HOME
*



picture info

Strangford (UK Parliament Constituency)
Strangford (Irish: Loch Cuan, Ulster Scots: Strangfurd) is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Jim Shannon of the DUP. Constituency profile Strangford covers the settlements either side of Strangford Lough. Despite the name, the town of Strangford is in the neighbouring South Down constituency. The seat is strongly unionist, and one of 7 areas of Northern Ireland which voted to leave the European Union. Boundaries The seat was created after boundary changes in 1983, as part of an expansion of Northern Ireland's constituencies from 12 to 17, and was predominantly made up from parts of North Down. At its creation the constituency was formed from the local government district of Ards, and the Castlereagh districts of Beechill, Fourwinds, Hillfoot, Lower Braniel, Minnowburn, Moneyreagh, Newtownbreda, and Upper Braniel. In 1995, the Commission controversially recommended abolishing the constituency and dividing it between ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

North Down (UK Parliament Constituency)
North Down is a parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom House of Commons. The current MP is Stephen Farry of the Alliance Party. Farry was elected to the position in the 2019 general election, replacing the incumbent Sylvia Hermon. Hermon had held the position since being elected to it in the 2001 general election, but chose not to contest in 2019. Constituency profile North Down covers the north coast of the Ards Peninsula including Bangor which has several Alliance councillors. Historically a unionist area, North Down is currently the only seat in Northern Ireland represented by a non-aligned party. Boundaries 1885–1918: The baronies of Castlereagh Lower, Lower Ards, and Upper Ards, that part of the barony of Castlereagh Upper in the parishes of Comber and Knockbreda, and that part of the parliamentary borough of Belfast lying in County Down. 1918-1922: The Urban Districts of Bangor, Donaghadee and Newtownards, and that part of the Rural District of Newtown ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Alliance Party Of Northern Ireland
The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI), or simply Alliance, is a liberal and centrist political party in Northern Ireland. As of the 2022 Northern Ireland Assembly election, it is the third-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, holding seventeen seats, and has made recent breakthroughs to place third in first preference votes in the 2019 European Parliament election and third highest-polling regionally at the 2019 UK general election. The party won one of the three Northern Ireland seats in the European Parliament, and one seat, North Down, in the House of Commons, the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Founded in 1970 from the New Ulster Movement, the Alliance Party originally represented moderate and non-sectarian unionism. However, over time, particularly in the 1990s, it moved towards neutrality on the Union, and has come to represent wider liberal and non-sectarian concerns. It supports the Good Friday Agreement but maintains a desi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Kellie Armstrong
Kellie Armstrong (née McGrattan; 8 September 1970) is an Alliance Party politician from Northern Ireland. She has been a member of the Legislative Assembly, the Northern Ireland Assembly, for the Strangford constituency since the 2016 Assembly elections. Political career Armstrong has been an active member of the Alliance Party since 2009. She has held various positions within the Alliance Party including: secretary and chair of the Strangford Association branch, convenor of the Political Organisation – a committee of the Party Executive that oversees election and activist activities, member of the Party Executive, a member of the Alliance Women's Group and Vice Chair of the Party. Armstrong was co-opted onto Ards Borough Council to replace retiring member Kieran McCarthy. She was then elected in 2014 to Ards and North Down Borough Council representing the Ards Peninsula. Armstrong stood as the Alliance Westminster candidate in 2015 and 2019 securing the highest-ever ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

