Senior unionist MLA McNerry resigns from Ulster Unionist Party

[Castle Ray]

Standing order 47, 48

Fair enough. I don't know how the changes announced sits with that. I'm not minded to try and work it out though as the committee structures reveal very little except that Mike Nesbitt who has been backing Elliott publicly is rewarded with a deputy chair role.

Wrt Purdy and McBride's H&M analysis it was pretty damning of him and his UUP as a whole. However, the UUP has been a party of ill-discipline for decades. It is likely you'd have to go back to Brookborough to find a Unionist Party leader that led a disciplined party. So if Elliott is going to instal discipline he might shed a few members but at least he would be able to build a solid platform with which to work from. It would be a smaller platform that is for sure, but it could have some potential. Without discipline the party is disintegrating and there's nothing to stop its terminal decline.

[Garza]

Fair enough. I don't know how the changes announced sits with that. I'm not minded to try and work it out though as the committee structures reveal very little except that Mike Nesbitt who has been backing Elliott publicly is rewarded with a deputy chair role.

Wrt Purdy and McBride's H&M analysis it was pretty damning of him and his UUP as a whole. However, the UUP has been a party of ill-discipline for decades. It is likely you'd have to go back to Brookborough to find a Unionist Party leader that led a disciplined party. So if Elliott is going to instal discipline he might shed a few members but at least he would be able to build a solid platform with which to work from. It would be a smaller platform that is for sure, but it could have some potential. Without discipline the party is disintegrating and there's nothing to stop its terminal decline.

Purdy seemed pretty certain that a split was inevitable. Kane was also correct when he advised that the NI Cons should not be a party of UUP dissenters and should have their new faces for their new party.

[Castle Ray]

Purdy seemed pretty certain that a split was inevitable. Kane was also correct when he advised that the NI Cons should not be a party of UUP dissenters and should have their new faces for their new party.

I don't disagree. Purdy is right there will be a swathe of UUP that will defect in the spring but the NI Cons were clever to get the national chairman to issue the ultimatum to put clear water between the UUP and that party. There's no love lost between the two. But what way will this shake down and more importantly from a political observation pov, that can the conservatives attract a profile MLA to their ranks? If they do, they'll become a (bad term) new force with potentially a huge driving force behind them.

[vinoboy]

I suppose for me the point is What Exactly do the UUP stand for ?The Union -ok -what make their Unionism different from the DUP's and other's ? If Conservatives take off (doubtful for at least next 5 years) UUP will wither.

[Castle Ray]

I suppose for me the point is What Exactly do the UUP stand for ?The Union -ok -what make their Unionism different from the DUP's and other's ? If Conservatives take off (doubtful for at least next 5 years) UUP will wither.

Mightn't be as long as that, but the next elections are when?

The Euro election will galvanise the foot soldiers and the next assembly and Westminster will see what they're made of. I predict hy then the UUP will have been overtaken or else have been merged / disbanded.

[vinoboy]

Mightn't be as long as that, but the next elections are when?

The Euro election will galvanise the foot soldiers and the next assembly and Westminster will see what they're made of. I predict hy then the UUP will have been overtaken or else have been merged / disbanded.

Too proud to disband ,deja vu ,bit like Faulkner-ite rump UPNI -remember them ?

[Mickeymac]

Too proud to disband ,deja vu ,bit like Faulkner-ite rump UPNI -remember them ?

I think they had more support that than the Protestant Unionist Party sir.

[daniels]

Mightn't be as long as that, but the next elections are when?

The Euro election will galvanise the foot soldiers and the next assembly and Westminster will see what they're made of. I predict hy then the UUP will have been overtaken or else have been merged / disbanded.

I suspect the UUP are hoping to struggle on to the centenary of the statelet, but I don't see them surviving until then to be frank. Tom Elliot is leading them to the cliff like the lemmings they obviously are.