No real analysis here.
Just for the record and to wind up my “results service”, there was no change.
The three incumbent MEPs have all been returned.
Martina Anderson Sinn Fein
Diane Dodds DUP
Jim Nicholson UUP
Alex Attwood (SDLP) did moderately well. The most progressive candidate, he fought a good campaign.
Jim Allister the TUV dinosaur did well.
As we know now, Anna Lo is leaving politics. I am not entirely convinced that the only issue is Racism. Her campaign began well and Alliance foolishly talked up her chances. But she never really recovered from analysing Norn Iron as a post-colonial problem and seemingly coming out as a nationalist.
The Alliance Party is at heart a liberal unionist party. The deceit is saying that it is a party for unionists and nationalists. Really Alliance operate a “dont ask, dont say” policy and Anna rocked that boat.
After that gaffe, Anna Lo seems to have conducted a fairly lacklustre campaign.
The also rans.
Ross Brown (Green Party) will be happy that he got elected as a councillor in East Belfast (Ormiston) but I think he was a poor candidate, out of his depth. There were bigger names, who would have done better…Steven Agnew, John Barry and Clare Bailey.
Henry Reilly (UKIP)…we have enough sectarian and racist dinosaurs in Norn Iron, without importing UKIP. But Henry did a fine job in making some of our knuckle-draggers look moderate.
The man from the Conservative Party…his name is Brotherston …but I already forget his first name, could not even get elected as a councillor in Bangor.
Tina McKenzie…NI21….what can I say? Absolute disaster when Party members are so let down by their leadership, that some of their council candidates dont even vote for themselves.
Still the NI21 ill wind blew some good for Alliance Party, probably the main beneficiary of the NI21 implosion. From the moment NI21 was launched, Alliance …the market leader in “letsgetalongerism” would have wanted the new party strangled at birth. And…thats exactly what happened.
In less than a decade,the NI21 Story will be a great subject for a Politics Dissertation at Queens. Or a great subject for a conspiracy theorist to blog.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
COMMENT EDITED AS I DONT LIKE THE COMMENTER.
AND HELL WILL FREEZE OVER BEFORE I PUBLISH ANYTHING HE CONTRIBUTES.
Looking at the transfers lo took a large number of potential Attwood votes and alliance might want to cool off on the unionist lite approach as the transfers to sdlp were more than double that for the remaining big 3 unionist candidates
FJH,
From a far I was not too impressed with Alex but I do think he ran a decent campaign. But then again, I see such an opportunity as indicative of where the SDLP are. I compare this to where SF are or have ever been and they can get a sense of momentum behind them by setting certain goals and then achieving them electorally. How this ties in with the SDLP for me is there was this goal where they could try and get a big enough of a ground swell within nationalism to try and get 2 seats instead of just the one. Compare this with the main competition and Martina was able to get the most first preferences, a big achievement.The fact that they didn’t really build any kind of a real groundswell up to try and get people to vote for them and consign the UUP to the dustbin of history says a lot to me.
Perhaps I am being too harsh here, but if the roles were reversed and Hume was topping the polls and it was a straight race between a SF candidate and Nicholson I would imagine SF would stand a far better chance at mobilising support, getting them out and getting a buy in from actual or potential voters to vote for their candidate, I just can never imagine the SDLP in their current guise ever getting any kind of real enthusiasm behind them or any of their candidates.
I know we discussed things and when I had the pleasure of meeting you last you introduced me to a candidate or canvasser, a very able woman who was forthright and a real risk taker, but I just do not see people who we love to call ‘moderates’ getting things done as far too many of them are unwilling to really role up their sleeves and be uncivil with one another. I am not for one second that this was or is the case with your friend, however, I know quite a few SDLP folks too and they are white bread and feel that putting their head above the parapet may offend some. This is not going to win them votes, That or they feel that by having this din or whiney noise about SF wins them votes is, for me, a serious vote loser, It’s up there with when they walk around with a FG, FF and Southern Labour candidate ‘in solidarity’, for me it is a massive put off for me and just smacks of condescension to me.
Otherwise, postcard on the way complete with stamps!
The single biggest disappointment of the elections was that the nationalists did not come out to vote. Thats something that has to be sorted out for 2016.
As to the SDLP…I will be doing a post …specifically about that. Certain amount of Blogging Fatigue these days but the stories keep coming….Anna Lo and the Pastor for example.
SDLP need to honest. There will obviously have to be a de-briefing…what went wrong and what went right…where things went wrong and where things went right….and the people who got things wrong and people who got it right.
I think I said to you last month that I thought the SDLP performance would be patchy.
Id seen enough since I joined the Party to think that they were getting organised better in some places and I thought other places still hadnt “got” it.
I think thats how it turned out.
And thats what I tried to show in the series of ten district council posts and four on Belfast.
If anybody in SDLP (and they wont!!!) asked me, then thats the message I would give them.
The great danger is that the SDLP will only listen to YES men …and women.
Looking forward to the postcard.
What is your view on the constant low tempo drum-beat of support for Fianna Fáil or Labour expanding nationally into the north-east and swallowing the SDLP (or hiving off a fair chunk of it)? Personally I would favour it (apologies!) but I can’t see it happening any time soon.
I’d think the SDLP grabbing some ex-FF/Labour people along the border counties more likely if the party was to think nationally and out-fox SF.
There was a motion at the 2013 SDLP Conference which wanted SDLP to organise in the Republic. It was not actually discussed.
SDLP has some unique selling points that neither Fianna Fail and Labour dont have…and to some extent both are now toxic.
I cant see any reason to hitch up with them.
Interestingly thru the PES connexion there was a lot of goodwill between members of Labour and SDLP.
I think the first task is for SDLP to mop up people like northern trade unionists who have not been as supportive as they should have been.
But this merger thing….Labour, Fianna Fail….and as someone on Slugger suggested…Alliance!!!! No I cant see that.
I could see a few disenchanted ex-Labour/Independent people being tempted by the SDLP brand if it went All-Ireland. Lot of them about at the moment, as you know 😉
Im not sure that Disenchantment is the best reason for people to join a political party. Seems too negative.
Look at NI21.
By the way that mapping out of Election results is great piece of work.
Yeah, those maps are a fantastic resource, especially for anyone looking to build a movement/party or to spot where clusters of support exist.
Quite a few potential SDLP votes in current Labour territory up in Donegal?
Certainly.
Fianna Fail and Labour might be seen as lacking “integrity”. Im biased of course but I think SDLP does have a degree of integrity.