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THE DUP AND UUP have signed a historic pact aimed at securing votes in the upcoming General Election.
The move will see the two parties supporting a single unionist candidate across six areas in Northern Ireland.
Agreement wasn’t made on South Belfast.
While the DUP and UUP said the move would be positive for unionism, the BBC reports that the SDLP described the pact as “a sectarian carve-up”.
DUP Leader Peter Robinson said:
Those who support the Union will recognise the significance of this pact. This is the most comprehensive electoral agreement between our two parties in the last 29 years. Indeed, it is the product of discussions lasting six months.
They have come to this arrangement for the General Election on 7 May 2015:
Robinson said he wants “to see unionists cooperating”.
Too often divisions are manufactured to create difference. Grassroots unionists want to see us working together to maximise the unionist vote. Such an approach is not just desirable, but it has been proven to be effective in increasing turnout amongst unionists.
He commended the fact that the parties had “considered the bigger picture and accepted they should stand aside in the greater interests of unionism”.
He added: “With a predicted hung parliament, I am calling on all unionists to unite behind these agreed candidates and maximise the pro-union voice in the House of Commons. Sinn Fein MPs fail to take their seats. They leave their constituents without a voice in Parliament. Others do not represent unionism.”
Robinson said that “all shades of unionism can lend their vote to these agreed candidates” knowing this could increase the number of unionists in the House of Commons.
He added that it was not possible to include Upper Bann and South Belfast.
Ulster Unionist Party Leader Mike Nesbitt said the party began these discussions in October proposing an anti-abstentionist arrangement for Fermanagh and South Tyrone and North Belfast.
Since then it has become clear that there is potentially a once in a lifetime opportunity to take back Newry and Armagh, albeit this will be extremely difficult to achieve. Our support for the DUP in East Belfast should ensure an additional pro-Union MP for the City of Belfast in the next mandate.
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Good . Long may cash be king .
@Jim Ryan: Apple paid 6 Billion tax last year. 6,000,000,000. They will need lorries.
@thomas molloy: And now an additional another €14,000,000,000.
@Jim Ryan: Why did we have to destroy so much cash? Because we printed too much in the years before the recession but cash is king, I don’t think so
@Jim Ryan: d sweet are cashless and day don’t have a problem Ireland again a backwards land
@thomas molloy:
Im available to count it lol
If the day ever comes when cash is finally done away with, there’s going to be a collective ” oh 5hit, what have we done”
Update for those who think that cash causes crime. The move away from cash to digital transactions ,banking , payments etc has actually generated an enormous amount of new crime , fraud and scams.
Justice at last! I only use cash
Who doesn’t love a good crispy new brown envelope!
@Dan The Man: long gone are ‘brown envelopes’
The ‘new’ brown envelope is a ¥200k/yr position on a Commission in Europe or on the board of a pharmaceutical or educational entity for a cushy job for unintelligent puppets.
@Jim: Why are they being paid in Yen ?
@Paul O’Mahoney: you know yourself
@Jim: ¥200K is €1200, there are sewer rats in Brussels making more than that.
There’s way to much reliance on technology to look after our money. Just look at the qr code scam happening just this week. So easy to be fooled into parting with your hard earned cash.
If businesses can get around it by requiring Payzone then there is still no mandatory cash acceptance, no matter what spin Chambers puts on it.
Cashless society is the final nail in our freedoms and liberties banks will monitor every transaction. Why should banks have this totalitarian power to control our daly lives .People need to wake up to this orwellian nightmare
To have an office with a human behind a desk, allowing one hand over cash, then walk out with a paper receipt. Gold.
Bertie and his band of fianna fail bandits still trying to launder some cash! #fiannafail #capos #mafia
Can’t put a card in the stippers thong
@John Kenny: You can if you want, but by the time you’ve sobered up, you’ll probably be 2 days’ worth of maximum tapping out of pocket!
@John Kenny: good one
Brillant and planes and concert venues should have to by law too .
Cash should be abolished so the social scammers from the says no brigade can be outted
@Argus Romsworth: yep agree with yiu.
