I’ll try to keep this brief as its the weekend – nobody reads this blog at the weekend – and monday is a holiday so i might change my mind if i do not write now!
Last night we went to the political question time/debate that i’d previously blogged about here.
The DUP representative in this area, Ian Paisley Jnr was unable to attend which apparently left the audience “not impressed by his snub” says Jim Allister (from twitter). Allister was there on the other hand but did not turn out for an initial photograph with the other candidates and our Minister, who was chairing the event. Maybe he was late? I would hazard a guess that photograph’s of him with a Sinn Fein candidate are like hen’s teeth!
I was hopeful that this exchange would aid me a little with my decision on who to vote for but i genuinely expected it to descend into chaos instead – it didn’t do either, perhaps because it was in a church building – our Minister kept a lid on a few moments of heckling from a couple of fundamentalist wing-nuts who pointed fingers and encouraged us to break the law!
I say that because this constituency of North Antrim is deeply buried in fundamentalism and in my opinion we could see a disastrous outcome at this election. A muffled “for God & Ulster” was heard at one point – that says it all for me!
There was other, more subtle evidence of a leaning toward this kind of mentality with applause for the men who may have some practical issues right, but who’s political views are lodged in the backside of the mid 1980′s!
The deliveries from the candidates were far from animated and were dull for the most part but lets be honest, they are a dull bunch anyway! It is hard to be inspired by any of them but Ballymena still likes the fighting talk and the character assassination of others that threatened to rear their ugly heads last night. Ballymena still likes to shake its head and tut and grunt when the Sinn Fein councillor speaks!
This frustrates me – i fear what iv already said, that many will vote with religious allegiance & an ability to slag others off at the forefront of their minds! Flavour that with some old-school ‘Bible believing fundamentalism’ & you have an idea what thousands of people in the North Antrim constituency are like!
And there we have it really – few conclusions & lots of frustration………..
May God help us – really help us
Why is it that ‘slagging off’ the other candidates seems to be how our politicians gain votes, rather than living examplary lives of service to the community and presenting their policies?
“. . . they are a dull bunch anyway!” haha, so right! On a positive note, it’ll never become a ‘personality’ vote – there is none.
I completely lose respect for anyone who tries to gain voters by ripping chunks out of other candidates. I want someone who will try and make change on my behalf – not turn on other politicians and point the finger when it all goes wrong.
I know who I will vote for, I have voted for the same party since I was 18, but I do often feel like it is just a waste of my time in Ballymena because my vote means nothing against the bitterness and resentment that should belong to a past time but unfortunately continue to this day! It’s sad!!