gerry adams you can't just quit as an mp

[Oswaldtwistle]

Sorry Ossie but you seem to be incredibly naieve. How old are you? Are you a College student? Because this post seems to have been answered by a high school text book rather than a person with real life experience. Sorry if that seems a little harsh.

I'm in my mid 30s, so plenty of real life experience thanks

Most pollsters make the bulk of their money out of market research not polling on political and social issues. That's where the money is. And companies paying for market research are not usually looking to be told just what they want to hear. Not if it's going to be any use to them. That is why big polling companies are unlikely to jeopardize their reputation just to please an individual client.

yeah, exactly this. Sorry Liam, but you are barking up the wrong tree with this one.

 

[likesfish]

NI they know your a catholic or a protestant before you open your mouth.
the old joke about the muslim factory owner wanting to open a factory. are youse a cathlolic or protestant muslim

 

[bi0boy]

So from all this we learn that you can be appointed to the positions of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead and of the three Chiltern Hundreds of Stoke, Desborough and Burnham without explicitly applying for said positions, or even consenting to such an appointment.

 

[JWH]

if he applies to be an irish mp he could be in the shit as technically still a britsh mp which is illegal if you want to be an irish mp.

If you read your own OP, you will see it is now allowed, under the Disqualifications Act

Unlawful under Irish law, not British law, presumably.

I certainly don't expect to see the Catholic community in West Belfast voting DUP but one day I hope they will vote Conservative, Liberal Democrat or Labour.

Fucking hell. You could have higher hopes!

 

[Idris2002]

I've actually done opinion poll work in Belfast.

The journalist I met on the Andytown news wrote in his column that week that I'd given him the worst interrogation he'd had since being in Castlereagh in 1979.

Now, I did my best to do good work. . . but I'm not sure that quantitative surveys are the best means of capturing the essence of public opinion(s) in NI or anywhere else.

Take the time I asked people in Andytown (a separate thing from the one just mentioned, btw) if the UK Labour party should organise in Norn Iron.

Most people were indifferent or sympathetic to the idea. But one guy said to me, apparently seriously, that they should have the right to vote for Republic of Ireland parties as well.

How could you fit something like that into the matrix of a questionnairre?

 

[Streathamite]

Wrong. A pollster will ask the questions their client wants, and their client can spin the answers any way they like. But reputable pollsters don't fiddle answers to suit their clients wishes. If a client gets answers they don't want to hear, tough.

depends who the work's done for, and the motivation of the client. If it's FMCG megacorp wanrting accurate, objective market and consumer insight, you make it objective, impartial, and meticulous as fuck, cos that's what the-client-my-liege is paying for, and you want their future business. If it's a political party or a 'paper, they may want 'push-polling', which is a different matter entirely.
As combustible pointed out, however, the big dough is in consumer research, and political parties are tightfisted (i.e. they're usually skint, and often ask for freebies!)

 

[Streathamite]

And surely there must be something in UK employment legislation - that if you want to leave a job you are free to do so.

I don't think UK emnployment law covers elected MPs

 

[Oswaldtwistle]

I don't think UK emnployment law covers elected MPs

No, I think being an MP is considered more of an 'appointment' than a 'job'.

We do need a more modern method of resigning from the HoC though. Perhaps Mr Adams' successor would like to start a private members bill for a more modern resignation method.......Oh, hang on...slight problem there.......

 

[ymu]

Most pollsters make the bulk of their money out of market research not polling on political and social issues. That's where the money is. And companies paying for market research are not usually looking to be told just what they want to hear. Not if it's going to be any use to them. That is why big polling companies are unlikely to jeopardize their reputation just to please an individual client.

These days a lot of university research departments are dependent on contracts from industry. I won't do work for industry, but many do and the difference in quality and outcome when they are working independently or for a drug company is astounding.

He who pay the piper.

 

[Casually Red]

Looks like his letter of resignation has been interpreted as a request for Northstead and he has been given it without the need to formally accept. Anyway there you have it- one by election coming right up.


I'm certainly no expert on Northern Ireland (although I would like to learn more) . From what little I do know it is clear the people of West Belfast and other Catholic areas had some really strong grivences in the past, and I can quite understand the mentality of someone 20 or 30 years ago voting SF. But I think it would be good if a really strong independent came along, perhaps with SDLP support and cut SFs majority at least. It would give some sort of prospect of mainstream politics coming to Northern Ireland eventually.


At some stage in the next 20 or 30 years NI will have to move on, and 'politics as usual' will be an important part of that.

the greivance many people have is that Britain is occupying Irish territory and carving the country up and claiming part of it as its own territory

As regards moving on and politics as usual that will only ever conceivably happen when Britian moves on and leaves the Irish people to sort their own differences in their own country . Under the latest system Britian has planted in Ireland yet again institutionalised sectarianism is deliberately embedded within the British arrangements for the puppet parliament at Stormont . Its the actual rules .

Today Sinn Fein are basically the SDLP of yesterday . They do the same job , supporting the British institutions , whether armed or parliamentary . Large numbers of working class males in the nationalist districts regard them as traitors and Martin McGuinness in turn denounces the current generation of radicls as traitors , while in the company of Sir HUGH orde and Peter Robinson .

So your prediction looks way off im afraid .

In 20 or 30 years time its much more likely this generation will at last be getting out of jail and their sons and daugters taking up the same fight . Normaility simply isnt going to happen here .

 

[Casually Red]

I think this poll undertaken by the University of Liverpool last year gets closer to the reality on the ground

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/145640.html

Among the dissident groups the Real IRA has claimed it has growing support particularly among working-class republican youths. In an interview with the Guardian last month the terror group claimed that it "did not have the capacity yet" to absorb the many recruits it alleges are coming forward to join in places like Derry and other nationalist parts of Northern Ireland.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/oct/06/one-in-seven-nationalists-support-terrorists

frankly i dont see many of these people voting labour or conservative anytime soon , much less Sinn Fein .