Voting in NI

qwert_yuiop

montyrebel wrote: »

anyone but DUP after they yet again blocked the gay marriage act in NI

Is this really so important? Surely there are hundreds of more relevant matters?

Remember all the waste of parliamentary time over fox hunting some years ago ? There were two wars on at the time.

Cotta

If the turn out is less than 50% then I will be with the majority.

lazer

qwert_yuiop wrote: »

Is this really so important? Surely there are hundreds of more relevant matters?

Remember all the waste of parliamentary time over fox hunting some years ago ? There were two wars on at the time.

My thoughts exctly - its not really a make or break situation - equal legal rights are provided by Civil Partnership anyway.

There is much more important issues to deal with, for example, corporation tax powers, sorting out the health service etc

qwert_yuiop

Old_Git wrote: »

I don't live in Newtownabbey as you well know.

Happy to see Diane dodds elected in the euros though?

qwert_yuiop

lazer wrote: »

My thoughts exctly - its not really a make or break situation - equal legal rights are provided by Civil Partnership anyway.

There is much more important issues to deal with, for example, corporation tax powers, sorting out the health service etc

Yes indeed. The way I see it, stormont has so little power it ends up concentrating on irrelevancies. Canada is a country where provincial governments have a lot of control over taxation and spending policies, so it really matters who gets elected to the provincial parliament. Here, it really only allows you to demonstrate that there are more of us than there are of you in this ward or constituency. Or at least that more of us voted.

absoluteutopia

Has anyone ever worked out why a Country the size of NI needs so many MLAS, other than to give annoying f**kw*ts a job i cant see a reason?

Cotta

absoluteutopia wrote: »

Has anyone ever worked out why a Country the size of NI needs so many MLAS, other than to give annoying f**kw*ts a job i cant see a reason?

Is it not going down to 80 come the next election?

Besides anytime you attempt to get hold of them there is no reply as they are "too busy".

lazer

absoluteutopia wrote: »

Has anyone ever worked out why a Country the size of NI needs so many MLAS, other than to give annoying f**kw*ts a job i cant see a reason?

probably something to do with unionist/nationlist at a guess.

soctland has 128 MSP for over 5 million people
Wales has 60 for over 3 million people

and we have 108 for for 1.8m people

sensible isn't it!

Cotta

lazer wrote: »

probably something to do with unionist/nationlist at a guess.

soctland has 128 MSP for over 5 million people
Wales has 60 for over 3 million people

and we have 108 for for 1.8m people

sensible isn't it!

But the MLAs feel they're overworked and do not have enough time to deal with their workload and constituents.

duggan1

lazer wrote: »

Alliance - In my opinion the best of the bunch as its a vote against unionism/nationalism, they want to run the state for the benefit of the state and understand that a United Ireland will or won't happen depending on the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland - however I don't agree with their policies on education and a few other things - so am never too sure if they deserve a vote.

The problem being that because they don't 'designate' in the Assembly, they get no say on what are quite important cross-community matters. Not a huge issue for Europe and Councils of course, but still. I also find the Alliance parties actions at times utterly ridiculous.

I think the whole democratic infrastructure we have needs to change. People need to change the way they think/vote as well. I believe we have an opportunity to reform in such a way so as to reduce the centralised power of parties, and allow independent individuals to shine through. I'd rather someone came to me and said 'Vote for me, I believe in x and y and I plan to lobby for z' rather than 'Vote for me, my party believes in a, b and c'.