Westminster Elections are underway in NI

national | politics / elections | opinion/analysis Friday April 08, 2005 20:28 by NI voter

SF support Euro, DUP praise Bush's re-election

It will be an interesting election. The wipe-out of SDLP and UUP may happen due to growth of SF and DUP. Apart from head-count, what are the issues.

If you visit the www.bbc.co.uk website you will see that you can compare and contrast the positions of the various parties. This may lead to some surprises. You may be surprised to see that Sinn Fein support the Euro currency. I wonder how that will go down in the South if it became known. If you search their website you won't find a word of it, but it's on the BBC wesbite. Maybe is it that they are in favour in North but not in South? Some All-Ireland party!

On the war on Iraq both the DUP and UUP support the war. In fact DUP 'welcomed' the re-election of George Bush. The UUP and DUP think that Blair is a hypocrite as he won't take on terrorism as he did in Iraq! So what next an invasion, thousands of innocent deaths, poverty, and US firms stealing the wealth of the North. Great policy from the UUP and DUP.

But of course issues are likely not to be discussed in NI. It's a sectarian head count! I'm sure the working class voters of DUP and SF do not support the war or the Euro as their bourgeois parties do. In West Tyrone the issue of the hospital cuts may be an issue due to Kieran Deeney's candidature. When he ran in Assembly election he took on SF, SDLP, DUP, UUP, et al on it and topped the poll. It will be interesting to see if he wins the seat off SF (who have an inconsistent policy on the closure of the 2 local hospitals). Looks like I'll be writing a protest slogan on my ballot paper this year again..... I've 3 weeks to think of a good one!