One of the strange things about being a political nerd is that I sometimes dream about Politics.
Last night, I dreamed that the DUP had merged with the Alliance Party and Mick Fealty was the Press Officer.
How ridiculous is that?
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Meta
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 
Sounds like a nightmare.
I had cheese on toast before I went to bed. Never a good idea.
Do you think the FF / SDLP alliance will help SDLP in this election or has the SDLP leadership decided not to emphasise it for some reason? (by the way I am personally not in favour of it). I get the impression it is not being mentioned much at this election but wondered what you think.
I think we have to look at the basics. Money dried up in mid 2018. In my view the decision was a bad one because it divided the party. People walked away.
Claire became semi detached (and very attached) when the election was called. Mark Durkan stood for Fine Gael.
We have effectively two campaigns. Fianna Fáil types come up to support Colum. Labour types and assorted “progressives” rally round Claire.
We will win two seats and financialy that’s good…but more so two co-opted MLAs and more staff. And that’s the key point.
Now who those new MLAs will be is awhole different question and the wrong time to think about it.
But I spent about 18 months away from politics and the big thing I notice is that a lot of people have left the Party (that includes me of course) and that is veterans and young folks who have gone into non-party campaigning groups.
Failure breeds Failure.
Success breeds Success.
And some people might be tempted back. Especially as the FF thing becomes irrelevant.
The way I look at it is that in the 1970s, SDLP had a good mix of social democrats and nationalists and those tensions have been obvious in last few years.
It gives SDLP a chance to look at diverse nature of SDLP rather than divisions.
Call it back to basics. Or back to square one. Or with likely euphoria producing a better atmosphere.
Not wishing to count chickens before hatched but who do you think would be coopted for Claire and Colum respectively?
Sorry I just realised you said this is the wrong time to think about it. Ignore my question. We can discuss I HOPE in two weeks time!
we will .
Do you think SDLP needs a new leader now? Who should it be?
Who replaces the two MPs?
It was a great night for the SDLP – were you expecting that? Why did it happen?
I think there were 18 different elections (a cliché I know) but the dynamics were different in each constituency. SDLP success was down to two words “Organisation” and “Luck” and those are words that I dont associate with SDLP. Theres a lot of good signs for SDLP.
New Leader…if needed it should be Nichola but realistically only two candidates Nichola and Danny McCrossan.
I was expecting two wins. But the margins were beyond anything I thought possible. I was thinking Claire by 4,000 and Colum by 2,000.
Co-Options?
Foyle….Mark Durkan (which could be confusing with his nephew Mark H). Brian Tierney or possibly Rory Farrell who is I think Colums right hand man.
South Belfast….Naomh Gallagher was Claires running mate last time and replacing a female with a female seems logical. Naomh is also on the progressive wing. Other runners Donal Lyons (Claires hubby was co-opted as a councillor to replace her) but that seems like nepotism. Gary McKeown, John Gallen (I really like John) and Id expect Seamas de Faoite to put himself forward. But if youd like a long shot….Alex Attwood would add gravitas. Brian Heading would be good also.
The big thing is really extra staff and constituency office.
Thank you. Some age v youth trade-offs there in the cooption.
Fair lay to the SDLP, i’d written them off completely. I thought they were into daily visits from the nurses gig tbh but just like a football team they bounced back and the support rallied.
They had one thing going for them in the last few months that they hadnt had for years…Luck.
Certainly people can see that Eastwood, Hanna and Mallon are on the ball.
Claire will have a long list of ad libs that she can fire across the Commons. And thats a bigger audience than talking to Mark Carruthers on “The View”. A lot of people will enjoy her getting the better of some moron on the Tory benches. Thats a very specific role she has.
I think they are half in and half out of the Executive.
The downside is that they will be outnumbered in the Executive and by DUP and SF SpAds but they can also treat the Assembly with contempt.
Already there is that allegation of bad faith with Patsy McGlone not getting the Speakership.
But just as important is Alex Maskey (yeah that Alex Maskey) turning into John Bercow and telling off Colin McGrath for “insulting” him.
There will be a lot of opportunity for back bench SDLP people to insult the Big Two and hopefully Alliance and UUP join in.
The DUP and SF need the smaller parties as cover.