SDLP Man's election posters ripped down- AGAIN!

[stevey2005]

Unionist posters are usually subject to be ripped down, especially in high nationalist areas such as Londonderry.

[JCSkinner]

PJ Bradley has had his election posters ripped down, as happened a number of times before in previous elections- when will the idiots that do this realise that their bullying tactics won't stop the people of South Down electing PJ yet again?

I've put the story here: http://elblogador.blogspot.com/2007/02/ ... diots.html

I can only assume that the people doing this are SDLP activists in the vain hope that people will take pity on the SDLP and vote for them.

Sinn Féin will advance in this constituency partly because of the hard work and effectiveness at grass roots level of the local representatives in the area.

It's for statement like that that people assume you're a piss-take, Factual. It's blindingly obvious who is behind this.

Actually its not blindingly obvious JC.. I haven't a clue for example

And, as has already been said, if politics down here are anything to go by, there is as much chance it is a running mate spiking him, as an opponent

I mean Mattie Mc Graths posters were tampered with down here at the weekend, and if I was asked who was behind it, I'd say other FFers

Bradley and Blogador prefer not to name and shame so I'll respect that. But it's not locals and certainly not other SDLP candidates behind this.
Unlike the Gombeen party of the south, the SDLP do not in general practice backstabbing behaviour of this ilk. Indeed, apart from the sporadic inter-unionist spat, party members of all northern parties tend to be loyal almost to a fault to their party structures.

[stevey2005]

Poor Mark Durkan got a balaclava on his last posters

[Seamus]

It could have been MI5.

[Trefor]

I thought it was standard practice to rip down other people's posters during election campaigns.

The best way of doing it is with two guys & a rope. One holds one end, & the other holds the opposite end, you stand on each side of the poster & swing the rope over the poster. Once you get it over the poster you pull - hard. With practice it all takes 6 or 7 seconds.

[Irish_Roman]

I actually seen an 11-year-old take a poster off and rip it up, nobody cared.

[rockofcashel]

Bradley and Blogador prefer not to name and shame so I'll respect that. But it's not locals and certainly not other SDLP candidates behind this.
Unlike the Gombeen party of the south, the SDLP do not in general practice backstabbing behaviour of this ilk. Indeed, apart from the sporadic inter-unionist spat, party members of all northern parties tend to be loyal almost to a fault to their party structures.

Bigger fools Bradley for not naming and shaming.. if I find some of my posters are being ripped down by opponents during the election, I'll be naming and shaming them so fast they won't know what hit them. (and that can be taken literally if I come across them)

Now straight up JC.. are SF supporters or activists ripping down the posters or aren;t they, and if they are, have you evidence of it ?

There is nothing that annoys the crap out of me than this sort of "everyone knows whos doing it" meaning the Shinners, but not actually saying it.

Just like the old "we all know who impersonates in elections", despite the reality that members of the following parties have actually been found, charged and in some cases prosecuted for impersonation:

FF, The DUP, The UUP and the SDLP

while no member of SF ever has.

So, are you lot going to put up, or shut up, once and for all

[Trefor]

Honestly don't see what the big deal is here.

During the 97 GE New Labour guys smashed a large number of huge posters we had in fields all over the constituency.

We didn't get mad, we just got even. They had hundreds of posters on top of telephone poles, we removed each & every one in one night.

They left our field posters undisturbed next time round - & we let theirs be.

[RBinge]

Further south here in Kildare, going on my own experience, there is very little if any party political vandalism of posters. There is a certain amount of arson by bored post pub morons all right, generally into the second week of the campaign, as the corrieboard material is highly combustible and leaves a distinctive smear of burned plastic, especially if those who put up the lower posters didn't bother to do their job properly.

Day one in politics I was taught by the old hands in my branch that it was never acceptable to vandalise or destroy. I'd never touch an opponents' poster in a fit. By the same token I am confident that our political opponents locally never gone near ours. In any case most politically active folk in my town - FF, FG, Lab, SF, Green and PD - know who each other are and fight their politics fairly.

[kintama]

Ho Hum another transparent attempt by local party apparatchik El Matador (locals appreciate the 'bull' link) to drum up support for the party in the Newry/Warrenpoint area.
Bradley is now officially the Most Oppressed Politician Ever, no dastardly deal is low enough for 'them'.
Cynics might point to the fact that the party lost a seat in the 2005 local elections and concern about a further a drop in support for Bradley in the next Assembly election as the reason for El Mat raising a local nuisance to the national stage. I do not know who tore the posters down, if indeed they were torn down, but there can be no political advantage for 'them' in being involved given the downward trend in SDLP support in Bradleys backyard.
Speculation that SF posters were torn down in West Belfast has started a debate about whether they were removed by political rivals or blown down by the wind. No proof has been produced either way.
I have personally spotted some Alex Attwood posters not interfered with so one must assume that political jealousy must have been at work in the SF poster saga.
It is surprising that the Attwood posters were not interfered with by kids, as the ones I saw were attached to poles at a height of no more than five feet. This may be due to the disintegration of the SDLP party in West Belfast leaving Alex having to put his own posters up.