Talk:Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

1

Anyone know anything about Oliver Napier? His page is minimal to say the least. Timrollpickering 03:05, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What's this nonsense about "non-opinionated" and "anti-opinion"? Neither of these meaningless phrases appears on the party's website. I'll remove them unless anyone can show a source.Manormadman (talk) 11:03, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

Regionalisation of their vote

In the 12 councils covering the former counties of Londonderry, Tyrone, Armagh and Fermanagh their vote fell in 10 of the 12, remained static in Magherafelt and only rose in Omagh. This trend continued in the 1980s and early 1990s as Alliance lost their last councillors in North Antrim, North and West Belfast and South Down and today have councillors in 8 of the 18 Westminster parliamentary constituencies - all in the East.

Whilst clearly true, this paragraph is confused by combining councils and parliamentary seats. Also some of the seats straddle the district electoral areas and boundary changes confuse things further. Can anyone break this down into councils and also an indication of which parts of Belfast City they still have councillors in? Timrollpickering 12:45, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

Hello Tim, I see what you mean. As I'm responsible for this section I'll have a look at Nicholas Whyte's site later and tidy it up a bit afterwards. Valenciano 14:58, 16 January 2006 (UTC)

I'll have another looj at this myself because it is getting confusing, particularly with using "North Belfast" and "West Belfast" without specifying in the wards in question are in Belfast proper. Similarly it's possible (I haven't got the exact list/map to hand to be sure) that Alliance could see its number of councillors in Strangford diminish the moment the new boundaries take place and push the seat further into County Down without waiting for a council election. Timrollpickering 19:09, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Having just looked the successive Assemblies it's notable that Alliance seats have almost always been in Belfast & the Greater Belfast area:

1973 (Sunningdale) - 78 seats

Alliance 8

East Belfast 1

North Belfast 1

South Belfast 1

West Belfast 1

North Antrim 1

South Antrim 1

North Down 2

1975 (Convention) - 78 seats

Alliance 8

East Belfast 1

South Belfast 2

West Belfast 1

North Antrim 1

South Antrim 1

North Down 2

Loss in North Belfast, gain in South Belfast

1982 (Prior) - 78 seats (same constituencies but with wildly differing allocations)

Alliance 8

East Belfast 2

North Belfast 1

South Belfast 1

West Belfast 1

North Antrim 1

South Antrim 2

North Down 2

Gain in East Belfast & South Antrim, Loss in South Belfast

1996 (Forum) - 90 constituency seats, 20 regional "additional"

5 regional, 2 top-up Alliance

East Belfast 1

South Belfast 1

East Antrim 1

North Down 1

Strangford 1

Compared to 1982, wipeout in North and West Belfast, down one in East Belfast, hold in the old North Down (North Down + Strangford) and the old North Antrim (now East Antrim), wipeout in the old South Antrim (South Antrim & Lagan Valley)

1998 Assembly - 108 seats

6 Alliance

East Belfast 1

East Antrim 1

South Antrim 1

Lagan Valley 1

North Down 1

Strangford 1

Compared to 1996, wipeout in South Belfast (they came third but were overtaken by four others on transfers)

2003 Assembly - 108 seats

6 Alliance

East Belfast 1

East Antrim 1

South Antrim 1

Lagan Valley 1

North Down 1

Strangford 1

Hold all 6 (some quite narrowly)

2007 Assembly - 108 seats

7 Alliance

East Belfast 1

South Belfast 1

East Antrim 1

South Antrim 1

Lagan Valley 1

North Down 1

Strangford 1

Hold all 6 (rather more comfortably this time), Gain in South Belfast

Assuming the seat in North Antrim in 1973, 1975 & 1982 was basically in East Antrim (and in 1982 it was won by Sean Neeson) then the only shifts have been some tooing and froing in East & South Belfast and a decline to wipeout in North & West Belfast.

This would suggest that Alliance was never particularly strong in the west (compared to the east) in the first place, although it doesn't preclude against a tilting. Does anyone have the figures by council area as these are much more constant? Timrollpickering 19:51, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

There has been a tilting - they'd numerous councillors in the West in the 70s and polled over 10% there in some councils and now don't even bother to stand there. I have a table in excel format showing first preference % by council - if you or someone else could create a template here I'd populate with the data. Maybe a table showing number of councillors by council area would also be helpful? Valenciano 19:54, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

What is the correct name of the UK's Olympic team?

Is the UK's Olympic team "Great Britain" or "Great Britain and Northern Ireland"?

see Cfd discussion: Wikipedia:Categories_for_deletion#Category:Great_Britain_at_the_Olympics_to_Category:Great_Britain_and_Northern_Ireland_at_the_Olympics --Mais oui! 22:30, 17 January 2006 (UTC)

Anti-ethnic?

What is meant by the term "anti-ethnic" in this article? To someone like myself not from the local area, the term would seem to indicate "racist" but it seems from the context that the party is actually anti-racist. This needs to be clarified by someone more familiar with the situation.--Larrybob 17:14, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

A "Unionist" Party in Disguise?

