Northern ireland, the centre ground party doing really well in this election. professorjon tonge, professor of politics at the university of liverpool is still with me for some let s reflect on what those two speakers were saying before jonathan buckley we what those two speakers were saying beforejonathan buckley we had what those two speakers were saying before jonathan buckley we had john dowd and focusing on the cost of living crisis, not constitutional issues. ultimately that is what, where the pressure is coming from on an immediate basis from voters in northern ireland towards the politicians. northern ireland towards the politicians northern ireland towards the oliticians. ,, ., politicians. sinn fein has played a savvy election politicians. sinn fein has played a savvy election campaign, - politicians. sinn fein has played a| savvy election campaign, focusing politicians. sinn fein has played a . savvy election campaign, focusing on health issues and the cost of living issu
That. saying what lots of politicians have been saying, we will be their day one. she means monday of next week because this process of potentially nominating the first and deputy first ministers is supposed to happen but as we have been discussing today, it doesn t look as though the dup, who are likely to emerge as the second largest party, will be going through the process of nominating a deputy first minister, which they would be entitled to do is second largest party. so a bit of a stalling, a stalemate, but all of the party saying that they are ready on day one to get back to work. what does that mean in practice customer it doesn t mean, for example, that we are having a functioning executive return immediately. jeffrey donaldson, the leader of the dup saying that he is going to decide after the queen s speech whether his party will return to the
Let s bring you up to date with the relative positions of the parties. i think we can show it on our screens. there you have it. sinn fein leading the way followed by the dup and then with alliance, that centre ground party, as we mentioned, performing very well, clearly that is one of the big stories at this election. i m joined byjon tonge, professor of british and irish politics at the university of liverpool. the fact sinn fein has become the largest party in northern ireland, they declined to use the term northern ireland, for them to become the largest party here is a seismic development. it won t change things