Brown O’Connor Communications Weekly Look Ahead - Week Commencing 18 November 2019

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General Election

  • The deadline to nominate candidates for the upcoming passed at 4pm yesterday. Attached is a table of confirmed candidates for all 18 of NI’s parliamentary seats.

  • The Green Party have said they will step aside in North Down and South Antrim to boost the chances of returning a pro-remain MP in the constituencies. The party last week endorsed the SDLP’s Claire Hanna in South Belfast.

  • Nigel Farage announced this week that the Brexit Party will not stand candidates in any of the 317 seats currently held by Conservative MPs.

  • UUP leader Steve Aiken will run against the DUP’s Sammy Wilson in East Antrim while Alan Chambers has been chosen as the party’s candidate in North Down.

  • The Alliance Party are launching their General Election manifesto on Tuesday 26 November at the Park Avenue Hotel, Belfast.

  • Former Justice Secretary David Gauke has announced he will stand as an independent candidate in South West Hertfordshire after losing the Tory whip.

  • The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday 26 November. The deadline to register for a postal or proxy vote is Thursday 21 November.

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Forward Look

  • The Sinn Féin Ard Fheis takes place today and tomorrow in Derry’s Millennium Forum. At the Ard Fheis, the election for the Vice President will take place with current VP Michelle O’Neill and Upper Bann MLA John O’Dowd in contention.

  • Nurses in Northern Ireland will go on strike over staffing numbers and pay disputes on 18 December, the RCN has announced. The union has also released a timetable of more limited industrial action and targeted strike action running until March 2020.

  • Members of Unison, Northern Ireland’s largest health workers’ union, have voted to strike. The union represents about 25,000 healthcare workers including nurses, social care staff, and support services but not doctors.

  • Planning permission to restore Bank Buildings in Belfast city centre was granted by Belfast City Council this week. However, work to reconstruct the damaged Primark store may take until 2022.

  • Flybe has announced a new route between Belfast and London Southend to begin at the end of March 2020. The flights, which come as Flybe prepares to rebrand under the new name Virgin Connect, will run 18 times a week.

  • The Northern Ireland Local Government Association are holding a major border economy event in the new year. ‘Councils Driving the Local Economy’ will take place in the Canal Court Hotel, Newry on 23 January 2020.

  • Four Dáil by-elections will take place on 29 November. The elections are to replace four TDs who left their roles to become MEPs in May after the European Parliament elections. The by-elections will take place in Cork North Central; Dublin Mid-West; Wexford; and Dublin Fingal.

  • The 2020 DUP Annual Conference will take place on 23 and 24 October in Crowne Plaza Hotel, Shaw’s Bridge, Belfast.

Other Stories This Week

  • House prices in Northern Ireland rose at an annual rate of 4% in the third quarter of 2019. The average price of a house in Northern Ireland is now just under £140,000.

  • Northern Ireland’s shopping centres reported a fall in footfall numbers of nearly 4% during October, according to the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium.

  • Toomebridge-based manufacturer SDC Trailers have said they are to cut jobs. They employ over 800 people in Co Antrim and Nottinghamshire in England. The firm blamed uncertainty around Brexit and a slowdown in demand for the planned redundancies.

  • The latest Ulster Bank PMI figures for October show that the private sector in NI remained in contraction. While manufacturing output expanded for the first time in six months, orders fell to an 83-month low, retail jobs were shed at the fastest rate in 7 years, and general business activity decreased.

  • The Department of Finance has opened a £30,000 Innovation and Outreach Fund to encourage the use of open data. Awards of between £300 and £5000 are available to fund the development of apps and other interactive visualisations that make innovative use of data on the Open Data NI portal.

  • Same-sex marriage campaigners are to take legal action against the Secretary of State to force the government to allow gay couples in Northern Ireland to convert their civil partnerships into marriage.

  • The Labour Party faced two cyber-attacks this week, in what it called a “sophisticated and large-scale” attempt to disrupt its digital systems.

  • Emma Dunseith has been appointed as Head of Content Production for BBC Northern Ireland.

Upcoming Key Political and Business Events

  • 15 November, Belfast Telegraph Property Awards, Crowne Plaza, Belfast

  • 15-16 November, Sinn Féin Ard Fheis, Millennium Forum, Derry

  • 20 November, An Audience with Northern Ireland’s Political Leaders, CBI, Belfast

  • 21 November, NI Chamber President’s Banquet, ICC Belfast

  • 25 November, NI Chamber 5 Leaders 5 Days – Colum Eastwood MLA, Ulster Bank, Donegall Sq East, Belfast

  • 26 November, NI Chamber 5 Leaders 5 Days – Michelle O’Neill MLA, BT Tower, Belfast

  • 27 November, CBI Conference Series, Driving Productivity, Belfast

  • 28 November, AICon 2019, Europa Hotel, Belfast

  • 29 November, Belfast Chamber Festive Reception, The New Orpheus, Belfast

  • 2 December, NI Chamber 5 Leaders 5 Days – Naomi Long MEP, Venue TBC

  • 3 December, NI Chamber 5 Leaders 5 Days – Steve Aiken MLA, Pinsent Masons, Belfast

  • 5 December, Derry Chamber AGM & Christmas Drinks, Millennium Forum, Derry

  • 5 December, NI Chamber and SONI Energy Forum, Invest NI, Belfast

  • 6 December, NI Chamber 5 Leaders 5 Days – Arlene Foster MLA, Allstate NI, Belfast

  • 12 December, TEDxStormontWomen, Parliament Buildings, Stormont

  • 12 December, UK General Election

 

Consultations

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