Vote

Hello. Sorry to disturb you.

Naomi Long from the Alliance Party.

Yeah, uh-huh. I'm just calling about the election.

'Politics is an all-consuming kind of a role.

'I don't want to spend the rest of my life in Northern Ireland'

throwing my shoes at the television and getting annoyed when I see

things that I feel are wrong. I'm the kind of person -

and I always have been the kind of person -

who believes in trying to find solutions.

Posters. Everywhere you look, there's posters.

'They are huge demands to stand for election.

'They're huge demands on family life.

'They are huge demands on personal life.'

The Ulster Unionist Party. That's myself, Doug Beattie.

'But the prize is massive.'

If you win, you get a chance to represent these people.

Listen, lovely talking to yous, OK?

Lovely talking to you. Sorry for taking your time up.

No problem. You're all right.

THEY CHEER

I think it's an incredibly interesting job, but I really enjoy getting out there, meeting people,

listening to their issues.

I see myself as a natural problem solver.

If I see an issue, I love to get involved in it and try to bring about a solution.

I think that that works very well

with being an elected representative

and I think that if we do that, we can rebuild, perhaps,

some of the trust that has been lost in the past.

You know, we need to attract capable people into politics.

We need to attract passionate, hard-working people into politics.

We'll meet tonight just at about half eight at the house,

just to kind of get our... Game plan?

Yeah, get our game plan on.

Yeah. And then everybody in bed, lights out by 11 o'clock.

The people look at politics, they turn on the Assembly,

they turn on the programmes, and they only see the same two men -

and usually it is men -

having the same argument that they've had for 20 years,

and you know that certainly women and younger people mightn't think

that that's, you know, something that they can possibly do.

So, in that respect,

it is bums on seats have to change a little bit.

The line-up of the politicians they see needs to be more reflective.

I spent every day in the last four years trying to really earn my seat

and, you know, since then we've seen more and more young people come into

politics, of all different backgrounds,

which I think is really important,

because I don't think that we're going to see the type of changes

that we need in our society

unless we have those different kinds of voices, you know,

saying different things and representing different generations.

Democracy, of course, is about people,

trying to make sure that we're relevant

to the people that elect us.

And I know we've come from a background of violence, if you like,

over the '70s and '80s and '90s,

and so people see it as a black-and-white sectarian issue,

sometimes, in Northern Ireland, but, of course, what happens up at Stormont

is not about that at all. It's about education,

it's about being able to deliver good health care,

being able to bring more jobs into Northern Ireland.

So to be relevant to people, I think, is the key part of a democracy.

I believe in devolution.

We need to get power off that hill down into our councils,

through our councils,

into communities and as close to the family unit as you can.

We shouldn't have thousands of people leaving our shores,

we shouldn't have people feeling that they can't achieve their full potential in Northern Ireland,

but all those things are changeable if we have an Assembly

that's more about delivery, more about policy development

and more about actually changing the face of Northern Ireland,

and much less about congratulating ourselves on historic handshakes.

We have to move on from those days.

If people listen, if people take account of what feelings are

amongst their constituents,

then we have a much better chance of delivering good policy for Northern Ireland

than direct-rule ministers flying in for a day a week from London.

What joins us together is the agreements that we've made

over the course of the last 20 years.

And I think it's very important that we all recognise that increasingly

the world is becoming more cosmopolitan,

and that requires all of us to be more broad-minded

and more respectful of other cultures.

I grew up in Markethill, which is just on the edge of South Armagh.

In the '80s and '90s, it suffered a huge amount during the Troubles.

It was, you know, a very politicised time right across Northern Ireland

and I think, you know, for my generation,

even though, you know, like, I was sort of ten in 1990,

it was on the news all of the time.

There was significant amount of discussion with it within families,

I think, as well. So, yes, we were very politically attuned,

you know, very, very conscious of what the issues were.

So, I've got about 50 or 60 of these to put up.

And the right way round, yeah!

Really, my first proper engagement with politics came about at Queen's University,

where when I came in I stood for election to the student council,

through a lot of the passion and the anger

and my very strong views on a whole range of issues.

After working for...well, 15 years with one single determination

to become a lawyer, I suppose I stepped back and said,

"Right, I'm now a barrister. Where do I go from here?"

