Posted on 05/06/2005 12:05:37 PM PDT by MadIvan
Ulster Unionist leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble has lost his seat in Parliament, as his party's vote collapsed in the General Election.
The Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party candidate David Simpson took the Upper Bann seat in Northern Ireland.
Mr Trimble's defeat was a hammer blow for his party, which has seen a substantial swing across Northern Ireland to the DUP.
Earlier, the DUP's Sammy Wilson captured Roy Beggs's seat in East Antrim, while nationalist SDLP deputy leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell sensationally gained South Belfast from the UUP.
There was another DUP gain in Antirm South, and former UUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson - now DUP - took Lagan Valley.
The defeat also cast major doubt on Mr Trimble's future as Ulster Unionist leader.
In 1997, under his leadership, the UUP won 10 of Northern Ireland's 18 seats.
Eight years later, UUP sources were privately conceding the party could emerge from the General Election with just one seat.
An emotional Mr Trimble said he was proud of his 15-year record serving Upper Bann in the House of Commons and now Northern Ireland was in a much stronger position.
He acknowledged it had been a successful election for the DUP.
Mr Trimble said: "The DUP will know that with success comes responsibility. I believe they have inherited from Ulster Unionism a very strong position for unionism and I hope they manage to safeguard that position over the course of the months to come."
DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said Mr Trimble had paid the price at the ballot box for his poor stewardship of unionism.
"The lesson is you cannot play fast and loose with the electorate and get away with it," the East Belfast MP said.
"Slowly but surely he has been held to account by the Unionist electorate."
What this means is that the peace process in NI is in kind of a limbo - people want peace and it is more peaceful there, but the politicians don't want to agree on a final settlement. We live in interesting times.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
What does this mean for the labour /tory /ldp?
Don't leave this site.
Nice to see you are still here.
It doesn't mean anything for the other parties - Northern Ireland has its own political parties which are separate from the others in the UK. However, it does make negotiations for the Northern Ireland peace much more difficult for Blair.
Regards, Ivan
A brit on the election thread said that these parties do tend to align with labour/tory for most votes, no?
The UUP went from a plurality of 6 seats down to 1 and are basically dead last on the tote board. The DUP is now up on 9 seats, which is very nearly a NI majority, and Sinn Fein is in the plus column. I don't proclaim to know what it all means, but I assume it means a huge shift in the political direction of Northern Ireland.
"people want peace..."
If people truly wanted peace they wouldn't elect DUP and SF. They'd shut both those parties out and vote in UUP and SDLP.
I should clariy, I do know personally that most of the people there do want peace - they just have a funny way of showing it. They're sick of gun running, drug dealing, bank robbing, punishment shooting thugs from all paramilitaries, yet they elect politicians who are so diametrically apart that nothing will get accomplished.
IMO, these elections normally don't matter so much. First of all because SF won't even take their seats in Westminster. Must be nice to get all that money and do - as they say in Ireland fu**all. At least our politicians show up (most of the time). This election was symbolic though, in that nationalists/republicans showed they don't care what the PIRA has done in the past 6 months and don't care that Gerry continues to be a terrorist apologist.
The true test will be whenever they bring Stormont back and have those elections.
Like I said, I'm not much of a follower of Northern Irish politics, so I really have no basis to say what this all means, if anything. I do get the sense from this thread, though, that they are putting forth a harder line on negotiations with Westminster.
They are definitely putting forth a harder line - the unionists by electing DUP, who will not share government with SF. And the nationalists for electing SF - a sort of "you can't go around making all these accusations against the IRA and try to disenfranchise us"
Ivan,
Don't go anywhere and ignore the damn trolls(*).
Alex
(*) I am not referring to anything or anyone in particular on this thread.
How did the Alliance party do? They always seemed the most reasonable to me. What am I saying? Can you actually use the word reasonable and Northern Ireland Politics in the same sentence. I'm sure something somewhere blew up.
Hey you're back. I knew you loved us too much. I told you a pint would make it all good.lol. 'Bout to go have me one(one, yeah right). Have a good weekend.
Thanks for the ping, my mailbox was a bit emptier than usual today. :>)
The Alliance Party didn't win any of the 18 seats, though I don't know how many they were running for. And, it was a surprisingly quiet election as far as bombs go.
East Belfast : Peter Robinson (DUP)
South Belfast : Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP)
West Belfast : Gerry Adams (SF)
North Belfast: Nigel Dodds (DUP)
North Down : Sylvia Hermon (UUP)
North Antrim :Ian Paisley (DUP)
East Antrim : Sammy Wilson (DUP)
South Antrim : Rev William McCrea (DUP)
Lagan Valley : Jeffrey Donaldson (DUP)
Foyle : Mark Durkan (SDLP)
Fermanagh South Tyrone : Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Fein)
West Tyrone: Pat Doherty (Sinn Fein)
Newry and Armagh: Conor Murphy (Sinn Fein)
South Down: Eddie McGrady (SDLP)
Upper Bann: David Simpson (DUP)
Mid Ulster: Martin McGuinness (Sinn Fein)
East Londonderry: Gregory Campbell (DUP)
Strangford: Iris Robinson (DUP)
bttt
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