{"id":73,"date":"2010-05-13T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T14:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedissenter.co.uk\/?p=414"},"modified":"2010-05-13T15:05:01","modified_gmt":"2010-05-13T14:05:01","slug":"commentary-will-resume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/?p=73","title":{"rendered":"Commentary will resume\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Perhaps thedissenter<\/em><\/strong> should have commented in the run up to, and during, the election in Northern Ireland. But the build up to, and conduct of, the local campaigns was not exactly exciting; business beckoned, a\u00a0bit of travel to be done,\u00a0and it was time for a break.<\/p>\n

So in retrospect and to bring thedissenter<\/em><\/strong> up to date\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/span>Campaigning for the Westminster election in Northern Ireland had an air of reluctance, or nervousness; perhaps born out of uncertainty as to how the election\u00a0would impact on\u00a0the local\u00a0Parties. Politics in Northern Ireland seems to have descended into a tactical contest, where any greater purpose to gaining power has been lost in the pursuit of power itself (or clinging on to the certainty of what is already held). The Westminster campaigns in Northern Ireland seemed more of a prelude to the 2011 Assembly elections than one of national consequence.<\/p>\n

The SDLP had a new leader trying to hold its vote and not lose ground to Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein ran the same old faces, and hoped to gain ground on the SDLP.\u00a0 Both nationalist parties\u00a0begged the same votes for the same romantic notion of a united Ireland at the end of the rainbow when all would be well and good \u2013 earlier, Brian Cowan had set out the real politic and focusing on bigger issues<\/a>\u00a0on St Patrick\u2019s Day.\u00a0\u00a0Other than for tactical considersations of the least worst option, neither nationalist Party appealed to the electorate that matters to their ultimate aspiration (again, see Brian Cowan\u2019s words).<\/p>\n

Peter Robinson gave himself a bad press on the eve of the election, which didn\u2019t seem to impact on the Party as a whole. The UUP\/Conservative grouping gave the appearance of being as disorganised as the huckster\u2019s shop in which it continues to hold two Executive seats. The newcomers, the Traditional Unionist Voice, were the great unknown factor and a first-past-the-post Westminster election was the worst outing a fledgling party could face.<\/p>\n

The Alliance Party and Naomi Long? Bless.<\/p>\n

The\u00a02009 European election showed, at least on the\u00a0Unionist side, that the electorate no longer swallowed the warnings of the doomsayers, nor feared the Sinn Fein bogeymen on which many election strategies were based.\u00a0A large proportion voted and damn the consequences.\u00a0 For 2010 Westminster the unionist electorate was largely more circumspect, but hardly enthusiastic: evidenced in Fermanagh South Tyrone. Unionism is past anger; frustrated and petulant, but not angry. The simple interpretion on\u00a0the electoral fortunes of the three unionist Party leaders is: \u2018 a plague on all your houses\u2019.<\/p>\n

Unionism is in flux, and May 6th has not provided any clarity on the questions that should be asked let alone provide any answers. That debate will continue <\/a>and is to be welcomed.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland\u2019s 18 Westminster seats were always going to be filled, even if choice in voting preference was diminished by the available options being well and truly woeful.\u00a0 In general, commentary and analysis on the election results has been mostly inward rather than outward. The now marginal status of all local parties at Westminster may tend to exacerbate that focus. Yet change is always a time of opportunuity. The new consensus in Government at Westminster, for as long as it can last, offers such opportunity if grasped.<\/p>\n

If this post seems to ramble a little it is because thedissenter<\/strong><\/em> is in a process of thinking,\u00a0reassessing fundamentals, throwing the bricks in the air and rebuilding ideas. That may take some time.\u00a0Absence has not brought any conclusions. In the meantime regular commentary will resume once the electoral dust has settled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps thedissenter should have commented in the run up to, and during, the election in Northern Ireland. But the build up to, and conduct of, the local campaigns was not exactly exciting; business beckoned, a\u00a0bit of travel to be done,\u00a0and it was time for a break. So in retrospect and to bring thedissenter up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www1.thedissenter.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}