And it was... It was actually quite a strange period of my life of,

you know, having achieved something that I'd worked really hard for,

I suppose, trying to find then something else which would

drive me forward for the next while.

There's a lot of similarities, actually, being a lawyer, a barrister and being a politician,

in the sense of I'm listening to constituents.

I'm helping and supporting them and giving them advice about how to

navigate towards a solution that they want,

but also that I am an advocate for them

and that I'm working incredibly hard for them,

and I think that that's what it should...

You know, this job should be about.

ACTIVISTS CHAT

Some of our local activists here in Dromintee,

we're just meeting up and dividing up roads between us,

whatever we have left to cover,

so we're trying to knock every single door and trying to talk to

as many people as possible.

But I suppose it's about trying to lift the profile of the election as well,

to let people know it's on, so that we don't have a low turnout,

and just so people are aware that they have to go out and vote on the 5th of May, so...

I was born in 1991, so I was three at the time of the ceasefire

and seven at the time of the Good Friday Agreement, but, you know,

South Armagh growing up was one of the most militarised areas

of Western Europe, so it was kind of inescapable.

There was a very large,

disruptive and unwanted military occupation,

er, and that was quite evident in our everyday lives, and, you know,

that was there right up until 2007, so it's not exactly, you know,

ancient history at this stage, so it was always very, you know,

present and to the fore of my thoughts,

and I think that's probably what sparked my own interest in politics.

Hiya! Hello, how are you? Megan Fearon.

Hello, Megan. How are you? Nice to meet you. Brian...

Hello, Brian. How are you? How's things?

Best of luck. Thanks very much.

Great to see new blood.

I know! Thank you.

Well, we're really just out seeing if there's any issues

or any questions that we can answer for you or...

Maybe the roads. Yeah, I know, yeah.

There's a lot of wear and tear on the roads. Yeah. You're not the first person to mention that.

Well, really, emigration's the big issue I'm worried about at the minute.

A lot of young people that I've taught over the years,

eight out of ten are in Australia or England or the United States.

You know? I know.

I come from quite a large Republican family, and, you know,

we've always been quite active in our community and that's one of

the things that I was kind of brought up with,

to place a massive importance on the strength of community,

and I think that's probably similar across rural areas

throughout Ireland, but particularly so where I'm from. You know,

there's a real close-knit sense of resilience and determination

to try and make our community better.

The Ulster Unionist Party have got good policies.

They're progressive policies, and they are policies that work, so,

you know, if you can look at that and maybe consider giving me a vote,

having read that. But certainly if you get a chance

to look at the policies the Ulster Unionist Party have,

I think it'll be good for the country in the long term.

Is that OK? Yeah. OK.

Whenever I was younger, I used to play on the grassed area here.

I particularly remember the Queen's Silver Jubilee in '77,

er, where we set up a, um, street party on there,

then we played the adults against the kids football match,

all on the grass there. It was absolutely fantastic, and I remember it.

When you're smaller, you always remember it as being so much bigger than it is.

That's all done.

'I'm the son of a soldier,

'so I've sort of led a bit of a nomadic lifestyle.'

I hope you're not backtracking on yourself now.

'I've sort of travelled around'

with my father and mother, him being a soldier, um,

around the world and then, at the age of ten,

he finished his time in the military and we moved back

to Northern Ireland. We moved to a working-class area in Portadown.

Um, that's myself, Doug Beattie, for the elections on the 5th of May.

'And I grew up as a young boy, really just getting to know

'what Northern Ireland was all about and the situation there,

'because it was all very new and very alien to me.'

I got to know where I stood in society, as an Ulster Protestant.

Hiya! I understood then that there was Catholic Nationalists,

who lived on the other side of the wall, who we didn't mix with,

so I learnt all of these things, but they never changed my feelings of,

er, equality and inclusion, so that never changed that -

that remained throughout.

This one's for sale.

So I used to live in this house, um, with my mother, father

and six kids - three girls and three boys.

And it's all a little bit surreal to come back, um,

to the house that I grew up in

and I remember with such huge fond memories -

and terrible memories too, because, you know,

burying your mother at the age of 14, 15

is quite traumatic, with cancer,

and it was pretty aggressive cancer and it wasn't nice.

