Can UKIP save the Northern Ireland economy?
The news that UKIP intends to contest Assembly elections in Northern Ireland emerged toward the end of last week. Yesterday the BBC carried a brief snippet about the story, including reaction from deputy leader, Paul Nuttall, who reckons that ’a fragmentation of unionism’ makes it a great time for the party to become involved in politics here. That’s an odd reading of the political mood, by any stretch of the imagination. UKIP struggles to attract attention in the rest of the UK, other than at European elections and the field already looks rather crowded for the Stormont poll, next May. It’s just about possible that, in a proportional election, UKIP candidates might claim a few transfers. The party does have a Northern Ireland councillor to its name, Henry Reilly, in Newry and Mourne, although he won his seat as an Ulster Unionist, before defecting in 2007. Perhaps UKIP hopes the Republic’s financial crisis, and its disastrous experience with the Euro might send a w...