Return of the missing blogger

It has been even longer since the last time i blogged a piece.  Even though lots of ideas flow for bits and bobs, I still find little time to actually write the pieces.

And so as an advocate of social media and online networking, i have committed the cardinal sin of, well, not updating (much).

It is the main investment anyone or organisation will make in the realm of online interactivity. To constantly update.

Sounds easy.  In many ways it is, as it can become a process, just like everything else you do at work.  You do not need to be the most creative writer in the world (it can add to the content, but not necessary), or creative at all.  Most content you will want to put up is already in existence. The real issue is time.

Time is the trap that people can fall into using social media.  It is just like networking at an event.  there will be lots of people there but you will only be able to concentrate on maybe 3 to five people to network with and build an initial relationship with.  

Online, you are not just at one networking event, but 3, 4, 6, 10 events with hundred of thousands of other people.  Now quake at the time left in the real world for real things!!

So how do you use cope with it all?  

I have chosen  only a few of these online (and ongoing) 'events', or platforms, to attend.  Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Lookaly, a few forums and a few NING sites of interest to me.  

As lots of social network sites vie for your attention, and maybe money if you go down the route of promoted content, the first question is of demographics and where those 'publics' you want to target hang out on line.  There is no use building a presence on 'BEBO' if you want to reach people in their 20's or older, take it from me - they will be on Facebook.

Then invest in time to produce results.  Depending on who you are, what you are doing and what you are trying to sell, you will need to invest time online to reflect who you are and what you are doing.

It will not be an overnight success.  You will not go to bed and find 30,000 people following you on Twitter the next day.  Investment in time and effort is required.

It is best to choose a couple of platforms to concentrate on and evaluate how they can add value to what you are trying to do.

You can also ask others how they use their own social media or even invest a bit of money engaging someone to do the research for you [hint, hint :) ].  

Remember, whilst many social media platforms, or events, or sites (whatever you want to call them) are free, your time is not.  And if you are able to dive into social media you may have one of the best sales teams in the world at your finger tips.

Loneliness of a long distance daddy daycare

Inge Radford (a Holocaust survivor living in Northern 

Ireland) and me at the launch of the Anne Frank + [You}

Exhibition in Strabane's Alley Theatre.

Well, I have suddenly noticed I have not been blogging for a couple of weeks. And as the cat says 'Oh Noes'!

I still have a load of opinionated posts to put up, and I would not want to stop the world from receiving my inane mutterings. So why the long absence?

One part was being a bit tired after the election, and not being enough of a political geek to keep going I had a small break and to focus on family time again.

And this leads me on to the next few reasons why I have not bothered harassing anyone in the virtual world. I have become a daddy daycare to my two wee bairns.  

Bizarrely it has been financially advantageous to do this. And no I am not sponging. Roughly it cost £1200 a month to pay someone else to take care of my two girls.  Add onto this diesel, meals, and sundries this left little of my wage and with my wife's money paying the mortgage and other sundries (like food and horrible things like car servicing) we were just about bobbing up and down on the sea of financial sufficiency.

I would have thought it may have been a bit more stressful that I anticipated but have been loving taking care of the kids. We got out on a few trips before the terrible chickenpox hit. Gutted we are missing the Ballyclare May Fair :( but the youngest is still in no mood to be able to take her out. Plus I don't want to be the cause of a chicken pox outbreak.

I am now thinking of moving on with my own consultancy, but we will see how far and where that takes me! 

The kids have also been ill, playing 'tag chickenpox'. So the house has been unclean for a few weeks now.

Add into the mix coming mid ranking in a 40K Tournament, being a spokesperson for the Anne Frank Trust and helping at the opening of the Arkham gaming Centre running a big Apocalypse game and helping kids to learn the basics of 40K. Oh, and once again digging the garden.

I hope to get a number of posts up over the coming days reflecting on politics, social media and other tidbits. 

Phew!

The Northern Ireland Election aftermath

Well what a night! After twittering away into the wee small hours and finally getting to bed, I find it is the day after the night before.

Now all the seats have been returned what does this tell us?

Well, Sinn Fein have the largest share with 25.5% of the votes, DUP come in a very close second with 25%, SDLP are third with 16.5% and UCUNF fourth with 15.2%.  That totals (in the inimitable sectarian head count) a 42% Nationalist share and a 40.2% Unionist Share of the big two on each side. Counting in the Unionist share for Sylvia of 3.1% the Unionist total rises to 43.3%.  The Alliance Party sits at 6.3% share of the vote with the different independents (other than Sylvia) reaching 4%.

The overall turnout was 57.6%.  This was the lowest turnout of all the four countries (England tops it with 65.5%, Wales next with 64.9% and then Scotland with 63.8%)

This all translated into 

DUP	8 seats
Sinn Fein	5 seats
SDLP	3 seats
Alliance	1 seat
UCUNF (Conservatives and Unionists)	0 seats

The biggest upset of the night was Naomi Long (Alliance) unseating Peter Robinson (DUP) in East Belfast.  

The closest run seat was Fermanagh and South Tyrone with only 4 votes in it to allow Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Fein) to remain its MP (this was after no less than 3 recounts!).  The fight in Fermanagh and South Tyrone really brought a lot of the voters out (it was seen as a fight between the incumbent Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Fein and Rodney Connor, the independent Unionist Unity candidate)

The biggest majority was Gerry Adams (Sinn Fein) in West Belfast with a majority of 17, 579.

The best polling Independent was Sylvia Hermon (Ind Unionist) in North Down who kept her seat.

The best success was, in my opinion, the SDLP who retained their 3 seats (Foyle, South Belfast, and South Down).

