Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

The Conservatives and Unionists look set to announce their final nine candidates, filling out the full slate of eighteen, tomorrow morning. I'm led to believe that both the Conservative Area Executive and the Ulster Unionist Executive are scheduled to meet in order to rubber stamp the line-up. The apparent defection of Deirdre Nelson from the Northern Ireland Conservatives provides further corroborating evidence, and tells us one possible certainly didn't make the cut! Presaging an announcement, the nine candidates already selected have biographies, added to the Conservatives and Unionists Facebook page . Sir Reg Empey and Owen Paterson appear in this morning's News Letter promoting the benefits of the New Force. Let's be clear what that means. If the Conservatives win the election, Conservative and Unionist MPs from Northern Ireland will be able to play a full role in a Conservative Government. That includes being eligible to serve as ministers. No other party st...

Something of a 'Three Thousand Versts' exclusive I believe. It is my understanding that last night's UUP executive meeting may have thrown open the possibility of the three 'withdrawn' Conservative hopefuls re-entering the race for Westminster. Peter McCann, Sheila Davidson and Deirdre Nelson offered their resignations after 'unionist unity' talks came to light, but their respective Conservative associations have not accepted them. Officially the triumvirate are still Conservative nominees, due to be considered by the Joint Committee of Tories and Ulster Unionists as UCUNF candidates. I spoke to McCann yesterday afternoon and he made it clear that the UUP has now dealt, to his satisfaction, with two of the main objections which led to his withdrawal. There are, he intimated, still matters to be resolved, but the Ulster Unionists' commitment to a definite time-frame for selection, and the executive's repudiation of 'bogus' unity talks, are ...

Deirdre Nelson, the Ballymena councillor who recently defected from the DUP, has officially announced her intention to fulfil council duties as a member of the Conservative party. It is, admittedly, a little curious that Nelson’s disillusionment with her former party seems to date from Ian Paisley’s departure as leader. The North Antrim MP’s rabble rousing style hardly conformed to the inclusive, pan-UK unionism which the Conservatives espouse. But that is the type of politics which the councillor explicitly endorsed when she explained her decision to colleagues at the council’s offices at Ardeevin, according to the Ballymena Times . “I have watched, with interest, the recent moves by the Conservative Party to begin to steer Northern Ireland away from sectarian politics into normal UK politics and to ensure that Northern Ireland fulfils (its) role as an integral and necessary part of the United Kingdom, in which all traditions are welcomed. “This, coupled with the recent visit by Da...