Jude Collins

Sunday 2 June 2013

Alasdair McDonnell says sorry.



If you were asked to compare Ronnie Corbett with someone, it’s guessable that the last man you’d think of would be Alasdair McDonnell. But since Ronnie once starred in a TV series called Sorry  and Alasdair must have used the sorry word at least  ten times during a short interview on The Politics Show  this morning, the link established itself.  

What was Alasdair being sorry for? Actually nothing -  Alasdair doesn’t do apology. What he meant when he said “Sorry” to Mark Carruthers was “You haven’t a clue, here’s the truth of the matter, buster”.  Which was? I’m not sure. Apart from establishing that he was a doctor and that there was no difference of opinion within the SDLP, it wasn't that easy to arrive at what he was saying, which was maybe why Mark Carruthers kept asking him to clarify. But Alasdair did promise that tomorrow, despite pressure in Derry, all SDLP MLAs would march up to the plate and, um, abstain in the vote over Alasdair’s Law. If you started the interview with the belief that the SDLP were all over the place on this one, you ended with that conviction riveted in place. 

Meanwhile, one of the SDLP MLAs, Colm Eastwood, says that he’s got so many phone calls about his following the party line and abstaining, “it must be orchestrated”.  No, Virginia, that doesn’t mean  calls came with a musical background, it’s Colm’s way of saying the callers were being manipulated by an unnamed force.  You have to say something when you’ve received a lot of phone calls from constituents wondering why you're taking a stand that'll let a discriminatory bill  put forward by Jim Allister sail past you without  a peep. 


Will one of the SDLP MLAs  peel off and stymie the bill tomorrow? I doubt it. One of them has  said in so many words that talk of electoral retribution is twaddle because an election doesn't happen until 2016 and that's a long time from now.  So it is. But some things are easier to forget than others. 

9 comments:

  1. So do you really believe Jude that its purely coincidental that Colm Eastwood and his fellow M L A s are getting so many phone calls over the weekend.Nothing to do with Sinn Fein ,of course.They don't do intimidation any more !! Is that a pig flying past?!

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    1. how dare you belittle the anger of those of us who are being treated as less worthy victims? The SDLP have caused outrage in my home town and have gone into hiding says it all really

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    2. Anonymous22 47
      Could you enlarge on above?It seems to me that the only person who may claim to be a victim in this is Paul Kavanagh and I doubt that apart from Sinn Fein members you will not find much "public outrage" in Derry for him.Surely the issue here is whether individuals such as Mc Ardle and Kavanagh should be appointed as Special Advisors.Its always easier for Sinn Fein to deflect criticism and and attack the S D L P in the fashion that they are currently doing.

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  2. You seem to have somewhat of an obsession with Alasdair and the S D L P this week.Is this coincidental given that the Shinners are organising their battalions to put pressure on that party whether by phone,twitter or other social media?No doubt S F will appreciate your assistance at this difficult time for them!!

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  3. SDLP have been in a right mess over this but it wont affect their electoral performance as it will be long forgotten about in 2016. As for the daft fighting between SF and SDLP voters maybe they should remember that when they stubbornly dont transfer to each other it increases the chances of DUP or even a TUV nut getting elected at a later count - just remember that!

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    1. Surely the SDLP giving a blatantly discriminatory TUV bill the nod is more likely to encourage the anti-GFA nuts?

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    2. Surely the SDLP giving the TUV's discriminatory bill the nod will do more to encourage the anti-GFA nuts? It also means that those who perpetrated mass murder in Ballymurphy, Derry, Dublin, Monaghan, Aughnacloy, etc won't be barred while those who had confessions beaten out of them will.

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    3. SO would you prefer a TUV or extreme DUP candidate to implement their policies all the time or an SDLP candidate who backs SF on a number of issues, time Nationalist wised up in terms of election performance the unionist majority at Stormont would be finished for ever if nationalists and their voters ever got their act together

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