Election 2010 Constituency Profile: Belfast North

By Noel Thompson

So another election is on the way, and once again BBC Newsline will be pulling out the stops to make sure you have all the information you need to make your choice when May 6th rolls round.

Like most journalists, I love elections. The rise in the political temperature puts everyone on their mettle and adds an element of tension and expectation to every political encounter.

The cut and thrust of debate between politicians and between politicians and journalists takes on an extra edge, with the candidates wary of coming out with anything which would frighten off a potential voter, and the journalists eager to make the politicians commit themselves to positions and policies to which they can be held should they be successful.

For BBC Newsline, the challenge is to keep election coverage fresh and compelling.

We try to make it relevant to you, our viewers, by illustrating how the campaigns and the promises they make will affect your everyday life.

And we offer you, as much as we can in the limited daily time available, the opportunity to put your questions to the politicians.

So this year I'll be out on our outside broadcast vehicle each Friday between now and the election, in Banbridge, in Portrush, Enniskillen and in Belfast, with a live panel of politicians, putting to them some of the questions you have sent us.

And over the next four weeks on BBC Newsline we'll have constant updates about the individual constituencies around Northern Ireland and the political personalities challenging for the right to represent them at Westminster.

So I do hope you'll tune in and join us on this latest short and exciting electoral journey, the four weeks will go by in a flash.

Belfast North

We begin our series of constituency profiles with Belfast North, an area conspicuous for its interfaces and the peace walls which divide Catholic and Protestant communities.

The sitting MP is the DUP's Nigel Dodds.

More than 66,000 people can vote in this constituency.

It has almost double the Northern Ireland average of violent crime, with 60% of people living in deprived areas, but on a lighter note the Cave Hill inspired writer Jonathan Swift to use it in his novel Gulliver's Travels.

Our reporter Chris Page is in north Belfast for this, the first of our eighteen constituency reports.