Northern Ireland: Nasty Politics?

At the halfway point of the Assembly election campaign things have turned nasty.

Northern Ireland's politicians have returned to the time honoured tradition of slinging plenty of mud at their opponents in the hope that some of it will stick.

First out of the traps, the SDLP's former Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon. He quipped;

Let's give the DUP a damned sore jaw and a very bloody nose

Seamus Mallon: Knockout blow?

Mr Mallon seems unlikely to feature on the Paisley family Christmas card list this year.

Cracking rivalry

The UUP's trio of East Belfast hopefuls, Sir Reg Empey, Jim Rodgers and Michael Copeland took a crack at their local Sinn Fein rival, Joe O'Donnell.

Noting the number of Sinn Fein posters around the Short Strand area, the UUP men commented;

Mr O'Donnell, like an old tom cat, seems intent in marking out his territory.

We fear he may soon run out of water!

Gregory Campbell, the DUP MP for East Londonderry discerned disturbing symptoms in the actions of the UUP leader.

David Trimble is becoming more hysterical by the day. The pressure of the campaign is obviously getting to him

said Mr Campbell, who evidently considers himself a bit of an amateur psychologist.

Meanwhile, Sinn Fein's Pat Doherty, evidently fancies himself as a Nostradamus for our times.

Asked whether he thought Bertie Ahern's party would start to contest elections in Northern Ireland, he replied;

Will Fianna Fail move into the north? Do you believe in Santa?

Transport theme

Transport has been a recurring theme in this election campaign.

Not as a burning policy issue, of course, more a case of the parties using novelty transport as political gimmicks.

The DUP made their move early, unveiling a luxury battlebus, complete with Playstation to allow campaign workers to work off their surplus aggression.

The Women's Coalition weighed in with their Morris Minor, and this week saw the Ulster Unionists take to the skies in the TrimbleCopter.

A one-man protest was then mounted by the Green Party at Ards Flying Club, targeting the UUP helicopter as the least energy efficient form of transport.

According to the Greens, their man and his pushbike were asked to kindly leave the airfield.

Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein

Politics Show

This week on the Politics Show from Northern Ireland Jim Fitzpatrick presents another of our pre-election debates.

Mark Durkan of the SDLP and Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein go head-to-head in what promises to be a fascinating encounter.

Join the Politics Show with Jim Fitzpatrick on BBC One on Sundays at Noon.

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