Now that 3 Conservative nominees have withdrawn from the UCUNF candidate selection race, it is questionable whether there is anything of substance left in the so-called electoral pact between the Conservative Party and the UUP.
Sir Reg, on this morning’s Politics Show on BBC NI, made light of the fact that certain individuals were frustrated with slowness of progress. He also repeated that his Party had an agreement with the Conservatives – like it was some type of legally enforceable contract.
But Sir Reg simply doesn’t get it. This pact is in a near-death crisis.
The problem is not just that Conservative nominees are withdrawing from the process – due, in no small part, to the fact that the UUP has been dragging its heels over candidate selection. It’s also the case that the nominees, and a large cohort of local Conservative membership, are losing confidence in the Shadow Secretary of State and his advisers following last week’s Unionist pact talks with the UUP and DUP.
Moreover, as David McNarry highlighted on this morning’s Politics Show, the UUP is determined to retain North Down. However, how can it possibly do so when the incumbent MP shows such hostility to the Conservative Party and the leadership of her own Party?
I do hope that Ian Parsley does not withdraw from the process of candidate selection. Nothing will serve the Conservative interest more than a Conservative nominee for North Down being put up against the incumbent MP. If she is selected and makes clear that she will not run as a Conservative & Unionist candidate then Parsley should be handed the canditature. That will be fun to watch.
It is a total disaster and I blame Reg. He is spineless in the extreme and Lady H should have been told months ago to stand as an independent. I do not believe that the blue rinse brigade in North down are sufficient to beat the natural non-Labour population in the constituency.
If reg hasn’t the balls to stand against her Parsley has no chance.
Jeff, could you please pass this information on to the shadow secretary of state Owen Patterson and members of the NI Conservative party. Notice the UUP never complained back in 2001 against this suggested Green Irish Nationalist pact between SF & SDLP as it is quite legal in political circles to form such a pact. After all the UUP formed a UCUNF pact with the Conservatives for the Westminster 2010 election so why can the UUP and DUP not do likewise for the coming Assembly elections? See Tactical Voting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactical_voting
Sinn Fein, SDLP to have electoral pact talks
13/03/2001 – 18:37:50
Sinn Fein and the SDLP are to begin talks next week on possible electoral pacts for the forthcoming British general election.
Sinn Fein national chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said he had received a letter from his SDLP counterpart Alex Atwood agreeing to discussions.
Both parties are believed to be targeting Ulster Unionist Party-held seats in West Tyrone, Fermanagh/South Tyrone, North Belfast and South Belfast.
Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/archives/2001/0313/ireland/sinn-fein-sdlp-to-have-electoral-pact-talks-6583.html#ixzz0dZx6DiUF
UUP member – I’m really not sure what point you are making here. Of course Nationalist parties (Irish nationalist or Ulster nationalist) parties can form pacts. I just don’t believe the Conservative Party should be part of any of them. The Conservative Party is a national party that seeks votes from people across the United Kingdom – irrespective of faith. The Unionist parties are almost wholly Protestant Parties that seek votes only in Northern Ireland and only from Protestants.
`The Unionist parties are almost wholly Protestant Parties that seek votes only in Northern Ireland and only from Protestants.`..not sure that is true but the fact remains the Conservative Party NI received nominal votes in the last elections. I`m pretty sure most Unionists (both Protestant, Catholic and Other) have sympathies with the Tory party but that doesn`t mean abandoning local issues.
Nor am I suggesting that local issues are abandoned, Kilsally. You are correct that the Conservatives polled poorly locally – but, remember, the Party polled badly nationally too. It’s still not in government. Moreover, traditionally, it has never really sought a manadate to govern Northern Ireland until it entered into this deal with the UUP. The Conservative Party has a real prospect of doing very well here if it defines a new type of politics based within the Union but not based on Unionism. Unionism often sounds very like Ulster nationalism. It’s narrow. We need to widen the debate.
Jeff,
If The Unionist parties are almost wholly Protestant Parties that seek votes only in Northern Ireland and only from Protestants, why did the Conservatives even bother to form a pact with the UUP? Surely this was a big foolish mistake on behalf of David Cameron to begin with?
