is growing.  Soon we’ll have an announcement that Marty will meet some Royal on the next visit and there will be cries of “Wow” from the establishment and then Peter Robbo will arrange to wear a big green hat on St Paddy’s Day. And then Marty will join Garvaghy Road LOL or something. The whole consensus thing gets more and more ridiculous by the minute.

The only means of breaking this merry-go-round green and orange trading-off is to do something to undermine it.  The UUP is just too stupid and lacking in talent to know where to start and the NI Conservatives haven’t got sufficient media attention or leadership savviness.

It’s now Up to the Tories…

Published December 24, 2011 News 6 Comments
Tags: , , ,

Is this how the new Party logo might look?

After a few weeks thinking time, the UUP leader, Tom Elliott, has responded to Conservative Chairman Lord Feldman’s letter – the one that suggested the the UUP should wind-up and go home.

As expected, Elliott has dismissed Feldman’s suggestions - rather than the UUP Party executive.

So, it’s now over to the Conservatives to do something.  And that something, it would appear, would be to establish a new Northern Irish flavoured right-of-centre political party with formal ties to the Conservative Party in London but with local leadership and electoral ambitions.

As I’ve said in the past I would wish this new organisation success.  But I would hope that – from launch – the organisation sets out a secular, non-sectarian stall, free from the baggage of the past. The new Party needs to define itself very quickly as something fresh, different, cross-community and attractive.  It will need a confident and articulate voice and it will need to be well organised and well-funded – two qualities the local Conservatives never really achieved.

I’ll be watching 2012 developments with interest.

Why Conservatives are Wimps

Published February 4, 2011 News , Opinion 62 Comments
Tags: , , , , ,
DAVOS/SWITZERLAND, 29JAN10 - David Cameron, Le...

Is Cameron serious about detoxifying our politics? Image via Wikipedia

This is an extended version of a comment I have made on my previous post. I felt it deserved greater oxygen.

A few of my former colleagues in the local Conservative Party organisation have criticised me for being a tad lukewarm re. yesterday’s announcement about Party organisation here. This is my attempt at an explanation. Interestingly, Alex Kane, former Head of Communications at the UUP, agrees with me (see comments on yesterday’s post).

The point I have made is that the local Conservative Party Area Executive threw all its toys out of the pram because CCHQ refused to contest the Assembly elections. The Area Chairman, Irwin Armstrong, resigned over the issue. Now he has un-resigned when nothing has changed.

The excuse for the U-turn is that because of the delay in reaching an agreement with CCHQ it would be impossible to get ready for elections that are still several months away. But that’s nonsense – as has been pointed out by Seymour Major over on his blog.

Even a single candidate put forward for the Assembly elections would make clear that the Conservatives are serious and intend to define themselves as a brand distinct from sectarian “Unionism” and “Nationalism”. There is no point to democratic politics if elections aren’t contested. Constant preparation for success is not the point – it’s about democracy, plain and simple. If the brand is dodgy, no-one will vote for it. That’s politics.

But the end game in the process is about de-toxifying our politics. We’re either in that game or we aren’t. And, it would appear, the local Conservatives seem to have decided that they are not – and that implies sloppy and wimpy leadership.

Related Articles

Conservatives Running in Assembly Elections

Published December 5, 2010 Opinion 4 Comments
Tags: , ,

It looks likely that local Conservatives are to be required to be nice to the UUP in the Assembly elections next year.

According to Mark Devenport over on his blog, “Conservative HQ will have to sort this one out – watch out for a fudge which might see some local Tory candidates running, albeit with pledges of non-hostility and mutual voting transfers.”

That is an outcome that should not be tolerated by local Conservatives. It’s the political equivalent of being tethered by the ankle to a crazy aunt – but still expected to attend the ball.

UUP Executive Rough and Tumble

Published October 11, 2010 News 9 Comments
Tags: , , ,
Tom Elliott MLA

Image by niassembly via Flickr

A well-placed UUP mole has been in contact.  Apparently the UUP had its first Exec meeting (at the weekend) since Tom Elliott was elected leader. Elliott made it known to Exec members in advance of the meeting that Party discipline was all-important and that ill-disciplined members would be punished.

I’m advised that a certain UUP Councillor from Newtownabbey took exception to this and made the point that certain senior members of the party should also exercise discipline. Apparently, one of those aforementioned senior members of the party proceeded to “rugby tackle” the aforementioned councillor. Indeed, such was the physicality of the exchange I gather that the councillor claimed he had been assaulted – although later dropped the accusation when pursued by the media.

Must have been an interesting meeting.

Related Articles

Fleeing The Ship

Published October 5, 2010 News , Opinion 15 Comments
Tags: ,

I gather that the UUP has lost, in a matter of days, two of its “rising stars”. More falling squibs it would appear. Just a week after mumbling farmer Tom Elliott was elected leader, Colleenesque “community worker” Paula Bradshaw has quit – leaving no high profile female members. And former “rugby star” Trevor Ringland has left the scrum.

