Assembly Election 22: The campaign so far

While the campaign has not yet officially started the parties are in election mode already. Candidates are being announced, issues are being raised and politicians will be showing up to more and more photoshoots over the next few weeks. So, has anything interesting happened over in the last few weeks?

 

O’Neill vs. Catney

Michelle O’Neill tweeted a video claiming that Sinn Fèin were working on bringing forward a bill to tackle period poverty and ensure free sanitary products for women. A valiant cause, except, Sinn Fèin have not been the driving force behind it. Instead Lagan Valley MLA Pat Catney of the SDLP has spent the last 18 months driving the issue forward and ensuring that the legislation is good to go. The tweet and video have since been deleted, but not before this point was made on Twitter for many to see.

 

Alliance conference

The Alliance Party held its first in person conference since 2019. There was nothing out of the ordinary announced but the party took the chance to platform several new candidates. Naomi Long took the chance to hit out at Stormont’s larger parties and at Boris Johnson. Unfortunately, several key members were missing due to Covid and other reasons but some were able to join via zoom.

 

Donaldson vs. Beattie 

Last year Jeffery Donaldson and Doug Beattie met for coffee after Donaldson had narrowly missed out in the top job at the DUP. It seems that at some stage the two discussed Donaldson rejoining the UUP and that offer was rejected by the now DUP leader. Nolan recently broke this news after teasing a bombshell. Many may see this as a big story, but I struggle to see it that way. It is well known that many DUP members considered leaving the party after Foster’s removal as leader and Poots’ victory, some even did. I don’t think this will have much of an impact on voters, but perhaps it may have an impact on party members. 

 

Integrated education 

The integrated education bill is going through the Assembly. The DUP has said it will use a petition of concern to block it, the UUP will vote against the bill but will not use the petition of concern. The main point of contention for unionist parties is that the bill may lead to a decrease in funding for state schools. A body representing the four largest denominations has urged the Assembly to vote against and maintain that choice should remain in education. Some in the Roman Catholic hierarchy have suggested that the requirements for teachers to be Catholic be removed but that the Roman Catholic ethos should remain in Catholic controlled schools.

 

Ukraine 

It seems that all of our parties are united in their support for Ukraine in the ongoing conflict. Sinn Fèin may have been embarrassed by the apparent views of some members down south however, who have historically refused to condemn Russian claims in Ukraine. Donaldson has defended the Uk approach of not waiving visas for Ukrainians, like many countries including Ireland are, suggesting that Ukrainian refugees do not want to permanently relocate and will wish to return to their homeland after the conflict. Naomi Long has suggested a ‘no fly zone’ should be considered while Doug Beattie, a former soldier, suggests that would be a bad idea and amount to a declaration of war by NATO. 

 

I will keep my eyes open for more campaign news in the coming weeks. For now, things have been relatively quiet, too quiet you might think when it comes to the Northern Ireland protocol.