My last sort of year and a half in here,

with just me and my father living in here on my own, and my father, um,

was grief-stricken with the loss of his wife.

He turned to alcohol and there was only me to sort of

keep him going in life. And I remember he used to come

and wake me up at two o'clock in the morning

to come down and sit with him while he played songs

that him and my mother used to listen to, um,

and I would go to bed and have to get up for school in the morning,

and school's the other end of town, the Portadown Tech, so, you know,

it was a difficult time but a nostalgic time, as well,

as a young boy of ten.

MUFFLED OVERLAPPING SPEAKERS

That's my point.

This would be much more plausible if you voted for the teacher exception

and if you'd voted for integrating the teacher training in one place,

neither of which any of the parties up here, who were in the Executive, did!

I'm going to address exactly that. In practice, you did nothing!

We need to say... So, again,

my sister lives 300 yards away from

her brilliant, local Catholic primary,

so she's not rejecting... Why shouldn't she send her child there?

So, one, integrated, as you know,

isn't just about deleting the Catholic sector...

No, no, of course not!

'Politics was always a thing, was always in our house.

'It was never in any way shoved down our throats.'

It was a very open household,

a lot of discussion and different viewpoints

and I suppose the central one

being that there was an alternative to how things were going,

that, while you could have your identity,

and it was a house that was, you know, proud of its Irishness.

Irish was spoken in the house.

We were, you know, very culturally engaged.

The growing up I had, off the Lisburn Road,

was very different in terms, primarily, of integration, you know.

All faiths and none lived side by side in South Belfast,

and that was something that probably shapes your politics much more

than if everybody in your street

is of a similar background or maybe viewpoint.

I think a lot of the hope and optimism

that I remember from 18 years ago is gone, and we CAN get it back,

but I suppose those parties who are steering it at the moment had to be

dragged kicking and screaming into reconciliation and partnership,

and continue to sort of poke each other in the eye

and I don't think that was envisaged

when we thought that people would work together in partnership.

We were supposed to be building up trust with each other.

I became quite politically aware around the Good Friday Agreement.

I was 17 when it was signed,

and I suppose the central concept that I grew up with,

particularly in our family,

that you can be a Nationalist or you can be a Unionist,

but there are acres of common ground to work with your neighbours,

and that didn't seem to be reflected in politics,

and that simple concept

was something that I felt WAS lacking in that period, so,

if you have the opportunity to have a crack at it and try and put

a different viewpoint, certainly, I feel you have to take it.

Alliance is standing 23 candidates in all 18 constituencies.

Welcome, Naomi. Good afternoon to you. Thank you very much, William.

What are you hoping to do in this Assembly, if you are elected,

if the party increases its vote?

What we want to see is an end to the division,

to the delay and to the stagnation in Stormont.

Naomi Long is here until one o'clock taking your calls today...

'With politics part of life, I think,

'having been born at the end of 1971,

'so right at the beginning of the Troubles,

'it was impossible to grow up in Northern Ireland

'without politics being part of life.'

And I remember incidents when I was growing up

where my mum took a stand as a woman living alone

in a very predominantly Loyalist community,

where she felt people were doing things that she didn't approve of.

I remember there were workmen who came from the Republic of Ireland

to work opposite our home

and in response to that,

people started to paint kerbs in the street and so on,

deliberately to make them feel uncomfortable.

She stood up to that and challenged it and said it was wrong,

wouldn't contribute to any money to the painting,

and asked them not to paint the kerbs outside our house.

Now, that might seem like a very trivial thing but, actually,

when you're living in a community where speaking out can have

consequences, it was quite a brave thing to do and, as a result,

we got a massive Union flag painted on the road outside house

with "remember 1690" and "no surrender",

so we were taught our lesson - that you weren't meant to speak out.

But she did!

There will be responsibilities for ALL ministers

in delivering this, whether it is...

'She instilled in me the belief that we all have

'an individual responsibility to stand up for what we believe in.

'I guess my mum's politics...'

I would say she moved from being a fairly traditional Unionist

actually to quite an avid supporter of Alliance,

in terms of what I was doing,

but also in terms of what the party was doing,

because it resonated with that part of her

that really believed that justice mattered,

that treating people with respect mattered,

that the rule of law mattered.

