What impact will the Northern Ireland election have?
The Briefing Room
BBC
4.8 • 731 Ratings
🗓️ 12 May 2022
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The election in Northern Ireland saw nationalists, Sinn Fein, win the most votes. Their leader, Michelle O'Neill, becomes first minister. It has been heralded as a historic result. But what will its impact - on Stormont politics, the protocol and the union - end up being? Joining David Aaronovitch in the briefing room are: Enda McClafferty, BBC Northern Ireland's political editor Ann Watt, director of Pivotal, an independent public policy think tank Sam McBride, Northern Ireland editor, Belfast Telegraph & Sunday Independent Etain Tannam, associate professor of international peace studies, Trinity College Dublin
Producers: Rosamund Jones, Kirsteen Knight & Ben Carter Studio manager: James Beard Production co-ordinators: Siobhan Reed & Sophie Hill Editor: Richard Vadon
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.6 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
| 0:09.7 | The briefing room is the metaversal thought capsule, |
| 0:13.0 | where in 28 minutes you and I get to understand a big issue |
| 0:16.0 | with the help of the top experts on the subject. |
| 0:19.1 | This week, what impact will Sinn Féin becoming the largest party in Northern Ireland |
| 0:23.5 | have on local politics, the EU Protocol and the Union? |
| 0:31.9 | Last week's elections in Northern Ireland sought Sinn Féin, |
| 0:35.4 | the party whose aim is a United Ireland, win the most votes, |
| 0:39.3 | pushing the Unionist DUP into second place. |
| 0:43.3 | In any new executive, this would lead to Sinn Féin's leader, Michelle O'Neill, becoming First Minister, |
| 0:49.3 | which feels like a historic result. But is it? What will its impact on Stormont politics |
| 0:55.8 | on the UK-EU protocol |
| 0:57.4 | and the union itself end up being? |
| 1:00.5 | Step inside the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 1:08.0 | First, those election results need some explaining. |
| 1:11.8 | The briefing room's Rosamond Jones spoke to the BBC's political editor in Northern Ireland, Enda McLaughity. |
| 1:17.8 | Firstly, before we get into the actual results, what happens in Northern Ireland? |
| 1:21.5 | This is a different system, isn't it, to what's in place for, say, electing MPs to Westminster? |
| 1:26.7 | In Northern Ireland, we operate the election system of proportional representation. |
| 1:30.8 | The single transferable vote, that's how it's known locally. |
| 1:33.5 | And that essentially is devised in a way to allow a greater share of the vote so that smaller |
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