2019 United Kingdom General Election
The 2019 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 12 December 2019. It resulted in the Conservative Party receiving a landslide majority of 80 seats. The Conservatives made a net gain of 48 seats and won 43.6% of the popular vote – the highest percentage for any party since 1979. Having failed to obtain a majority in the 2017 general election, the Conservative Party had faced prolonged parliamentary deadlock over Brexit while it governed in minority with the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). This situation led to the resignation of the Prime Minister, Theresa May, and the selection of Boris Johnson as Conservative leader and Prime Minister in July 2019. Johnson could not induce Parliament to approve a revised withdrawal agreement by the end of October, and chose to call for a snap election, which the House of Commons supported via the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019. Opinion polls up to polling day showed a firm lead for the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Strangford Graph
Strangford (from Old Norse ''Strangr fjörðr'', meaning "strong sea-inlet") is a small village at the mouth of Strangford Lough, on the Lecale peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 475 at the 2001 Census. On the other side of the lough is Portaferry on the Ards Peninsula, and there is a ferry service between the two villages. The village has a small harbour, which is overlooked by rows of 19th-century cottages and a fine Georgian terrace. Places of interest *Strangford Castle, near the harbour in Strangford, is a 16th-century tower house with a drop hole at roof level to defend the door. *Castle Ward consists of a 16th century tower house and an 18th century mansion built in two distinct architectural styles, Classical and Gothic, overlooking Strangford Lough. The property is owned by the National Trust. Castle Ward is one-and-one-half miles from Strangford. *Audley's Castle is a 15th-century castle one mile northeast of Strangford, ove ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Stewardship Of The Chiltern Hundreds
The Chiltern Hundreds is an ancient administrative area in Buckinghamshire, England, composed of three " hundreds" and lying partially within the Chiltern Hills. "Taking the Chiltern Hundreds" refers to one of the legal fictions used to effect resignation from the British House of Commons. Since Members of Parliament are not permitted to resign, they are instead appointed to an "office of profit under the Crown", which requires MPs to vacate their seats. The ancient office of Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, having been reduced to a mere sinecure by the 17th century, was first used by John Pitt (of Encombe) in 1751 to vacate his seat in the House of Commons. Other titles were also later used for the same purpose, but only those of the Chiltern Hundreds and the Crown Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead are still in use. Three Chiltern Hundreds A hundred is a traditional division of an English county: the '' Oxford English Dictionary'' says that the e ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1983 United Kingdom General Election
The 1983 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 9 June 1983. It gave the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher the most decisive election victory since that of the Labour Party in 1945, with a majority of 144 seats. Thatcher's first term as Prime Minister had not been an easy time. Unemployment increased during the first three years of her premiership and the economy went through a recession. However, the British victory in the Falklands War led to a recovery of her personal popularity, and economic growth had begun to resume. By the time Thatcher called the election in May 1983, opinion polls pointed to a Conservative victory, with most national newspapers backing the re-election of the Conservative government. The resulting win earned the Conservatives their biggest parliamentary majority of the post-war era, and their second-biggest majority as a single-party government, behind only the 1924 election (they earned even more seats in ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Iris Robinson Scandal
The Iris Robinson scandal, also known as Irisgate, was a political scandal in Northern Ireland involving Iris Robinson, the wife of Northern Ireland's First Minister Peter Robinson. She was a serving MP and MLA for the Democratic Unionist Party, representing Strangford in both legislatures. In January 2010, a BBC Northern Ireland documentary revealed that Iris Robinson had been involved in an extramarital affair in 2008 and had procured £50,000 in loans for her lover to finance a start-up restaurant. She had failed to declare her monetary interest in the restaurant, despite serving on the council which leased the premises to him. As a result of the restaurant issue, Iris Robinson was expelled from the DUP and she resigned her seats in both Westminster and the Northern Ireland Assembly, retiring from politics. Peter Robinson also unexpectedly lost his own Westminster seat ( Belfast East) in the 2010 general election and some media reports attributed the result to the s ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Resignation From The British House Of Commons
Members of Parliament (MPs) sitting in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom are not permitted to resign their seats. To circumvent this prohibition, MPs who wish to step down are instead appointed to an " office of profit under the Crown", which disqualifies them from sitting in Parliament. For this purpose, a legal fiction is maintained where two unpaid offices are considered to be offices of profit: Steward and Bailiff of the Chiltern Hundreds, and Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead. Although the House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 lists hundreds of offices that are disqualifying, it is rare for an MP to be nominated to a legitimate office of profit; no MP lost his or her seat by being appointed to an actual office between 1981, when Thomas Williams became a judge, and 2022, when Rosie Cooper became the chair of an NHS foundation trust. Offices used for disqualification Members of Parliament (MPs) wishing to give up their seats before the next gene ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Peter Robinson (Northern Ireland Politician)
Peter David Robinson (born 29 December 1948) is a retired Northern Irish politician who served as First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2008 until 2016 and Leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) from 2008 until 2015. Until his retirement in 2016, Robinson was involved in Northern Irish politics for over 40 years, being a founding member of the DUP along with Ian Paisley. Robinson served in the role of General Secretary of the DUP from 1975, a position which he held until 1979 and which afforded him the opportunity to exert unprecedented influence within the fledgeling party. In 1977, Robinson was elected as a councillor for the Castlereagh Borough Council in Dundonald, and in 1979, he became one of the youngest Members of Parliament (MP) when he was narrowly elected for Belfast East. He held this seat until his defeat by Naomi Long in 2010, making him the longest-serving Belfast MP since the 1800 Act of Union. In 1980, Robinson was elected as the deputy leader of th ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

2003 Northern Ireland Assembly Election
The 2003 Northern Ireland Assembly election was held on Wednesday, 26 November 2003, after being suspended for just over a year. It was the second election to take place since the devolved assembly was established in 1998. Each of Northern Ireland's eighteen Westminster Parliamentary constituencies elected six members by single transferable vote, giving a total of 108 Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). The election was contested by 18 parties and many independent candidates. The election was originally planned for May 2003, but was delayed by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. Political parties On the unionist side, the Democratic Unionist Party gained ten seats, primarily at the expense of smaller unionist parties, to become the largest party both in seats and votes, with thirty seats. The Ulster Unionist Party increased their vote slightly, despite slipping to third place in first preference votes, and won 27 seats, a net loss of one. Shortly after the ele ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Iris Robinson
Iris Robinson (née Collins; born 6 September 1949) is a former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politician in Northern Ireland. She is married to Peter Robinson, who was First Minister of Northern Ireland from 2008 to 2016. Robinson was first elected councillor for Castlereagh Borough Council in 1989, and served as Mayor in 1992 and 1995.Biography – Iris Robinson, Northern Ireland Assembly
She was a member of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political Dialogue from 1995 to 1997. In 1998 she was elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly for the Democratic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]