EU election campaigning gets underway in North
The European election campaign got into full swing in the North today.
The June 10 poll is the first since the establishment of the European Parliament that political heavyweights John Hume and the Rev Ian Paisley will not have their names on the ballot paper. The former SDLP leader and the Democratic Unionist leader both decided to stand down after 25 years as MEPs.
Belfast Lord Major Martin Morgan is hoping to retain John Hume’s seat for the SDLP, Jim Allister is hoping to do the same with Ian Paisley’s DUP seat, while Bairbre de Brun is hoping to win Sinn Fein’s first European seat.
As the only sitting member contesting the election – he’s been there 15 years - Ulster Unionist Jim Nicholson hopes his experience will count on election day.
He is playing on that experience, his election billboard declares “The face of Northern Ireland in Europe – Jim Nicholson. 15 years experience in European politics…its written all over his face.”
Fittingly Mr Nicholson was making no rash predictions about topping the poll, but he was hopeful.
“I have been around in politics for a long, long time. I am certainly going out to win and if I happen to top the poll I would be delighted,” he said.
If returned as one of the three MEPs elected from the single Northern Ireland constituency, Mr Nicholson said he would fight hard against the European draft constitution.
“I believe it is a bridge too far, I don’t want to give away the UK’s rights. I will oppose it, I have opposed it and I will continue to oppose it,” he said.
So far six other candidates have declared.
The Socialist Environmental Alliance is fielding prominent local journalist Eamonn McCann, while the Green Party has chosen single mother Marie Perry.
A key imponderable in the election will be the level of support for an independent, John Gilliland, who retired last month as the high profile president of the Ulster Farmers’ Union.
He believes the electorate are tired of the traditional tribal politics in Northern Ireland – and has won the endorsement of the middle of the road Alliance Party who, for the first time in their history are not standing, but throwing their weight behind Mr Gilliland.
Alliance leader David Ford said the party had made the strategic decision because “Europe is not the place for petty party politics”.
Mr Gilliland has registered as a political party, Europe First, with the Electoral Commission, and revealed his campaign slogan will be “No Politics - Just Action”.
Mr Nicholson said today he had not given much thought to the effect of the Gilliland campaign.
“He is standing as a Europe first party, I an running to put Northern Ireland first, then the UK and Europe after that,” he said.
