Arlene, Edwin, her replacement and his replacement as leader of the DUP

hardybuck

Unionism, and the unionist parties, are in a state of crisis. Poots is understandably rattled and trying to rally support from his own people who put him into the leadership position.

He's got to deal with the following issues facing the party, the poor chap:

Betrayal by London - Boris doesn't need them anymore.

Internal dissent within the party.

The constant whiff of scandal.

Loss of the Stormont majority.

A border in the Irish sea.

Being pressured into allowing reforms like marriage equality and abortion.

The Scots pushing for independence.

realdanbreen

By in effect holding Therese Mays government to ransom when she was dependent on the DUP vote in the house of commons the DUP effectively did more to speed up the ditching of the 6 counties by London than any other party in the north. A grinning Dodds and Foster walking in and out of Downing street with an "up yours" swagger did not go down well with the Tories.

FrancieBrady

I'd be amazed if it was as bad as 10...but who am I?

https://twitter.com/EamonnMallie/status/1398207924309221378

Fionn1952

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I'd be amazed if it was as bad as 10...but who am I?

https://twitter.com/EamonnMallie/status/1398207924309221378

I'd say the, 'but SF' scaremongering in the run up to election will be at full force and that'll pull some of their losses back, but I can't see it being enough to avoid their doomsday scenario of a SF First Minister; hence Poots' decision in advance to attempt to diminish the significance of the position.

breezy1985

Fionn1952 wrote: »

I'd say the, 'but SF' scaremongering in the run up to election will be at full force and that'll pull some of their losses back, but I can't see it being enough to avoid their doomsday scenario of a SF First Minister; hence Poots' decision in advance to attempt to diminish the significance of the position.

Pretty smart move to split the position of DUP leader and deputy first minister

BonnieSituation

Hamsterchops wrote: »

Basically Varadkar & Coveney stoked up people's fears so much about a HARD land border being erected (literally) between NI & here, that all the pressure was then concentrated on creating a new border down the Irish sea!

I get where Poots is coming from, I understand what he's saying, there was such a massive emphasis on keeping the GFA and respecting the GFA (when there was no threat to the GFA), and making sure that there were zero border checks, (not even remote checks) and that all of EU-UK checks were to be done East-West, and West-East, which was obviously going to rattle Unionism and the internal UK market.

Remember all the talk about "The all island economy " how the all island economy must be protected at all costs, the all island economy was the most important thing of all....Brussels got this message LOUD & CLEAR from Coveney, but what of the much bigger internal UK economy?

Just the odd mention that the NI-GB market is far far bigger than "the all island exonomy", but just like the land border, Varadkar & Coveney shouted much much louder than Arlene, and the Unionist voice was sidelined by Boris, so Poots can blame Foster, Varadkar, Coveney and Johnson who all had their part to play in damaging the internal UK East-West market.

Brexit was always a bad & stupid idea anyway.

Is this your opinion or are you playing devil's advocate? You've been hanging around downcow too long.

When the Partitionists are turning against FG you know that they're doing something right

BonnieSituation

FrancieBrady wrote: »

I'd be amazed if it was as bad as 10...but who am I?

https://twitter.com/EamonnMallie/status/1398207924309221378

Sorry, I can only get so excited.

FrancieBrady

Arlene confirms she is leaving the DUP. One wonders will Donaldson, Campbell, and Dodds etc follow suit.


https://twitter.com/qnewsdesk/status/1398245228377747462

breezy1985

How does the Assembly work. Does the biggest party automatically get first minister or is it put to a vote like the Dail ?

Can Foster and others leave the party but still vote for a DUP first minister ?

Fionn1952

breezy1985 wrote: »

How does the Assembly work. Does the biggest party automatically get first minister or is it put to a vote like the Dail ?

Can Foster and others leave the party but still vote for a DUP first minister ?

The largest designated Nationalist party and the largest designated Unionist party will take the offices of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Whichever of those parties is the larger of the two will have First Minister and the other DFM.

If, hypothetically the Alliance Party were returned as the largest or second largest party, as things stand they could not appoint a FM or DFM, as they are designated neither Nationalist nor Unionist.


If (very hypothetically) SF were the largest party, Alliance second largest and SDLP third largest, SF would appoint a First Minister, but Alliance/SDLP would not be able to appoint a DFM, the post would still be appointed by the largest Unionist party, even if they were the 4th biggest overall. Obviously that particular circumstance is unlikely to actually occur any time in the foreseeable future.

breezy1985

Fionn1952 wrote: »

The largest designated Nationalist party and the largest designated Unionist party will take the offices of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Whichever of those parties is the larger of the two will have First Minister and the other DFM.

If, hypothetically the Alliance Party were returned as the largest or second largest party, as things stand they could not appoint a FM or DFM, as they are designated neither Nationalist nor Unionist.


