UUP now on Twitter. And are some people already losing sight of the point of C & U alignment?
Just a note to say that the much improved UUP online operation has now launched on Twitter.Perhaps the party should also break its silence on exactly which form of the new name joint candidates will campaign under. There remains a degree of confusion.
To my mind it makes a great deal of sense to retain ‘Ulster‘, or indeed ‘New Force’ in the official title, yet to accord more prominence to the much less fussy ‘Conservatives and Unionists’.
Let’s not quibble over a word, which is rooted in the history of Irish unionism, but might after all be interpreted as an irredentist claim over three counties which are not within the UK.
Ulster Conservatives and Unionists or Conservatives and Unionists for the sake of brevity. The point is the message. It is frustrating that time is being lost putting that message across.
Comments
BTW I think it was great that Reg challenged the DUP to stand done in FST and Sth Belfast
Personally, I think the "branding" is too cumbersome. Presumably, an effort will begin immediately to reduce it to CU's in daily usage. Anonymous raises a much more important issue than branding however, South Belfast and Fermanagh South Tyrone. The DUP will happily stand aside in one of these constituencies; we're just waiting for the CU's to decide which one and to reciprocate in the other.
I think that as the Conservatives and Unionists are the largest pro Union party in the UK the DUP should wise up. After all they have just over 1% of the vote in the UK.
Also it would be far better for both areas to have MPs who are likely to form part of the government of the UK - rather than being represented by the DUP whose image beyond NI is terrible
David,
Have the Labour Party and Conservative party made pacts in Scotland or Wales in order to prevent each respective country's separatists from winning seats? No and the reason why not is that, although they may agree on the Union and probably other matters, they hold completely different political philosophies.
There's no point declaring that you are hoping to break the mould of traditional communal politics in NI, if you then go right ahead and do the traditional communal thing just to make sure themumns don't win.
-The NI Tories set up an 'Official Joint Committee' website. It wasn't official or joint.
-The NI Tories have decided on the logo and campaigning name without approval of the Joint Committee.
- The UUP are pissed off as this is clearly a big trust issue.
Outrageous behavior by the NI Tories. There will also be a lot of uncomfortable people who were told they could trust these guys as unltimately the Joint Committee and UUP Exec have final say.
Completely depends on your definitions of 'Unionist' if you mean NI focused parochial unionist then you are right to be unconvinved. If you mean gaining the trust and respect of the 350 Conservative MPs and their unionist PM then the deal obvious well increase influence.