Please do not delete a valid argument that can be dicsussed within this section. this is discussing the flaws that some believe exist in Alliances' bid to be a cross community party. Both sides for and against this argument are welcome. --212.129.64.244 (talk) 14:23, 22 September 2008 (UTC)

This is not the place for discussing flaws or conversely strengths in Alliance party policy. Please read [1] which says "bear in mind that talk pages exist for the purpose of discussing how to improve articles; they are not mere general discussion pages about the subject of the article" and "Opinion pieces on current affairs or politics. Although current affairs and politics may stir passions and tempt people to "climb soapboxes" (i.e. passionately advocate their pet point of view), Wikipedia is not the medium for this."

You can certainly add to the article the opinion that APNI is as Unionist party provided that you have a reliable source to back it up i.e. some critics (cite source) have alleged that APNI is a Unionist party. Valenciano (talk) 13:51, 23 September 2008 (UTC)

David Ford has stated on tv on a few occassions that Alliance would be pro-Union.....therefore Unionist! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.150.31.186 (talk) 18:35, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Many Alliance members stress the distinction between being in favour of the Union and being "Unionist" (the capitalisation is important). They see the use of "Unionist" (and for that matter "Nationalist") as being a sectarian label denoting one's side in the communal divide not a pure statement of one's political position on the border. Alliance's position on the border is traditionally rooted in anti-sectarian and economic terms, which is very far away from the historic position of "Unionist" parties. Timrollpickering (talk) 19:22, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

Alliance's critics, on the other hand, argue that this is a disingenuous pretense: that they cloak a pro-English bias under the traditional falsehood that all Nationalists are Catholic and all Unionists are Prods. Whether you agree with this criticism or not, it is a reasonable concern. --Orange Mike | Talk 15:32, 5 February 2010 (UTC)

The Alliance Party is a neutral party, they dont take a stance on the constitutional issues, but voice the opinion of the majority. As long as the majority of the Northern Irish people wish to stay part of the United Kingdom then they will have unionist sympathies, if the majority wishes unificiation with the Irish Republic then they will have nationalist sympathies, and if the majority decides for Northern Irish independence then that is wat they with side with. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.6.163.133 (talk) 05:15, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

Title of article

There's been a bit of to-ing and fro-ing over the article title recently; the article has spent almost all its life at "Alliance Party of Northern Ireland", which is the official name, a widely used and recognised name, and the most common name which does not require disambiguation. An alternative would be "Alliance Party (UK)", but this requires disambiguation and is not the official name. Warofdreams talk 03:01, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Full Manifesto

My site has copies of the 2005 Westminster and District Council Elections Manifesto, 2007 Assembly Elections Manifesto and 2009 European Elections Manifestos. We're driving towards having all English-language political manifestos of every political party in the world on our site in the same/similar format. All the content is contained in PDF files on the Alliance party website. As more and more manifestos are added over time, in my opinion, it could become a useful resource for Wikipedia. Alliance Party of Northern Ireland Manifesto Declaration of Interest: I own the site so shouldn't add the link myself. Jdfjurn (talk) 15:43, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Citation request removal

I'm removing the citation request on: "thus making it Northern Ireland's largest political party that is not allied with any of these viewpoints."

At every election since 1982, Alliance has been outpolled by Sinn Féin and the SDLP (aligned with Nationalism) and the UUP and DUP - and in 2009 TUV - (aligned with Unionism) but outpolled every other party. I've removed the citation without adding a reference because such an established and incontrovertible fact doesn't need a reference. (You know, like, "the sky is blue (fact) ) does not need to be referenced). Gerry Lynch (talk) 05:33, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

If you don't want a reference then why not explain it fully in the article rather than just the talk page?Traditional unionist (talk) 10:48, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Advertisement tag?

The article, in my opinion, needs a total rewrite because it sounds like an advertisement for the party. What do you think? --Daniel Blanchette 17:37, 9 March 2010 (UTC)

Actually fairly common for larger minor parties around the world - my first ever edits on Wiki in 2005 were to fix promotional stuff about the Australian Democrats, and a lot of stuff on Wiki about the Australian Greens is written by its own supporters. I don't know enough about the topic (despite having been born in NI!) to have a go myself, but if someone believes there are sections here that are straight out unnecessary and place them here, that would be a good start. Orderinchaos 00:37, 7 May 2010 (UTC)

I've removed a line claiming that East Belfast "will become a stronghold for the party", just caught my eye. Prokhorovka (talk) 18:11, 9 May 2010 (UTC)

Will Naomi Long sit with the Liberal Democrats

Can it be expected that Naomi Long will sit with the Liberal Democrats in the House of Commons like the SDLP sits with the Labour Party or will she be seperate like Siliva Herman was when she was party of the UUP? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.6.163.133 (talk) 05:12, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

We don't know. However, she has stated that she does not intend to be treated as a Lib Dem MP. Bastin 13:05, 10 May 2010 (UTC)

ALDE

Alliance is member ALDE or no? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 5.141.225.208 (talk) 17:33, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

No, and it never has been.--Autospark (talk) 17:37, 10 September 2015 (UTC)

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House of Lords peers

If the alliance party peers take the lib dem whip but are still affiliated with the alliance party, should that be added to the House of Lords box, should the box be removed or stay the way it is, with 0 peers? Greenleader(2) (talk) 15:42, 15 April 2018 (UTC)