The biggest flop was the UCUNF (Conservatives and Unionists - the alliance of the Conservative Party and the UUP) who returned no MPs and the Conservatives just managed a hung Parliament.  Though negotiations are ongoing with the Liberal Democrats to form a government.

The biggest non-event was the TUV.  The TUV took about 66,197 votes in the European election, could only manage 26,300 votes this time around with the highest polling TUV candidate, Jim Allister, hitting 7,114 votes in North Antrim.

The Unionist vote was down -7.4% (DUP -8.7%, UUP -2.6% & TUV 3.9%). Though this would be raised upward if Sylvia Hermon's and Rodney Connor's share were included by a couple of points or so.  The Nationalist vote was marginally up by +0.2% (Sinn Fein +1.2% & SDLP -1%).

The biggest let down? Voter turnout.  Normally Northern Ireland likes to say it has a very high turnout rate, but the figures show a different image with a turnout of 57.6% (the 2005 Westminster election saw a turnout of 63.5%).  Although the highest turnout in Northern Ireland was in Fermanagh and South Tyrone with 68.9% of a turnout of voters.  All 'Nationalist' areas polled high, with 'Unionist' areas polled low.

So what does this tell us?  Unionism, at the General Election, has, in Mike Nesbitt's words, taken a "bloody nose". It has lost a seat at Westminster and overall voting percentage is down.  This has already led to calls of 'Unionist unity' (something I may discuss in another post).  But I think one of the biggest issues is not 'Unionist unity' but more voter apathy in unionist areas.  

Sore Feet and the DUP

I can not claim this piece. It was sent to me by a friend whom I shall refer to as 'Sore Feet' ;).

Created to ‘strengthen Northern Ireland’s position within the UK’, the DUP have spent their whole existence convincing protestants in Northern Ireland that they alone can keep the union together.

This message has been the core of the DUP mantra at every election since the 1970’s – until this one.

This election has created a paradigm shift in politics in Northern Ireland. Suddenly, according to the DUP, being a strong and equal part of the United Kingdom is second to protecting the ‘special’ status that excludes Northern Ireland from ever becoming anything other than an unwieldy bolt-on.

When the leader of one of the two main political parties in the UK states clearly and repeatedly that he refuses to accept Northern Ireland as a ‘semi-detached state’- making the full inclusion of Northern Ireland a central pillar of his leadership, you would expect the party that has worn its ‘unionist’ credentials like a Chelsea pensioner wears his campaign medals to hail this as a historical moment for unionism in Northern Ireland.

Strangely, the DUP – the party that only exists to ensure Northern Irelands place in the UK – has done everything it can to undermine this support from the man who could be the next Prime Minister.  The DUP have changed their fundamental stance from demanding to be an equal within the UK to ‘Northern Ireland needs to be treated differently to England, Scotland and Wales’.

Could it possibly be that the DUP have now decided that they prefer being the big fish in the small pond so much that they are prepared to undermine their very reason for existence?  Their shallow cries of ‘unionist unity’ seem to miss the point that if they were prepared to step aside from their own ‘exclusionist’ agenda, Northern Ireland could find itself in the strongest position in history regarding membership of the UK.

The simple fact is that if the DUP could put down their sectarian sword and their exclusionist shield, Northern Ireland could make the next step in the process of ‘growing up’.  If the Conservative party are prepared to make a committed stand on Northern Irelands membership of the UK, Labour and the Liberal Democrats would be forced to follow (Labour are already rumoured to be considering running Council candidates in Northern Ireland next year).

The very thought of a Westminster election in 2014/15 which sees Labour, Liberal Democrats and Conservatives standing candidates in every constituency, without the childish infighting that defines ‘Northern Ireland Unionists’ is the biggest example of ‘unionist unity’ that anyone can imagine.

The only argument that seems to be coming from the DUP to explain why they are against the move to offer ‘real’ politics to the people is that if they are independent they can fight for what is best for Northern Ireland.  Even with a hung parliament, do they really believe that 9 DUP MP’s will have any power to ensure that we get more than England Scotland or Wales?

The DUP need to decide very quickly if they are really a party that wants Northern Ireland to be an equal member of the UK or have they become the Northern Ireland independence party

I think Sore Feet's fundamental point is that the DUP have a major question to ask themselves, are they in favour of playing a full role as a fundamental part of the UK, or are they going to take a similar position as the SNP and Plaid Cymru?  That position is about the break up of the UK as the SNP want full independence from the rest of the UK and Plaid Cymru is not far behind.

I suppose keeping independence in a hung Parliament is an argument that can be put forward with some credence.  However, while the practicalities are there, the principles of Unionism' have gone out the window as well as any ability to obtain what in the end both the DUP and the UUP want, that of economic stability, job creation and private sector growth.

A hung Parliament is not good for Northern Ireland, is not good for Scotland, is not good for Wales and is not good for England. the focus will be taken away from decisive leadership to mired and murky side-deals.  I thought people wanted a  new politics, cleaner, more transparent and decisive? A hung Parliament will drag us all back into the political scandals that have rocked Parliament the past couple of years.

Come what may, Friday will be a turning point in all our lives as it will have determined who the next government will be for the next four to five years.  

Maybe the DUP, Sinn Fein and the SDLP will remain unchanged.  Maybe things WILL change.  

But if you don't try to change then there is no point in complaining when things stay the same, or even get worse.  

I will be Voting for Change on 6 May.  Please join me and Sore Feet in making that change happen.

[If anyone wants to get an opinion piece up on my blog just hit the 'contact me' button on the top of the page]

My Conservative and Unionist (& peppa) adventures at La Mon (pt4)

Well, through a bit of messing about and even Eamonn Mallie's intersession Hannah, Freya, Peppa, Kitty and even I got a photo with David Cameron.

Woohoo!!!