Yes I agree. It was foolish. A pact with the Alliance Party would have been more useful as Alliance voters are nearly all Conservative, are non-sectarian and are in favour of the union. However, the Conservatives, had they had the resolve, could easily have become a dominant player in Northern Ireland – without the need for any pact.
Tories play ‘orange card’ – SDLP
‘Dr Alasdair McDonnell has written an angry letter to David Cameron
The deputy leader of the SDLP, Alasdair McDonnell, has accused the Conservative Party of sectarianism over its secret talks with the UUP and the DUP.’ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8478174.stm
Jeff
Having produced evidence that SF and SDLP suggested in forming an Green Irish Catholic Nationalist pact in 2001 surely you and the NI Conservatives must agree that Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP for S Belfast is a big hypocrite and both SDLP and SF are as sectarian anti religious bigots as the NI Conservatives accuse the DUP and UUP.
Therefore The NI Conservatives would be much wiser to form a pact with the Alliance or Green parties than get into bed with the UUP?
Well I don’t think the Green Party would want to form a pact with the Conservatives. Nor Alliance for that matter (the Alliance leadership is completely without vision and has no idea what its Party stands for). As for McDonnell – he does have a tendency to spout off about stuff. Technically the SDLP should be in an electoral pact with the UK Labour Party and should take the Labour whip in Westminster – as both parties are aligned to Socialist International. However, McDonnell has ignored this in the past by opposing Labour Party policy e.g. the proposed domestic rates arrangements under direct rule. Therefore he cherry-picks arguments to suit himself and rarely pays much attention to ideology. The SDLP like the UUP is a pointless and irrelevant parochial party with little talent within its ranks.
A deal with the DUP has essentially always been a possible position for the Conservatives to take; the fact that Paterson has been in discussions would appear to me to suggest that internal polling is showing a hung parliament a distinct possibility.
Either the Conservative party is a party of conviction and principle or it isn’t worth having in Northern Ireland. Whilst I have complete faith in David Cameron and the inner circle’s approach to the big picture question of governing the United Kingdom, I am less certain that the approach to Northern Ireland should be left in the hands entirely of Owen Paterson.
I’m of the opinion that the best thing for Northern Ireland is a principled stand which leaves the DUP to do what it has to do, and allows the Conservatives and UUP as a united force to stand against them, providing an opportunity for the people of Northern Ireland to select their path. If this means that SF forms the single biggest party and is entitled to the First Minister position, then it’s incumbent on everyone to take it on the chin, and accept that the split from the Conservatives in 1974 was a bit of an error all round. Isn’t it?
Paterson is doing a fine job – Tory leader
CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron has given his “full support” to Shadow Secretary of State Owen Paterson, amid Tory turmoil at the selection of General Election candidates. http://www.newsletter.co.uk/politics
First, the UUP and Conservative Party were still formally linked until 1985 with representatives on the NUEC until then (though rarely attending),and with places at the Party Conference. It was only a whip thing that divided them at Westminster and that was down to Edward Heath who insisted on not counting Unionist Party seats as Conservative and losing the 1973 election. There is a long history of the unionists and conservatives being close. It was the Anglo-Irish Agreement that split the two parties asunder formally.
The weekend talks were held at Viscount Cranbourne’s place, and Robert Cranbourne has always been a unionist in the widest sense, progressive, but cerrainly seeing not problem with unionist parties and the COnservative Party having close ties.
UCUNF is a mess, but not for the reasons stated here. It has no structure and was always a recipe for disappointment – which is already being proven (earlier that expected). There should be one party or two parties, any middle way structurally would always be disastrous.
The Alliance party has some sort of agreement with the Liberal Democrats, which is why Kennedy was over electioneering some years ago – if either were ever likely to be in Government it might matter. There is no reason on this earth the Alliance party is a sensible, credible or serious partner to the Conservative Party.
The words “Robert Cranbourne” and “progressive” do not make for very savoury bedfellows.
Isn’t this the same man who backed Ian Smith in Rhodesia? The Salisburys have been an inextirpable cancer ever since the days of ‘Liz and Cecil.