Anyone following the Stormont election results?

[percypig]

I’ve been voting for more than 25 years, and most of the time my vote has felt a bit wasted. There’s still so much division here, still so many driven by fear rather than hope. I don’t agree with all of Alliance’s policies, and no politician is perfect.

BUT - for Alliance to take a seat in North Antrim, to be 17 votes away from possibly taking one in East L’Derry, to take 2 in Strangford…and so on, gives me so much hope!

Is there anyone elected who will "move heaven and earth" to get justice for Noah and Fiona Donohue ?

@hopeishere I don't feel I know enough about NI politics to comment.
I'd vote Alliance or SDLP.

Is there anyone elected who will "move heaven and earth" to get justice for Noah and Fiona Donohoe ?

Certainly not Alliance's Naomi Long. There are recent comments on the election on these threads here:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/craicnet/3951182-Noah-Donohoe

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4537366-aibu-to-want-to-know-the-truth-about-this

Edwin Poots was very astute at the count , observing that ppl are coalescing around the Alliance. But he can't join the dots . Moderate Unionists voted for a party which will not wreck the Protocol or the GFA. Only 10% of DUP / UVF supporters mentioned the Protocol in surveys. Health is their no 1 priority. When Edwin was asked why this might be he waffled for a bit before saying ' they don't understand the implications '. As for a Referendum , there won't be one any time soon. People have learned from the Brexit disaster. A simple yes / no binary question would lead to chaos or worse. There would need to be more options. Maybe a federal system. A fudge a messy compromise but who cares ? Better than war. Meanwhile the North is in a good place : free trade with the EU and with Britain. Well that's my tuppence worth from Cork. Basically we're easy with whatever people in Belfast agree on.

Not point of thread but I’ve always thought Stormont is the most amazing looking building inside and out. 10 Downing Street is not a patch on it. It has White House vibes imo. It’s magnificent.

It is , albeit faintly ridiculous. Leinster House is sort of anonymous by comparison. Even Áras an Uachtarán is quite modest.

I’m in North Antrim and for years people delightedly told me I was wasting my vote on Alliance which is a ridiculous statement to make but of course designed to try and align everyone into one voting pattern to keep the other side out. Out of what exactly I never could understand ! “ They”were always in …and always will be in somewhere.

I put alliance first and then transferred to everyone else on that slip bar DUP/ Sf/ and Tuv as i just can’t stand any of them.

I really thought Patricia was going to lose to Storey so was so delighted she got through.

Im actually annoyed that the media has made much ado about Sinn Fein being the largest party. It’s good for them but it surely isn’t as significant as the surge the centre ground has had. Sinn Fein don’t actually have any more seats than they got in 2017… the exact same number of 27.

the media has always been determined to ignore the centre ground and the people who don’t want to identify as either green or orange. I don’t think they can be ignored much longer. The system needs reformed so that a centre party can lead. The big 2 are both threatened by alliance. I think they feel much more threatened by alliance than each other. DUP and SF actually need each other so that they can frighten their voters into voting for them. Young people now are not one bit interested in fighting bar a few areas where youngsters probably don’t have much hope or prospects and are easily led by adults. I think the trend towards alliance will continue and that will petrify the big parties. I think the census results when published later this year will show similar trends. Less people identifying along religious lines and more people feeling free to state they don’t identify as either.

My 10 year old son watched the news with me today and noticed the reporting on Sinn Fein. He asked me if Sinn Fein getting in means that he will now get his medical consultation that he has been waiting on for 30 months ( minor condition) ….. I said probably not son!

we shall wait with anticipation. We are only interested in bread and butter issues and that is the same for most people. But all you’ll see in news is same old border poll vs protocol stuff. The media proclaims that DUP lost seats as their voters were angry about the protocol. In my experience that is not true. people are angry about the health service and are fed up to the back teeth with collapsed stormont. I think what has actually happened is that the DUP had some voters before who only voted for them because they were told to by older family members. Now after the pandemic and cost of living rises those voters have moved away and voted for people who they think will actually sort out the day to day stuff. Look at how well Robin Swann did in North Antrim. People were grateful for all he did in pandemic. Whereas what did Frew and Storey do? I haven’t a clue…cos all I hear from DUP is same old bitter crap.

But DUP did lose some votes to the more extreme TUV ? Mostly though people don't seem bothered about the protocol. If it continues to work it might in fact keep the status quo going for years if not decades? The Alliance supports the status quo therefore they are a unionist party albeit very liberal and progressive. So why should they not supply the First Minister or Deputy if they win enough seats?

Alliance are NOT a Unionist party at all as they designate as Other in Stormont. They do have voters from both main communities.

Alliance can be said to be pro-Northern Ireland and there's nothing wrong with that.

No that's a perfectly valid position. Does it mean an independent N. Ireland state? They are certainly not nationalists and I assume not republican. I always assumed they wanted to keep the status quo which is that N Ireland remains in the UK. Again nothing wrong with that point of view. I still don't see why they shouldn't take the FM role tbh? Perhaps the GFA needs tweaking

There are some of the elected alliance members who came from catholic school backgrounds which in the old days would have meant society labelled them as nationalist. Same with other members coming from controlled or “Protestant”schooling. They label themselves as other.

so it can’t be assumed what any of their personal beliefs are on the constitutional status of NI. But it shouldn’t be assumed they automatically are unionist.
they have said in the past they would make a decision if the border vote ever came depending on how it was presented. They also voted to remain in EU because they saw the value in maintaining good connections with ROI. But they also see the same value in GB. In the meantime they are committed to making the devolved government work.

Sure can. Will this suffice ? 🍀😊

Interesting people saying the Republic don't want the North.? I'm on the border and the consensus is it should be one country,suppose maybe people further south don't have the same connection...