Those were things that I was raised to believe in and those are things

that I found reflected in the Alliance Party when I joined.

When the election comes,

there'll be people casting a vote

who weren't even born on Good Friday 1998.

The Good Friday Agreement is no longer a tender young child.

It's not even the age of a quarrelsome, difficult teenager.

It's now attaining its maturity

and it really is time that every political party grew up

and ensured that we delivered on the promises that people expected.

We have a peace process that's solid.

We have a political process that's there and stable, and we have people

working together. And it's fantastic.

And we should all be very grateful for the people who got us here.

It doesn't mean we should be happy with our current circumstances.

We should be very impatient for change. We should say,

"What are you actually achieving and delivering and changing?"

That's where people are, I think.

It's great that we have the Assembly,

but we now need an Assembly that actually delivers.

I think the authors of the Agreement in '98 did not envision a position

where any party would become as dominant

as the DUP and Sinn Fein have been.

But if we were in England, if we were in Scotland,

if we were in Wales, if we were in the Republic of Ireland,

I think the voters would look at the record of the last two mandates

and say, "I tell you what,

"take a break, guys, take a rest.

"We're not desperately happy with what you've achieved,

"we're going to give somebody else a go."

That's what happens in a proper democracy.

There's no other part of the United Kingdom that has enforced

mandatory coalition.

In other words, the elections that are going to be taking place

are going to be about putting back,

who would say, the DUP and Sinn Fein in perpetuity,

for as long as they like,

because they HAVE to be brought together.

That's what the Westminster government had decided.

That's not democracy, as far as I'm concerned.

I suppose the truth is this -

that if you say to politicians anywhere across the world,

"We can create for you a system

"whereby you will always be in government,

"you will never be in opposition,"

most politicians, being selfish individuals, will say,

"Sounds good to me." But it's not good for the people.

Well, I think sometimes people can be very complacent

about where we are at the moment and I think,

if you look at the situation here

in the north of Ireland for the last 20 years,

we have moved from a place of intense conflict and militarism

on the streets to a place of peace.

You go out onto the streets of Belfast now,

and other parts of the north, everywhere has changed.

Yes, there are still people out there

who are opposed to the peace process

and there are people out there who are involved in criminality,

but it bears no relationship whatsoever

to what the situation was 25 years ago,

and I think that's been a massive achievement.

Now, in Northern Ireland, we're in a very good place of stability.

My children don't know what it was like in the '70s, '80s and '90s,

and I'm quite content that that is the case.

They're growing up in a period of stability.

Yes, there's much more to do, I know all of that,

but I think we are in a good place now

and we now need to keep moving forward in terms of reform.

I want to see the Assembly reformed.

I want to see more dynamic politics.

I want to see government be by voluntary coalition.

But in order to do that,

we have to go back to why those institutions

are there in the first place,

and that means recognising the fact that we had a history of

discrimination against Nationalism

and those who held Nationalist viewpoints in this place,

so the mandatory coalition was needed to build that trust.

Now, that trust is still lacking,

so, if people really want to see huge reform,

if they want to see a voluntary coalition,

they need to find ways of reassuring those in our society

who have long memories,

and who want to be sure that a voluntary coalition

isn't code for Unionist rule.

I think we have to be very cognisant of the fact that we are

a post-conflict society,

and our peace process and our political institutions are delicate

and we can't do anything that will in any way damage that.

Obviously, there is provision there for an opposition

going into this next Assembly election, but for our part,

Sinn Fein are serious about going into government.

We're running for election to actually be in government

and I think it's clear, judging by some other parties' manifestos,

that they are already gearing up for an opposition,

but we want to go into government and continue to deliver for people

and to continue to deliver on the peace that we already have.

No matter where we move to in the next number of years,

perhaps in the next number of decades, you know,

our policy will still require agreement.

You know, agreement requires compromise.

It requires making sure that your key principles, your key policies,

those red-line issues, you know, that they're not compromised,

but that, on other issues, then you need to take into account

what are the important issues to somebody else?

That's a lengthy process,

but it is a process that is worth doing in order to get the outcome

and, you know, I think people need to be realistic about that.

Hello, sorry for disturbing you.

Could I drop off this leaflet? You can indeed.

