Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
THE DUP AND the North’s other main political parties have given a broad welcome to plans for a UK general election on 12 December.
The Bill is still to be approved by the House of Lords but could become law by the end of the week.
If it passes, it would mean the first December election in 100 years in the UK and there would be a five-week campaign by parties up to polling day.
DUP leader Arlene Foster said it is right that people in the North have their say through the ballot box.
“The DUP will use this opportunity to campaign strongly to send a message that Northern Ireland is better in the Union of the United Kingdom and we cannot be separated economically from Great Britain.
“At a time of great uncertainty as to who will form the next government, how Northern Ireland votes will matter as never before.
“Unionists need their strongest team returned so that Northern Ireland’s interests are protected in the next parliament,” she said.
Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill said an election is a “chance to reject the DUP and the Tories, to reject Brexit and the Westminster chaos and its destructive influence on the north of Ireland”.
‘Window ledge of the Union’
The Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said the North needs MPs “who will not be patsies” to a Conservative Party government.
UUP MLA Steve Aiken said that the North needs to elect Ulster Unionist MPs who will stand against Boris Johnson’s plans “that will destroy the Union”.
“This is the most important election the people of the United Kingdom have ever faced. Boris Johnson’s deal with the EU is an existential threat to the Union. It puts a border in the Irish Sea and places Northern Ireland on the window ledge of the Union,” he said.
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Colum Eastwood said a December election “will be a defining moment for Brexit and every opportunity to defend the interests of people, businesses and communities in the North must be taken”.
“For three years, the democratic decision taken by people in Northern Ireland to reject a border on this island, to maintain the free and frictionless relationship we enjoy with Europe and to sustain our fragile peace has been wilfully ignored by successive Conservative governments and by the DUP,” he said.
“The coming election is an opportunity to reject the politics of division and deadlock and defend our interests.”
Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said her party has been preparing for an election for some time and is best placed to unite people who voted Remain in the Brexit vote.
“This election will be mainly focused around Brexit and Alliance has always been clear there is no such thing as a good or sensible Brexit,” she said.
“Therefore, it will be an opportunity for people to have their say and elect MPs who want to avoid a hard border, protect the Good Friday Agreement and attend Westminster to represent their interests.
Long said people who vote for Alliance candidates “can increase the representation of progressive, pro-Remain MPs and articulate that voice loudly at Westminster”.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
I don’t and I’m Irish. Don’t remember being asked my opinion… (A system that gives suspended sentences to criminals but puts honest folk in prison for standing up for the truth)
A closeted, cliquey, deluded group of overpaid, borderline-honest, chancers. Recent criminal case I have knowledge of had a barrister ‘afraid’ to introduce a line of questioning for fear he’d ‘annoy’ the judge, and also didn’t want to ‘bushwhack’ his opposite no. in prosecution as “he and his wife were at my wedding”!! Funnily enough, the statement of professional fees I believe had no such hesitancy in boasting of their adroitness though!!
Why do people here respect and trust the legal system here?
The legal system is as bent as the political landscape. They are co-joined twins.
Well holy god seanie, you’re certainly changing your tune about the whole political landscape over the last few weeks. Have you had a political awakening?
I suppose when you start to reject one central aspect of your political discourse that everything else that flows from that will be questioned as well.
What f’ing planet was this report carried out on?
Not a day goes by in this country where the general population aren’t appalled by weak sentences handed down to repeat offenders.
When a rapist walks free with a fine and a suspended sentence…how can you trust them
The 20 Ched Evans fans just disagreed with you ;)
Which case are you taking about where someone convicted of rape was fined, given a suspended sentence and walked away? And did you actually attend court for any of this? Or are you just making assumptions based on reading tabloids.
The corruption within is covertly covered up behind closed doors in secret and held to be just by judges that hold to be independent in their duty wrong or right .,. how more corrupt can it be then this …………………………………………………
Like Irish judges???…
Do Irish judges realise they can impose double digit year sentences on violent criminals???
Another deluded ivory tower dweller. Talking complete and utter gibberish about us trusting the judicial system.
All the top judges are politically appointed so they’re just an extension of the government and to take them on in the courts costs an arm and a leg….Justice system has been bought and paid for a long time ago……it’s a big fat NO from me.
Exactly Derek. To be a judge you have to be politically connected. The way they are appointed is ridiculous. Check out the JAAB.
ALL judges are political signed off on. Not just the higher ones. All of them. Same for Superintendents and above in AGS, are all politically signed off on (an argument can be made that politics also affects sgt and inspector ranks as well, but that’s another day).
Old boys club who live under a big rock
I do not trust you.
This is another prime example of somebody with a heightened sense of importance living on a completely different planet than the rest of us.
I wouldn’t consider the judiciary corrupt, out of touch is another matter, though.
Or perhaps just having an opinion that differs from yours- oh no!
The only citizens who have any faith in the irish judiciary are ones that ain’t been in court in over a decade or the deluded ones that still have blind faith in the rest of our joke of a system
Tatler did that report just after they gave Joan her women of the year award.
I don’t trust them.
Any chance of an auld journal poll to see if this “trust” reflects in journal readers?
I don’t. Judges are corrupt dirtbirds.
I’ll start trusting them when they lock up the charlatans in the DAIL.
Having spent 2 years in court over 3 grams of cannabis which cost the state 10,000. No I am not very confidence in that system, although I legislation change would fix that.
So the revolving door prison system, laughable police force, and criminal tourists aren’t of concern? Only in Ireland.
This is a Eu body report.
By EU standards it is upstanding, fair and trustworthy.
Lol more comedy
Say what? I trust no one not even my shadow that’s a sneaky little thing following you around all day. No faith in justice, courts, police, TD’s, not even in the president.
I guess thats a normal comment coming from a non national
Where did these guys get their information, from the Beano?
Low levels of political corruption, competence and fairness in the legal system? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Seriousy deluded finding. I wouldnt be of their opinion what so ever. Mind boggling
How come they’ve sided with the govt on water charges and not looked at the legality of forcing contracts on people. It’s insane really.
Are they f*cking joking?
” Seem to trust” ? What does that mean or imply? Judges seem to be overpaid? Are they? They seem to make inconsistent , and contradictory judgments. . They seem to be independent, but as political appointees are they. ? I wonder what Louise O’ Keeffe thinks about them.?
Another delusional report. There really wacking them out these days.
It’s actually hard to make out what the report says to be honest.
This case of an ex-judge is all you need to know about our ‘judges’ http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Curtin
The judiciary are owned by the government, all appointed by politicians and know their masters. Were the government to lift the embargo on banks calling in judicial debts, there would be many a defrocked judge and SC. So manners and doing masters bidding is a given. No garlic on my patch, white collar to the back bone old boy!
Justice Denham I’m sure that you don’t have the right to speak for the majority of Irish people. Its not fare that just because you are a judge in the courts that you think people are treated fairly. I had a case in the High Court and I could never say that there was any fairness there. If anything it was because of corruption that I lost my case.
Even I have to question those findings.
Really? I don’t agree. They’re all part of the elite 1%. With money, comes greed and power, with power comes back handers.
“It is also noted that the reduction of public salaries due to the financial crisis may have compromised the constitutional safeguarding of judges independent and professional standards”.
I was taking the article seriously until I read the last paragraph. Who was surveyed – the Judges and barristers?
Is it me or is Susan deneham a doppelganger of Tony sopranos mother
Politically appointed judges hardly ever actually jailing criminals, what planet are these muppets on? Judges are a joke in Ireland and not trusted.
have your say