Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is not a position which guarantees universal acclaim, particularly within our province itself. But, by any standards, during the last thirteen years of Labour government we’ve had a few howlers in the post. Peter Hain, with his arrogant drawl, perma-tan and threats of poor governance staked a formidable claim to be the worst, but Shaun Woodward has just about pipped him to the post with his constant scheming, fear-mongering and politicking. Over at Hand of History, Ivor highlights the minister’s latest direct intervention in the Northern Ireland election campaign. He accuses David Cameron of ’recklessness’ and ’playing politics’ by setting set up an electoral alliance to contest seats here at Thursday’s poll. The irony is that while the Tories are actually seeking a mandate from people in Ulster in order to represent them, as part of a Conservative government, Woodward’s party refuse to stand, and prefers a more underhand approach. Insofar...

The Belfast Telegraph has promised an opinion poll in tomorrow's paper intended to give an indication of voting intention in Northern Ireland, just two days before the general election. No doubt its findings could influence some voters who have not yet made up their mind. But, before it is even published, serious questions have been raised about the poll's validity, the company conducting it (which appears to have connections to the DUP) and its methods. Michael Shilliday at Slugger : Last week the Belfast Telegraph published the latest in a series of opinion polls conduced by Public Affairs Company, Inform Communications. They also say that on Tuesday there will be a voting intentions poll conducted by the same firm, which will let us know the state of the parties two days before polling day. Inform Communications are not a polling company. As far as I can tell they are not a member of the British Polling Council, and they are not Company Partners of the Market Research Soci...

It lies beyond the usual web sources upon which this blog draws, but this is an interesting article about the credentials of the main contenders for seats in the general election in Northern Ireland. It is from the blog of a high end recruitment company which specialises in ‘executive search and development’. The author looks at the career profiles of each of the candidates and picks up on an apparent lack of contenders with a background in business. The insinuation is that the list should be top heavy with business CVs, because businessmen are best placed to get our economy working. It is an important and valid point which is being made, although I would argue that it is being made too narrowly. We do need more business professionals to become involved in politics. We also need more people from a wide variety of backgrounds. In fact, if we look beyond the confines of this list of favourites and its two word CVs, to consider the backgrounds of the Conservatives and Unionists candi...

Time for a reminder that although this blog doesn't have commenting rules at such (I decide what goes up and what doesn't), it does have commenting guidelines. You can always find them here , the link is just below the blog's banner. If your read them, and abide by them, then your contribution is likely to be included. In order to keep the commenting process as simple as possible, and in order to avoid requiring commenters to sign up with some type of I.D., anonymous commenting is enabled on this blog. THAT IS NOT TO SAY THAT ANONYMOUS COMMENTS ARE ENCOURAGED. Anonymous comments are not moderated with any great care and will appear or not appear at my whim. Particularly because, often, they come from exactly the same IP addresses used by a registered user, or an unregistered user who otherwise comments using a handle. The courteous thing, and what I want to encourage, is to use a handle, or a name, and stick to it. You don't have to have a Google or a Yahoo account....

With less than one week to go, David Cameron has given his party much needed momentum by winning the last leaders’ election debate. Most of the major pollsters agree that the Conservative leader was the clear victor, while one, Populous, put Cameron level pegging with Nick Clegg. Gordon Brown, fresh from his travails in Rochdale, trailed the two younger men in every poll. Seymour Major is sceptical , but Conservative supporters will be closely scrutinising tonight’s newscasts, and the Sunday papers, to discern whether Cameron will get a similar bounce when the polling companies survey voting intention. Although their accuracy is questionable, it would settle Tory nerves considerably if the party’s poll figures began to edge out of the mid thirties, towards forty per cent. And I believe that, as election day draws closer, support for the Liberal Democrats will soften, to the Conservatives’ advantage. In Northern Ireland we are accustomed to the distortion of opinion polls by a so-c...

Just to follow up on the manifesto launch on Monday, UCUNF have now released Mike Nesbitt's speech as a short video.

Let's face it, we're all very good at making sweeping predictions about how the general election might pan out. And sometimes the heart plays more of a role than the head. Stratagem, the Northern Ireland public affairs and lobbying company, is asking politicos to put their powers of prophesy to the test, by taking part in its prediction competition . The concept is simple. Just choose your winner in each of the eighteen constituencies here. The most accurate punter will receive a signed copy of the above artwork, by Northern Ireland's best known political cartoonist, Ian Knox. The entry from is located here . I've has a punt already and, after next week's count, I'll post up how I got on.