Thank you. That's great, thank you very much.

Not at all. Well, that's just the copy, as you know, of our policies.

Yes. And my number's on the back, so anything I can do to help,

or any questions or anything, give me a call.

That'll do lovely. OK, thank you very much.

Lovely to meet you. Bye-bye.

'I think it's an incredibly interesting job.

'At times, it can be, I suppose, a little strange

'in terms of what you have to do.

'You would go up to a random door, rap the door'

and you've no idea what's going to be behind it, you've no idea

what questions, you don't know if that person's going to be friendly

or not friendly, so it is strange, but you do get used to it.

And I've rapped... You know, since about January,

I've rapped about 13,000 doors at this point.

Hello, sorry for disturbing you.

'A lot of what I've done,

'over the course of the last five months that I've become an MLA,'

is really to try to get the message out to the people of South Belfast

who I am, what I'm prepared to do, what I want to do,

the fact that I am a hard worker,

somebody who's very passionate about issues, so, really,

a lot of it has been about communication with constituents,

just to make it absolutely clear for them who I am,

so that they can make an informed choice as well.

That was very difficult.

It was very challenging to understand the ins and outs of

what exactly had happened.

I was very conscious of that, even as a child.

There were four young children in the home

and my father was the person

who had worked, so very, very quickly, you know, immediately,

he had lost that income

and, you know, that was very, very challenging as well.

It was also incredibly challenging, I suppose, for my mum, you know,

to deal with the fallout from what had happened.

It was a story that got a huge amount of coverage.

I think there was, you know,

a lot of this kind of idea of your family and your life

being kind of all over the evening news, that kind of scrutiny,

the issues surrounding that,

so I think that was very difficult for her,

as a woman who was I think slightly younger than me at the time,

with four young children, and having to navigate her way through that.

Whenever I decided, when I was 11 years of age,

I was going to be a lawyer, I don't know why,

I think I'm sure it was connected to what had happened and I suppose

the emotional issues that were ongoing at the time,

but my mother never turned round and said to me,

"Why don't you pick something a bit more realistic?"

She made it very clear, "If that's what you want to do, you CAN do it."

And I think, for me, the lesson I've taken from that

is how important that parental role about supporting aspirations,

but also, in a realistic way, saying,

"If you want to make your aspiration a reality,

"then you do need to work at it,"

because the one critical difference is,

hard work can get you to where you need to be.

PLAYERS AND SUPPORTERS SHOUT

Well...

They're all in the colours.

'I do definitely feel a certain sense of responsibility,

'being a young woman in politics, particularly here,

'where there are so few of us,'

because I know, growing up,

I would have really looked up to a lot of our female politicians

and a lot of women within the Republican movement in general.

Is this the first half?

Yeah. It's only on? Right.

I never really had my sights on being in frontline politics,

especially not at such an early age.

It was a massive honour to be asked by the party

to put my name in forward. I initially said no a few times.

I was very young at the time, I was only 20,

so it was obviously daunting and it was challenging.

But I'd always been an advocate for having more young people and more

women in politics, so I felt I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't, you know,

at least try and take the opportunity

and see how it went for me.

Stormont is not the most welcoming place for a woman, first of all,

and it's certainly not overly welcoming for young people either,

and so I tick both boxes.

There was quite a lot of, you know, hostility going in.

People made it quite clear that they thought I shouldn't be there,

that I didn't deserve my place.

I had people saying that I was only there because I was a woman,

which is an insult to me.

I'm there because I was the right person for the job.

So it wasn't the most welcoming place to go into.

And it did take a while to kind of adjust to those surroundings, but,

you know, it does kind of... I think, one day, it just hit me -

I'm there to do a job and I'm there to represent the people of my area

and I'm not going to let anyone and their outdated views

stop me from doing that.

PLAYERS AND SUPPORTERS SHOUT

WHISTLE BLOWS

WHISTLE BLOWS

At the age of 16, I decided I wanted to be a soldier.

The military was a tradition.

I didn't have that in my mind's eye that I wanted to do,

but in that moment in time,

I decided that, to make my father proud,

that I would join the Army and I did join the Army,

and I didn't tell my father till the day before I left that I'd joined

the Army, and I think, in that moment,

I saw something in my father's eyes,

which I hadn't seen for quite some time, and that was pride.