The people entering the country illegally should not have access to cash & should be ‘outed’ as the illegal criminals they are.
@Jim: far right loon alert
@Argus Romsworth: wouldn’t expect anything less that a trope from the likes of you.
You & your ilk have no real argument or rebuttal so resort to slurs & tropes just like a good, obedient, programmed NPC
@Jim: aren’t you the one throwing insults at asylum seekers there with your incelesque post
@Argus Romsworth: have no issue with people seeking protection legally, you & I know that there is a high percentage of those coming to Ireland are illegal & has been proven to have criminal histories.
When an ‘asylum seeker’ passes through multiple safe countries they are no longer seeking asylum, they are seeking welfare or to hide.
@Jim: I actually don’t know that. You see that’s the problem with the bigot mindset. You assume everything and that everyone assumes the same.
@Argus Romsworth:
@Jim: go on so, what’s your definition of ‘legal’ asylum seekers?
@Argus Romsworth: you mean the banks who scam people on a daily basis every transaction made in digital form is a commission to the banks if we go completely cashless you ain’t seen nothing yet they will take away our rights and financial privacy a dangerous road
cash should not be existing. all the undeclared, vat free, and dirty money is cash. you can’t control it
@Dominic Leleu: Most of the world’s supply of money is digital
@Dominic Leleu: totalitarian much?
@Dominic Leleu: As much of that dirty cash is digital. The parking meter scam that was reported yesterday is an example of that, and that is only one of many. Besides, using cards for minimal amounts is ridiculous
Last week when I was paying for my shopping in Tesco my chip and pin could not be used as I hit the limit on my card I had to get cash out if I was unable to pay for my shopping how else could I !
@Paul Scully: If you reach the limit you just have to put in your pin. So, wtf are you talking about?
If it is done away with what are SF/IRA going to rob won’t someone think of their plight.
@Trump 24: You are so funny. I hope you step on a lego.
Sooner cash is gone the better it will remove the black economy overnight and seriously impact the drug trade. Time to move on absolutely no need for it.
@Trump 24: if you think that will eliminate the ‘black market’ you have a serious lack of awareness of how high level criminality works. As for the drug trade, would only affect street level dealing.
@Jim: It will decimate all illegal activities
@Trump 24: wow, with that statement you really don’t seem to know how the world works.
@Jim: I know when cash is removed it will decimate crime yes payments can still be done use crypto but that’s way more traceable than cash.
@Trump 24:
@Trump 24: and wait till you see the banks up their charges every time you make a purchase, and control your spending
@K O: why would they control your spending if as you say they will increase charges per transaction
@Trump 24: great trolling.
Took me a minute.
Bravo, well done.
@Trump 24: have you need heard of revoult,drugs etc are flowing that way
@Trump 24: no cash is king sorry to disagree. Everything cent traceable thats beeping scary
@Trump 24: are you for real what about the older person in our society who don’t us cards or banks and picks up there Pension etc from there local Post Office, come on cash is here to stay!!
@Trump 24: funny you should say that….only yesterday we were told of the newest black economy scam which involved our parking meters…..and guess what? It was all cashless, for their convenience! Sorry, but I will be popping my few coins into such machines for a long time to come.
@Trump 24: You can go to any town in Ireland and buy drugs right now without ever touching cash.
Keep the cash…cashless is surveillance.. Wait till you are applying for a mortgage and the banks examine your spending. Every coffee you ordered will be like the sword of Damocles cutting the legs from under you. Every pint. Every pomegranate salad. And as for your subscriptions….
China.
There’s only one set of people being gaslighted and that’s Sinn Féin members who put their faith in these charlatans and are then attacked by them.
@Brian D’Arcy: WHAT?
I will leave this one a few in controlling the narrative and their attitude.
@Phillip Smyth: Do you speak English?
Willian didn’t need to travel to Ireland to see racism, he could have just gone onto the Journal.ie’s comments, apparently it’s acceptable to insult the travelling community on here.
It should be mandatory that all businesses ALSO accept card payments. Every second business around Ireland this summer would only take cash. I wonder why?
If he’s all in favour of accepting cash why are we charged for taking it out of an atm?
have your say