The UUP have held another selection meeting. This time in the Upper Bann Constituency. The late MP’s son, Colin McCusker topped the poll with successful Lurgan by-election candidate, elected in February 2010, Jo-anne Dobson, coming second. Sitting MLA Samuel Gardiner came in third. The other sitting MLA, George Savage, came in fifth. The party is …
Category Archive: Elections
Sep
09
That McCusker name is back…
Just picked up some interesting news that Colin McCusker, son of the late Harold McCusker, topped the poll at the UUP’s Upper Bann selection meeting last night. Apparently he won ‘by a country mile’ and was extremely impressive. Others being sent forward to the HQ selection panel are: Joanne Dobson Sammy Gardiner Harry Hamilton George …
Sep
06
Strangford selection…
David McNarry, Mike Nesbitt and Philip Smith all go forward from tonight’s UUP association meeting in Strangford. The next phase is the HQ selection panel. PS. If anyone picks up any intelligence on selections, please do let me know.
Sep
02
Guest blog: Tom Elliott represents change that’s ‘planned, tested, surgical in nature
Open Unionism has requested blog posts from supporters of each of the candidates running for the leadership of the Ulster Unionists. The first is from Mike Nesbitt who outlines his view as to why Tom Elliott should be the next leader of the UUP. By Mike Nesbitt I am quite taken with a story attributed …
May
25
Unionist Unity or Normal Politics?
At the end of last week, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland Robert Saulters called for “unionist unity” during a speech at the re-opening of Lavin Orange Hall. As we noted at the time, Mr Saulters believes that there should be one big unionist party “modern enough to allow people with conflicting opinions to work together”. …
May
09
The delicate art of coalition-building – an insider's view from Canada
I imagine that many readers of this blog will, like myself, have spent much of the past few days gripped by coverage of the election results, and the ongoing coalition negotiations. This is just a brief post to point blog readers in the direction of an absolutely fascinating Canadian article on the whole topic of …
May
08
Fermanagh and South Tyrone: why we lost
I have mentioned my thoughts on the TUV and CUs over on slugger and will come to the DUP (and hopefully the others) in time. However, although I quoted Harold McCusker regarding the TUV (“I felt desolate because as I stood in the cold …..everything that I held dear turned to ashes in my mouth.”); …
Feb
28
Why Unionism should hand McGuinness the position of First Minister…
By St Etienne “Unionism’s great challenge” has now apparently been reduced to keeping a Shinner out of the perceived top job in local politics. In truth, not a great strategy. We need to get over it. Contrary to the most popularly understood of peace-processing narratives (the one that’s painted with the broadest brush), the majority …
Feb
28
Calling all candidates…
Keith Belfast has got a decent project running. He’s attempting to catalogue all the social media tools employed by candidates at the upcoming election (just like he did for the Euros). But it’s a big job to get info on every general election candidate – so he needs help. Lots of help. Check out his …