GUNFIRE

Yeah, fire now. Fire mortars now.

Over the top.

'I finished my last operational tour of duty as a soldier in 2011.'

That was in Afghanistan in 2011.

It was another hard tour of duty.

I want you to engage with the 50...

Here for 24 hours, and this is three days so far so, no,

we're going to be here for a while, I think.

Fighting has got this feeling where you're incredibly heightened

and the adrenaline is really pumping,

and you can hear the bullets whizzing past your head

and you feel virtually invincible,

but then it ends.

It's like coming off a drug.

And when you come off a drug, it can lead you to absolute tears,

or feelings of worthlessness or feelings of depression.

When I think about killing another human being,

I can't be proud of that.

And when you're there, when you're fighting, there's reason,

there's rationale for it, and you can give credence to it,

but when you come back and you're with your family or friends

or you're having a pint in the pub and you think about it,

you can't give it a rationale.

I say to people that, when you're standing in Afghanistan,

you cannot imagine yourself standing in Tesco's,

but when you're in Tesco's,

you can't imagine yourself standing in Afghanistan.

There's just real sort of light and dark.

What I haven't lost is that feeling of wanting to serve the people

and whenever I came back to Northern Ireland

and I see that serving my country through the military

is no longer an option,

I still want to serve the people

and I want to serve the people of my own hometown now,

and the best way to do that is in the political arena,

so councillor first and, um, now as a MLA,

I want to bring those values and standards

that I have learnt in 34 years in the military.

I want to bring them to Stormont,

I want to use them in Stormont, I want to have integrity,

I want to show them honesty,

I want to show them selfless commitment and respect for others,

and I... Above all else,

I want to make sure that the people of this great town

and Upper Bann are represented properly.

If you tell people, "I'm going to do something for you,"

and you don't do it, then you deserve to get kicked out.

But if you hedge your bets all the time,

and don't tell anybody that you're really going to do anything,

then the people just get frustrated.

That's why they don't vote.

If you look at the patterns, in 1998,

81% voted in the referendum on the Belfast Agreement.

In the last Assembly election in 2011, in my own constituency,

just under half of all eligible voters did not bother.

Now, I hear some people say we should make it compulsory,

as they do in countries like Australia. I say no.

If there is a problem, it is not with the voter,

it's with the politicians.

It's up to us to make the proposition,

to deliver the outcomes that make people

feel that politics and government,

and particularly devolved government at Stormont,

is something worth supporting.

People sometimes say,

"Oh, it doesn't really matter if I vote or not."

But, really, I take the view that if you want to criticise,

if you want to say what you think of your politicians,

then you really do have to vote

because then you're giving your view

as to what way you want to see the country going forward.

Bad politicians are elected by good people who don't vote.

We need to engage in the political process.

People's frustration at the lack of delivery from Stormont

isn't cured by staying at home.

It's actually cured by becoming involved in the political process.

I want to see people understanding that, if you come out and vote,

you can actually change society.

Opposition structures in Stormont

will actually begin to open that door

to people understanding that we can have an alternative.

As long as we have power-sharing and equality provisions enshrined,

we can begin to have an alternative government

forming in Northern Ireland.

The incentive for many people to even bother voting is diminished,

and that is why, in Northern Ireland,

I believe the turnout has been falling,

cos if you say to people, "Oh, yes, you can have an election,

"but you can't change your government,

"you can't vote a party out of government,"

why would you bother voting?

It would be liberating for democracy to bestow upon us the rights

taken for granted everywhere else and, thereby,

I think we would see an increased turnout at the polls.

If you analyse the reasons why people don't vote,

and why, during the course of the last term of the Assembly,

we had these different problems, where for three years, almost,

the Executive were being described by commentators

and by even other politicians as being dysfunctional,

so I think all of that has a deep, motivating impact

on the electorate, and the only way to change all of that

is to make politics work.

I think people have a right to say, "Are we productive?"

And I don't think we've been as productive as we could be.

The problem is, when you give politicians power,

they guard it jealously.

I do still think we have a section of our politicians

who still want to waste time

rehashing the old arguments that we've been having for decades.

You know, I have seen some of our politicians almost, you know,

a relief, when we were back talking about flags.

