NI Dec 22 Assembly Election

Fine!

Because youd get endless muppets screaming about elections being stolen just because they lost. I can hear the 'fenan coders rigged thon machines hai' already

I have to hand it to sf. The pr is second to none. The best by some distance on the entire British isles. I have watched this element of what they do for a while now and am in awe.

the best thing possible for unionism now is for them to sweep to power in roi.

they have a perfect storm currently ie

• endless money to spend on professional PR
• in opposition in roi so no responsibility or hard decisions
• no stormont so can blame the Brits for all the woes in the north (even with sitting stormont they still do this)
• poster girls fronting the party, with men in back rooms telling them what to say, what to do, where to go, even what clothes to wear

this is the American model on steroids

the sooner they are in power and caught on the better

unionism could learn a lot from them without getting quite so false and plastic

Good points Downcow, but will SF get into power in Ireland?

I am still not convinced personally.

Will they be the largest party at the GE? Yes, almost certianly.

But they wont have a majority and will need FF or FG as a Coalition partner.

I think these 2 will again close ranks on SF, especially because SF have attacked both Leo and MM so much over housing, immigration etc and I think there is a genuine dislike of SF as a result amongst leadership.

I predict more of the same for Irish government and same too for NI, as I still dont see Stormont sitting as the DUP will not get what they want from Rishi or the EU on the Windsor Framework.

Same story, different day.

I take your point but hope you are wrong. We desperately need sf in power in roi. I am sorry you need to suffer that for a term but that will blow away the pr and get down to reality

No, it's very transparent what you are doing.

You are refusing to accept your own part in your own downfall.

It isn't because SF are better at PR. Your own electorate is telling you clearly what is wrong by heading for the middle ground.

The UUP vote falls and the TUV vote falls and all the DUP can achieve out of that is to stay the same. That has nothing to do with SF and everything to do with what Unionism is offering.

The laughable thing is you are now depending on SF to rescue you. Bizarre.

It’s American politics on steroids. It will burst.

Thanks Downcow.

We shall see. Personally, I wouldnt like to see SF in power in Ireland because I dont see how it will be a progressive step for the country.

I dont think they will be able to build the houses we need because we dont have the labour force to do so and the planning regs will take a long time to overhaul.

I do see them becoming more hostile to the golden goose of multinational business, that the currenr govt, for all their faults, have courted with adroitness.

Ireland, as a nation, has benefitted from this tremendously.

IDA and others do a steller job here also.

Dont get me wrong, i am not saying all the heavy lifting is done by the govt.

But the govt grease the wheels and enable the Multinationals and i love the diverse, highly renumerated society we have as a result in Ireland today. (and lets not forget the Corporate Tax receipts!)

I dont see what SF bring to the party.

The youth of ireland, that are rightly upset sbout the cost of living and scarcity of housing, will find no answers in the hands of SF.

Demographics are against unionists. The voting pool shrinks every election. If you were a unionist the age demographics wouldn’t fill you with hope. From the last census.

The highest % of protestant (64%) by age group is the over 90s. The lowest % of catholics (25.8%) is in the 90+ category as well. The % of Protestants decreases with age and 60-64 is the last time it’s at 50% or above. 

By 45-49 there’s less than 3% points in it. 40-44 it’s 1%. The 35-39 age group is the first time age group that catholics out number Protestants(41.5% vs 37.8%) . 30-34 age group it’s widens massively(44% vs 34.3%) The youngest category 0-4 has the smallest % of Protestants with 31.7%. 

DUP is too inward looking, if their traditional voting pool keeps shrinking then they’re going to have branch out to attract voters outside their traditional base but they seem incapable of that thus far. Dinosaur denying creationists at the helm will only take you so far.

No comparison francie. Tel me honestly francie, let’s just take the clothing for now - do you think the dress code was not arranged by their pr?

fyi I put the scenario to ChatGPT and it came back with odds of nearly 2,000,000 to one that Marley Lou and O’Neil would both wear same colour tops and bottoms and none of the greeting crowd would have either red or black on them. But sure it was all just coincidence. No way would sf tell their poster girls what to were.

I guess it was also coincidence that the greeting crowd on camera all clapped, and only clapped, while a crowd off camera cheered loudly. Coincidence my bum

…an of course they all happened to be standing in a nice semi circle at the top of the stairs and no one went down to meet them. What planet are you on

What ever % of catholics are pro union won’t come close to replenishing the unionists who are dying out, almost 2/3s of over 90s are from a Protestant background, it’s less than 1 in 3 in under 4s. There’s also some Protestants who are for a UI albeit small.

Regardless those from a Nationalist or Unionist background are more likely to vote that way than to vote for a party on the opposite side.

Do you think the DUP should go back to stormont?

This election and previous had Unionists offerings make no ground and Unionist vote share is falling.

All Unionists would be offering is more of the same in a border poll while others would be offering the UI plan/White Paper.

When that happens then opinion polls will be relevant because now you are asking people to decide on guesswork about what a UI will offer.

So is this THE strategy now for nationalism up north? Tell the women to lie back and think of Stormont and let's outbreed them! I suppose it might work over a few decades.