Eight UCUNF candidates have been selected today.
- Antrim East – Rodney McCune
- Antrim North – Irwin Armstrong
- Belfast North – Fred Cobain
- Belfast South – Paula Bradshaw
- Down North – Ian Parsley
- Fermanagh and South Tyrone – Tom Elliott
- Foyle – David Harding
- Londonderry East – Lesley Macaulay
South Antrim will be last constituency to be decided.
As predicted earlier, only a couple of Tories were among the names: Parsley and Armstrong.
Here’s a reminder of the nine previously selected:
- Strangford – Mike Nesbitt
- Lagan Valley – Daphne Trimble
- Newry and Armagh – Danny Kennedy
- South Down – John McCallister
- Upper Bann – Harry Hamilton
- Mid Ulster – Sandra Overend
- West Tyrone – Ross Hussey
- West Belfast – Bill Manwaring
- East Belfast – Trevor Ringland
That looks like a total of two Tories and 15 UUs, with one left to run.
PS. Paula Bradshaw is well organised. I’ve already been invited to become a fan of ‘Paula Bradshaw – Vote for Change in South Belfast’ on Facebook.
Bobballs! 
“That looks like a total of two Tories and 16 UUs, with one left to run.”
So NI has 19 seats now? Maths fail lol.
Hoping SA will be the Colonel, but probably wont be. Good list of candidates, lots of new faces which is good.
ha! it’s a fair cop Garza! Amended.
(Mental note: never write a post, watch rugby and feed baby at same time. )
What is the story in South Antrim, Bobballs?
not sure at the moment slug – i’m speculating but i imagine its an outworking of this http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/unionist-unionist-adrian-watson-i-support-gay-equality-14702990.html
i’ll post up as soon as i hear anything though…
It shows the problems of the UCUNF process. South Antrim is a winnable seat. It should have had a top quality candidate in place a couple of months ago.
i’ve heard from a few people that Adrian is just completely unacceptable to the tories (see bt article above for source of upset).
i imagine watson is one of those guys whose got his association all sown up and has a pocket of strong support in South Antrim. So he’s pretty well entrenched and will be difficult to shift. hence the delay.
in the long run though, whether he likes or not, my guess is that watson is toast.
I’m guessing he probably thinks it is owed to him because Danny Kinahan got the MLA job.
I heard from a well placed source-
The reason for the delay in SA is because watson was apparently unacceptable to the Tories and the tory nominee (a teacher from England) was unacceptable to the Unionists.
When it went to the the party leaders then for a final decision they could not agree either.
GRIDLOCK
If true, Big Al, they need to find a candidate asap.
why would the UUs object to the tory guy? (Email me if you don’t want to post it up here.)
So you’re saying Empey and Cameron are at loggerheads on the selection? I thought this would still be done inside joint committtee, but you say its gone higher than this? Are you sure?
Perhaps they should call Burnside?
Isnt it obvious? They need to ship in another guy called McCrea from next door.
The Tories wouldnt object, hes a decent performer and with the TUV possibly turning up the UUCNFABCDEFGs have a chance but only if they put a real hitter in.
Yokel-that’s a great idea! Yes it is obvious.
if their stuck in South Antrim, I could give it a go 🙂
Does Paula Bradshaw support Unionist Unity?
southbelfastunionist,
Is that not what the Conservatives and Unionists are doing?
The only Conservative in North Antrim? Do you think someone wants Jim Allister to win?
Looking at this list, it will be interesting to see where UCUNF goes after the Westminster Election. Even though we are assured the Tories are in for the long haul it is difficult to imagine this list as part of any kind of plan at all.
Calling Ian Parsley a Conservative is somewhat stretching the point. He did not leave the Alliance until the Tories offered him a paid job. Would he have moved if he was not offered a salary? And his girlfriend gets the nod in South Belfast!
Ah watcher, Parsley is the unanimously seleced conservative candidate for North Down. His motives to one side, surely Parsley is as much a tory as any other prospective parliamentary Tory candidate standing across the UK.
Alas you are correct