8 Responses to Periscope post-election musings.

  1. cararua May 8, 2015 at 4:17 pm #

    Hi Jude,

    I enjoyed your musings. Just as good without the comments!

    • Jude Collins May 8, 2015 at 5:26 pm #

      cararua, you are too kind…(blinks back the tears)

  2. Cushy Glen May 8, 2015 at 4:47 pm #

    Jude,

    I know the answer!

    There was no perceivable benefit in the wider sense to the goal that each party espouses ie a united Ireland. So each party reverted to narrow selfish advantage. There was no higher goal that would incentivise SF & SDLP to come together & lift them out of their trench warfare.

    Let’s assume that the SDLP & SF do an electoral pact. What then? A simple sectarian head count in each constituency. What then? Where do you go with that?

    Deadlock between nationalism & unionism once again. I would suggest.

    Somehow ‘nationalism’ in the north of Ireland needs to ask itself some hard questions as to why 100 years after 1916, the religious divide has not been addressed & Protestants in the north have not in anyway been persuaded of the advantages of a united Ireland & the need to vote nationalist.

    Furthermore why has this happened in Scotland? A country with a sectarian past that seems to have been healed to enormous advantage.

    Until these questions are addressed you can have the electoral pacts you want. But they aren’t going anywhere.

  3. angela May 8, 2015 at 5:49 pm #

    Ock Jude I’m here now. I’ve enjoyed your musings. Truth be told Im as gutted as you. So it’s back to the drawing board. Maybe a study of the SNP electoral strategy for the stormont elections next year?

    • Jude Collins May 8, 2015 at 5:52 pm #

      You may be right, Angela. Better a kick in the bum now than in a year’s time..

  4. Cal May 8, 2015 at 7:29 pm #

    SF seem to be coming under all sorts of pressure from outside the party to take seats in Westminster. Personally, the day they do such a thing will be the day I stop voting for them. No self respecting republican should be prepared to swear an oath to the German in London or her sponging off spring.

    SF should take the lessons from this and regroup for next year. When the SDLP lose assembly seats in W.Belfast, W. Tyrone and Upper Bann, the penny might drop.

  5. Alice May 9, 2015 at 5:11 am #

    No need to publish this one J’. :o)

    https://youtu.be/v8yzJvYAoKc

  6. Moz May 10, 2015 at 11:05 am #

    Jude,
    The real issue here is the decline/malaise in the nationalist turnout (see excellent post in slugger). It appears that the demographic time mob has a longer fuse that first thought and this is leading to voter apathy among nationalist and now republican electorate. What to do? In my view we need to come up with a new strategy a la SNP in order to sell the concept of a UI to everyone on both sides of the border.