Jon Tonge

Jim Allister, TUV conf (watched online): ‘Should be no Exec as long as there is a (EU) Protocol’; ‘choice not Stormont or soon-to-be-gone Starmer; choice is partnering or divorcing SF’. ‘Irish language “commissar” engaged in Maoist-style reeducation to make us all speak Irish’.

"I believe that I have the energy, vision and the determination to lead the party through this election." The Irish News' political reporter John Manley quizzes members of the Alliance Party on Naomi Long's leadership position, and if she is he right person to guide them into the 2027 Assembly elections. University of Liverpool professor Jon Tonge also offers his insight into the debate.

Re missing the St Patrick’s Day celebration in the White House: “I’m under no illusion our absence matters to Trump. But it matters to me”.

Alliance leader @naomi_long addresses her party conference: “Most people don’t go to sleep thinking about the border or the constitutional question”. #APNI26

Alliance Deputy Leader @EoinTennyson warns of party antics at Stormont creating ‘collapse in public confidence in political institutions created under the Good Friday Agreement’ #APNI26

Burnham: metro mayors “giving north of England its own voice…some in Whitehall still don’t like it…we came to understand how some in Scotland, Wales and NI felt” #APNI26

“It’s nice to feel wanted by a political party”. Andy Burnham begins his speech at the Alliance Party annual conference in Belfast. #APNI26

9am lecture vibe

The @StormontSources podcast is celebrating its first birthday by demonstrating no audience is “too niche” for podcasts to cut through, make impact and matter. Huge numbers for year one. Year two is already off to an even stronger start. Congrats to @dmcbfs, @timcairns and Michael.

Maybe we could have a play-off system where all 24 teams play each other home and away, with the top three teams getting promoted.

The peace processes module, currently featuring Israel-Palestine and Lebanon, going particularly well this year.

Suppose we’re looking at a third state visit #Trump

@GarethBurns18 @Vote4SiLee No!

@JonTonge @Vote4SiLee Have you slept?

Some thoughts on the by-election for The Conversation theconversation.com/victory-in-gor…

Great win for the Greens but did they use the Bee Network to get to the count like some of us…?😉

On the result of the #GortonandDentonByElection. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/…

Labour’s canvas data claimed they were ahead slightly in 5 of the 7 constituency parts, whilst trailing Greens in Levenshulme & Longsight. Hence Starmer’s visit. Either voters were telling canvassers what they wanted to hear, or sampling hopeless (+big turnout in 2 Grn-led wards)

@LukeTryl @charliemansell @andrew_behan Agreed! It was clear from the bundles that the Greens had polled well in Denton, not just the Manchester Gorton side of the constituency.

@andrew_behan It's a bug bear of mine that we don't release polling station level data in Britain

I’m obviously gutted for our great candidate Angeliki . But I’m glad that we’ve got another woman entering parliament and a tradesperson too. @LukeTryl It would be fascinating to see the individual results for the polling stations across the constituency.

From 25 January

John Curtice: "There are particular elections we all remember.. this is going to be up with those in the history books and in our political memory. This is a seismic event"