Welcome to Gerrymanderville

Hain has done it.  The long awaited announcement on the future of local government in Northern Ireland has been launched by Sinn Fein's chum, the Secretary of State.  In deference to Sinn Fein's desires at the expense of everyone else's, the government has decided on the seven council option.  According to Auntie Beeb the new councils will cover the following administrative areas (the new councils have been shaded in the colour of the majority political makeup that will govern them in perpetuity):

Council 1: North Down, Castlereagh, Ards, Down.

Council 2: Carrickfergus, Antrim, Newtownabbey, Lisburn.

Council 3: Larne, Moyle, Ballymena, Ballymoney, Coleraine.

Council 4: Londonderry, Limavady, Magherafelt, Strabane.

Council 5: Cookstown, Dungannon, Omagh, Fermanagh.

Council 6: Banbridge, Craigavon, Newry & Mourne, Armagh.

Council 7: Belfast City (no changes to existing boundaries are proposed)

Are you surprised at the 'green' shading of Belfast?  You shouldn't be.  Had these crucial reforms been genuinely about reform of local government, then Belfast would have correctly contained its suburbs (Newtownabbey and Castlereagh) like virtually every other city in the UK has done.  However, this is not about benefiting the taxpayer, it is about propitiating Irish nationalism.  We will see a situation where a an obvious majority of Northern Ireland councils which are presently Unionist, will be turned into a majority which are nationalist in composition.  That is because the hopelessly gerrymandered boundaries of Belfast will, within the next ten years, contain a nationalist-majority council.  This will doubtless allow nationalists, who never waste an opportunity to put Unionists under psychological and constitutional siege, to claim that 70% of the Province's land area will be governed by people who have a vested interest in its destruction.  Let me give you a comparison between a gerrymandered city (Belfast) and a conventional city (Bradford) of comparable size.

If I start my journey into Bradford from its nearest council border to my house, it would take me nearly 1 hour and 15 minutes to walk into the city centre.  The route would encompass all of the city's western suburbs and around 1 mile of rural moorland.  By contrast, I can walk from Belfast's council boundary on the Cregagh Road (near to Schomberg House) to Donegall Place in 20 minutes.  Beyond Schomberg House, travelling towards Rosetta and Newtownbreda, it would take me at least another 35 minutes before I reached the first fields of the County Down countryside.

Castlereagh and Newtownabbey have been excluded from Hain's tinkering because they would have reflected the true picture of Belfast: that of a Unionist city in perpetuity.  Instead, we will see a continued gerrymander that gives the legend of Londonderry a run for its money.  Will we hear protestations of discrimination from nationalists about that?  Don't hold you breath!!!

Comments

[joc]

Nice to put a voice to your writings Andrew - assuming that was you on talkback.

Not sure I agree with you tho... ;)

[Peter]

Andrew, just heard you on BBC Talkback. Well done!

[Sean Fear]

Keeping the current boundaries of Newry and Mourne seems pretty odd. Surely South Armagh should go in with the rest of Armagh, and Newry and South Down with the rest of Down?

[Andrew McCann]

Yes, it was my horrible Yorkshire brogue you heard. Horrendous, eh?

[slug]

Andrew

You have the nack of blogging. This piece makes the point very effectively. Well done.

[PS]

Why describe Belfast as "green" when it currently has neither a Nationalist nor unionist majority?

[Mike]

Gerry Adams is on Radio 5 Live this afternoon. Thought you might like to know.

[Andrew McCann]

PS

Because of what it will be within 5 years.

Mike

I'll decline. If I listen to that murderer I'll end up throwing the radio against the wall.

[Peter]

Andrew, I think you may be pessimistic about Belfast falling under nationalist control. The tide was at least halted at the last local elections.

But your central point about a greater Belfast is correct and was backed up by an economist a few months back, which David Dunseith mentioned just after you went off-air. The urban parts of Newtownabbey and Castlereagh are clearly part of Belfast.

[Mike]

Andrew, you better turn off at 2 then.

[fearganainm]

based on the 2005 district council results, will council 6 not be fairly evenly balanced also?

[Chris Gaskin]

Great News!

This was always going to be the outcome

[Andrew McCann]

Is it great news because your Shinner chums can dance in the street the way they dance on the graves of those they murdered?

[Richard]

Chris, would you think it was 'great news' if a hypothetical nationalist majority country had a majority unionist council make up?

[Chris Gaskin]

"a hypothetical nationalist majority country had a majority unionist council make up?"

Majorities change all the time Andrew; you can't tell Nationalists in Belfast to stop breeding!

The so-called Unionist majority is as artificial as these council changes.

History has a tendency of biting you in the behind.

Unionism should consider itself bitten!

You want direct rule? You got it!

[Chris Gaskin]

Sorry my comment was meant for Richard, not Andrew

Andrew

Grow up!

[Richard]

Chris, so you don't think there are more unionists in Northern Ireland than nationalists??

[Chris Gaskin]

"so you don't think there are more unionists in Northern Ireland than nationalists??"

Did I say that?

It is "Northern Ireland" that is artificial and which allows for an artificial Unionist majority.

It is quite pleasing to see their greatest invention shaft them!

[Richard]

'It is "Northern Ireland" that is artificial and which allows for an artificial Unionist majority.'

Do you think people from the republic of ireland should be allowed to vote for councillors in N Ireland too?

[Michael Shilliday]

Council 6 strikes me as being marginal as well.

[Peter]

Yeah, surely Banbridge and Craigavon are unionist-controlled at present? Could it be that the shinner gloating is a tad premature?

[Andrew McCann]

'Grow up'!!! Coming from a man who stands outside a university in a display of petulance against the armed forces wanting to recruit graduate talent, that's funny!!

As to 'breeding', I don't want to tell anyone to do anything on a reproductive front, except for those who support Sinn Fein/IRA, and I think you know what I mean.

Belfast is a Unionist city. It's time the council boundaries reflected that fact.

[J Kelly]

This notion that the redrawing of councils is going to lead to further sectarianisation of the north is total nonsense. Currently we have 26 local councils 13 are unionist dominated, 10 are nationalist dominated and 3 are balanced with neither having over all control or the balance of power being held by alliance or independents. So whats the diffeence with these 7 or 26 in regards control by either
nationalist or unionist.

If parties would be truthful about the situation we might have a good debate the reason the SDLP are going mad is that Sinn Fein will be the largest party in the three western councils and they will lose control of Derry and Down. Its not about sectarianism, local power or local identity its Stop Sinn Fein, Stop A United Ireland.

[Peter]

Another fine example of Sinn Fein's stalinist / totalitarian instincts. One of their councillors has been suspended from the party for daring to publicly oppose the new local government boundaries. What a fine bunch of democrats! Dissent from the party line? Not in this party you won't!

See story at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4460636.stm

[Iñaki O'Kelly]

The new armagh-south down council is not as marginal as might seem at first glance because the overwhelming nationalist majority in Newry-south Down (80%) outweighs the smaller unionist majority of Craigavon (44%). If you go to Nicholas Whyte's Northern Ireland Elections website you'll find all the statistics.
In so far as the Belfast Council does not include Castlereagh and Newtownabbey, Andrew Mccann's complaint would be more credible if he included poleglass and twinbrook. But of course, they're full of fenians breeding like rabbits (not pandas).