Sinn Féin will not contest the East Belfast, North Down, South Belfast and Lagan Valley constituencies in the Westminster election

by ConversationHuge3908

16 comments

  1. MMMM Lagen Valley. Good call, they can’t win and the DUP can certainly lose.

    Uno reverse carding the Unionist bloc.

  2. Also bodes well for Claire Hanna in South. But wish I had the full roster of parties. Have some balls like.

  3. Sinn Fein won’t stand in North Down, no shit sherlock 🤣

  4. Everyone here pissing their pants yesterday about DUP doing this in Fermanagh South Tyrone. I’m assuming a similar rate of incontinence this time?

  5. Wasn’t this sub in a meltdown whenever the DUP said they weren’t standing in FST? Wonder if we ll see the same outrage over this?

  6. This is just a farce now.

    DUPTUV – must keep the Shinners out

    SF – need anyone but Duppers to win

    Voting System needs to change

  8. Didn’t they hand north Belfast to SF a few years ago by withdrawing a candidate?.

    Is north belfast better served now I wonder?

    Is it better to have a (less favoured) candidate capable of participating and lobbying on behalf of a particular constituency in some fashion vs one rendered unable to through abstentionist party policy?.

    The candidate who replaced the dup in North Belfast made a very pointed remark during their acceptance speech re doing more to tackle the mental health or suicide crisis in north Belfast.

    Have those pledges been upheld? .

    What are the stats like there now for those things vs previous to the current MPs appointment there (out of curiosity)?

    Some probably consider it deeply unfortunate sdlp lacked the pull there to win the seat or a party with a more cross sectional ethos – such as alliance haven’t made significant enough inroads there needed to gain the seat and serve all constituents there through collective lobbying on their behalf in Westminster.

    Strip away posturing and rhetoric..Dup and abstentionist MPs (despite occupying different positions on the political spectrum ) seem to yield the same less than enviable outcomes on the ground for the particular respective constituencies they’re appointed to represent.(Ironically). Especially the inner city ones.

  9. No major surprises here. Most of these places had no SF candidates in 2019.

    The real question is are they standing and pushing hard in any surprising places?

  10. It will be interesting to see if the UUP pull out of eg. Lagan Valley (8,600 votes in 2019) or East Belfast (2,500 in 2019) in response.

  11. Getting the DUP out is objectively a good thing. They’re a backward band of bigots who would find a home in the US Republican Party and far right parties across Europe. They’re also deeply opposed to workers’ rights, renters’ rights, women’s rights, LGBT rights. They hate Irish culture, disabled people, the unemployed, migrants and anyone that isn’t a white Protestant farmer. There is nothing sectarian about recognising this and taking steps to reduce their political representation and influence in our society. Don’t buy into the “both sides” crap. Not everything has to be equivalent. 

  14. Hoping to get a decent SDLP candidate in North Down.

    Otherwise I’ll never vote basically.

  16. More election pacts, lovely. I suppose we can count on Alliance & SDLP announcing they won’t be standing in North Belfast soon? I can see SDLP pulling out of North Down too, they did in 2019.

    East Belfast and North Down are mostly irrelevant anyway in fairness, but SF usually put up a half decent showing in South Belfast, so it’s infuriating they are just handing the seat to the SDLP so the DUP definitely don’t get it.

    The vote will likely be incredibly tight in Lagan Valley too, so there’s definitely a good chance those 1000 or so SF voters get Alliance across the line despite the fact Lagan Valley has a fairly large unionist majority.

    FPTP once again shitting on the notion of democracy.

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