Debate contribution: Scottish Election and Welsh Election

Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on 11 May 2026.

MLA

Ms Paula Bradshaw

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

11 May 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Matters of the Day

Heading

Scottish Election and Welsh Election

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5523501

Read the official Assembly record

Text

In the wake of last week's elections in Great Britain, we have seen the predictable rush to the microphones. Some are heralding the results in Scotland and Wales as a seismic shift, a death knell for the Union or an inevitable surge towards independence. Others are noting, as we have just heard, that pro-Union parties collectively received the majority of the votes and claiming that little has changed. However, as we look at the data, which we must do in the context of our constituents in Northern Ireland, it is vital that we meet those headlines with a firm sense of reality. We must remember that a significant proportion of last week's electoral map was defined by local council elections in London and different parts of England. Local government elections are about bins, planning, leisure facilities and other vital services that keep a community breathing, while elections to the devolved Administrations of Scotland and Wales are about the big issues such as health and education. To extrapolate from a handful of seats and say that there is a definite mandate for a constitutional outcome one way or another is a leap of logic. It does a disservice to the voters who cast their ballots last week based on their neighbourhoods, not the status of their borders. I place on record my congratulations to our Lib Dem colleagues in Great Britain. They had a terrific election result. In Northern Ireland, we know all too well the exhaustion that comes from viewing every election through the prism of a constitutional headcount. When we obsess over whether Scotland is going or Wales is wavering, we fall into the same old trap of ignoring bread-and-butter issues. Indeed, if the local election results in England are to be analysed at a national level, what we are seeing is a call for action to improve people's lives, which politics across the UK is failing to do. The Alliance Party is clear that the constitutional future of any nation is a matter for its people, but it cannot and should not be the only matter that is up for debate at election time. We cannot feed a family or fix a health waiting list with a flag, regardless of which flag that is. Our mandate is to make Northern Ireland work. The people whom we represent, whether they identify as unionist, as nationalist or, like a growing number of us who choose both, as other, are not asking us for a running commentary on the internal politics of Plaid Cymru or the Scottish National Party. They are asking us whether the Executive will survive in order to ensure that our schools receive the funding that they need; whether reform of our health service will happen; and whether we can build an economy that is sustainable, prosperous and inclusive. As legislators, our job is not to break up but to build up.

484 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:33 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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