Begs the question why they ever got involved in the sorry disgrace of a party in the first place and what political home they may now seek.

Perhaps they might end up with a newly revived, non-sectarian Conservative Party. But that brand has hardly emerged from the general election unscathed. Sectarian gerrymandering in Fermanagh. Unionist unity talks. Etc.

I’ll watch with interest.

Conservatives NI Treasurer Resigns

Published May 26, 2010 Opinion 6 Comments
Tags: , ,

Roger Lomas, the Area Treasurer for the Conservatives in Northern Ireland, has resigned.

He has forwarded a copy of his resignation note to me (that he sent to the Party Chairman, among others).

A key reason seems to be the appointment of Jonathan Caine as special Advisor to Owen Paterson MP, the Northern Ireland Secretary of State.

Roger points out, “No one else was more responsible in my opinion for the disastrous ‘Hatfield’ incident than Jonathan Caine and thus I find the prospect of continuing to raise significant funds for party activities here in NI pointless when they are diverted to effectively underwrite the UUP as a viable political going concern.”

The question is rather begged why Roger didn’t resign rather earlier i.e. before all the money was spent.

UUP Suck Local Tories Dry

Published May 17, 2010 News 10 Comments
Tags: , , , ,

I gather that Conservative Party central office has laid-off its 3 members of staff in Belfast following the disastrous Conservative/Ulster Unionist Party alliance that saw a decline in the combined Conservative/UUP vote here at the general election.

It appears that the NI Area of the Conservative Party is literally depleted of funds – having invested just about all of its money running (mostly UUP) candidates in the general election – and funding the majority of Jim Nicholson’s Euro election campaign.

Moreover while Nicholson’s Euro-expenses help fund two local employees, the Conservatives receive no benefit (despite having funded his campaign).

I gather that all three CCHQ employees here – including Neil Johnston, the local campaign Director – are now on “gardening leave”.  CCHQ has not made clear if it will be funding a local office here in future.  Moreover the UUP “leader”, Sir Reg Empey, made clear at an Executive meeting of the UUP at the weekend that his party’s relationship with the Conservative Party is now under review.

Bizarre Parallels

Published May 11, 2010 Opinion 14 Comments
Tags: , , ,

There are strangely resonant similarities between the Conservative/Lib-Dem partnership and the ill-fated partnership between the Conservatives and the UUP.  Obviously we have yet to hear about the finer detail of the ministerial carve-up.  But it looks likely that Nick Clegg will become Deputy Prime Minister – despite only commanding 50 or so seats in the House of Commons.  Clegg, as pointed out by Nick Robinson tonight on the BBC, oversaw a disappointing result for the Libs in the general election.  Yet now he is to be rewarded well beyond his station.  Similarly the UUP had just one New Labour MP but was rewarded with Ashcroft funded election campaigns and a free run for dead-wood candidates.

The Conservatives command 6 times the number of seats than the Lib Dems in the House of Commons.  And yet Cameron, in his pursuit of power, appears to have capitulated to the Lib Dem demands.

It didn’t have to be so.  The Liberals have been aware since last Friday that their only prospect of power was via the Tory deal.  The Tories should have taken advantage of their relative position of power.  However Cameron’s tendency towards populist politics, and his poor negotiating skills, seem to be taking their toll.  Tomorrow we’ll learn that more Liberals have been promoted well above their station – either in terms of cabinet positions, or in terms of influence.

Capitulation and poor negotiation skills within relationships always result in one partner taking advantage of the other. There is a real prospect that the Lib Dems – just like the UUP – will start calling shots in all the wrong ways.

The UUP dragged naive Conservatives into the tribal political mire.  There is a very real risk that the Liberal Democrats will drag the Conservatives into a position where the Party becomes so “progressive” that it ceases to have any appreciable ideological persona and becomes factionalised and, ultimately, unelectable.

Cameron needs to assert authority very soon if this arrangement has any prospect of success.  However, recent evidence in Northern Ireland suggests that Team Cameron’s managerial experience just may not be up to it.

No Candu Logo

Published May 6, 2010 News 4 Comments
Tags: , ,

I’ve just voted – in the Lagan Valley constituency – and noticed that Daphne Trimble, wife of a Conservative Lord, couldn’t muster a logo for the ballot paper.  There she was, alone among the candidates, right at the bottom of the ballot paper, sans logo.

Presumably this is because the UUP and Conservatives couldn’t actually agree on a Party logo for the actual ballot paper.

Says it all somehow.  Two parties, supposedly in mutual harmony, but can’t agree on a logo for their candidates. Pitiful.

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 32 other followers

Subscribe in a reader

Musings on things political and secular…

This is my site where I share my world views for anyone who might be remotely interested. Visit only if you think the content is interesting. Oh and comment is free. So go right ahead and agree or disagree. But, please, be kind and polite (especially to me).
Add to Technorati Favorites
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 32 other followers