If (very hypothetically) SF were the largest party, Alliance second largest and SDLP third largest, SF would appoint a First Minister, but Alliance/SDLP would not be able to appoint a DFM, the post would still be appointed by the largest Unionist party, even if they were the 4th biggest overall. Obviously that particular circumstance is unlikely to actually occur any time in the foreseeable future.

So Foster has left the party so that leaves the top 2 level so one more resignation and O'Neill is FM next week or is there more to it ?

Loafing Oaf

Fionn1952 wrote: »

The largest designated Nationalist party and the largest designated Unionist party will take the offices of First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Whichever of those parties is the larger of the two will have First Minister and the other DFM.

If, hypothetically the Alliance Party were returned as the largest or second largest party, as things stand they could not appoint a FM or DFM, as they are designated neither Nationalist nor Unionist.

I dimly remember some suggestion years ago that Alliance would designate themselves as one or the other to get past some crisis in the powersharing set-up...

josip

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

I dimly remember some suggestion years ago that Alliance would designate themselves as one or the other to get past some crisis in the powersharing set-up...

I think that would be unlikely given that they are fundamentally opposed to the power sharing part of the GFA.
I can't ever foresee a crisis in the power sharing in the lifetime of NI, there will always be some Unionist and some Nationalist party.
And politicians will gravitate to whichever party on either side is most likely to get into power.

Fionn1952

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

I dimly remember some suggestion years ago that Alliance would designate themselves as one or the other to get past some crisis in the powersharing set-up...

It'd be political suicide for them considering how significant the proportion of their voters who do so specifically because they don't designate.

arctictree

breezy1985 wrote: »

So Foster has left the party so that leaves the top 2 level so one more resignation and O'Neill is FM next week or is there more to it ?

I assume she can leave the party but still retain her seat? Didnt Donnelly do that down here? Elected as Independent but then moved to FF.

breezy1985

arctictree wrote: »

I assume she can leave the party but still retain her seat? Didnt Donnelly do that down here? Elected as Independent but then moved to FF.

Yes but if she is not counted as DUP anymore then DUP don't have a majority for FM. The seat doesn't matter it what she is aligned to that counts

That's what I was asking does she need to be officially part of the DUP to count or can she be independent and vote for DUP nomination for FM

Normal One

Loafing Oaf wrote: »

I dimly remember some suggestion years ago that Alliance would designate themselves as one or the other to get past some crisis in the powersharing set-up...

My dim recollection is that they are designated as unionist for the purposes of choosing to keep the six counties in the status quo.

RandomViewer

Poots doesn't want to be FM which makes me think they'll collapse the Executive when Arlene stands down

Cazale

The PSNI have launched an investigation after a complaint was made to them alleging UDA threats against Donaldsons team.

BonnieSituation

RandomViewer wrote: »

Poots doesn't want to be FM which makes me think they'll collapse the Executive when Arlene stands down

He doesn't want to be FM now as he'll be dFM after the next election and he won't recover from that. This way he thinks he'll avoid that tainted feeling.

josip

BonnieSituation wrote: »

He doesn't want to be FM now as he'll be dFM after the next election and he won't recover from that. This way he thinks he'll avoid that tainted feeling.

So whoever he suggests for the position knows they are being put forward to take one for the team.

Shebean

I think the DUP will begin to decline further in popularity. If they don't become more liberal they'll die off. Poots will stick with his creationism.

BonnieSituation

Shebean wrote: »

I think the DUP will begin to decline further in popularity. If they don't become more liberal they'll die off. Poots will stick with his creationism.

It's already happening.

No point in being liberal. They may as well merge with the UUP at that point.

Like Unionism, they're on the way.

BonnieSituation

josip wrote: »

So whoever he suggests for the position knows they are being put forward to take one for the team.

That's my read

---

Then again, this might be bull and they'll just collapse the assembly.

breezy1985

BonnieSituation wrote: »

That's my read

---

Then again, this might be bull and they'll just collapse the assembly.

Total uncompromising belligerence will be their one and only policy now. We're all the way back to Ulster says NO to everything

Seth Brundle

breezy1985 wrote: »

Total uncompromising belligerence will be their one and only policy now. We're all the way back to Ulster says NO to everything

All the while, their behaving in a manner that is not at all in the best interests of their constituents.

TheValeyard

So it's all going wrong for the DUP?


























Great

Galwayguy35

Christian Jessen probably wishes he just deleted the tweet saying Arlene was playing away with another fella, £125 k will soften his cough a bit.

He's tweeting now asking people to support his GoFundMe page.

ohnonotgmail

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

Christian Jessen probably wishes he just deleted the tweet saying Arlene was playing away with another fella, £125 k will soften his cough a bit.

He's tweeting now asking people to support his GoFundMe page.

not forgetting the legal costs for both sides so you could probably double that.

BonnieSituation

BonnieSituation wrote: »

Then again, this might be bull and they'll just collapse the assembly.

Unionism collapsing the assembly risks joint authority over NI.And it's not like Boris would be afraid of shafting them. But, the DUP are reckless enough to chance it - channeling BREXITWOULDBETHEBESTTHINGEVER!