It's like, "This is what we know, what we got into politics for."

People will feel strongly about issues -

that's part of democracy.

Should that be about fracking or should it be about animal rights,

should it be about flags issues, you know,

this is a democratic society where people have the right to come out

and protest and make their voices heard.

I think that must be... In fact,

I would go so far as to say that that should be protected.

If that crosses into illegality,

then I think that then becomes a big challenge, that isn't right,

and, you know, if people want their particular view to be heard,

then they need to come out and vote

for people who support that particular view,

and that's the way democracy will work.

Really, what we need to do is try and find a basis

where we can respect difference.

And I think that's the biggest problem in Northern Ireland,

is people do not respect difference.

I still don't understand why we're still complaining about flags,

I still don't know why we're complaining about parades,

I still don't know why we're complaining about bonfires,

and all of this architecture which just makes our society combative.

Until we actually elect people in politics

who are sometimes willing to be controversial,

even within their own party,

I don't think we'll really gain the respect of the public

for the work that we do.

We've got to be willing to take a stand,

and I have met people who say to me,

"I fundamentally disagree with you on issues,

"but I respect the fact that you stand up for what you believe in."

And for me, that is actually more valuable than anything else

because your integrity is something that you don't lose in an election.

'The Alliance Party has borne the brunt of Loyalist anger and protests

'since Monday night's controversial vote on flying the Union flag

'at Belfast City Hall. In its aftermath,

'a death threat has been issued against Naomi Long,

'the party's MP for East Belfast.

'She was visited in the early hours of this morning by police,

'who've advised her to leave her home

'and stay away from her constituency office.'

I will not let that threat deter me from serving my constituents.

I will not let it influence the decisions that my party takes.

We will take our decisions based on principles,

based on furthering our beliefs and our objectives,

and delivering a shared future,

and we will not be deterred from that by violent people.

As you all know, we're now 18 years after the Good Friday Agreement.

We want to build on our clear vision of an inclusive, fair,

progressive society, where everyone is treated with respect

and with dignity.

I believed that, by getting involved in politics,

I was being put in a privileged position,

but with that privilege comes a responsibility and, every day,

there are people in my constituency who live with that fear and threat

who don't have the opportunity to articulate an alternative view.

They gave me the responsibility to do that on their behalf and so,

regardless of what happened outside, I had a responsibility to them

to continue to stand up against that kind of violence and intimidation.

That doesn't make it easier to deal with when you go home

and you close your door at night. You're human.

But at the end of the day,

you have a job to do and you've got to do it.

When we first moved here,

it was actually just around 2002,

so I received the first death threat I had in politics

just after we'd moved.

We just wouldn't sit at the front of the house because of

concerns around security and so on.

When you're in politics and you're visible, people know where you live.

They know the neighbourhood you live

in and they know where your house is.

There's really nothing you can do about that.

It's simply just where you are,

so you just have to take the best precautions you can, I guess.

With the kids, it definitely brings on an extra challenge.

You're never really off the clock in politics and, you know,

you're quite often pushing the kids in the swing and on the phone,

talking about HMO legislation or whatever you're doing,

and in the middle, you have to go,

"Put that down!" or, "Don't eat that!" or whatever -

the kind of orders you need to bark

at a two-year-old and a four-year-old. But it's hard to do.

I think it's one of the things that I hear from families all the time.

You know, getting decent, affordable childcare

that actually matches the hours

that a lot of people work in a lot of jobs now.

OK, there's Daddy. There's Daddy.

'It is hard and I think probably the same

'for a lot of people in jobs that aren't nine to five.'

But there are benefits, too.

No matter how miserable your day has been,

and there is negativity in politics, the kids, when you get in,

they don't care what just happened,

they don't care what happened in the phone call you were just on

and there's no chance that you could wallow in it,

so if you do come in and it hasn't been the best day,

you snap out of it very quickly.

OK, well, we'll go in twos.

Guys, we're going to do Malone. I think we're broadly on course.

We got loads of Stranmillis finished.

Done last night, so we'll just go back...

'This kind of four, five, six weeks around the election

'is pretty chaotic because I am out knocking the doors every night.'

It's not just lining up your canvassing volunteers

and your leafleting volunteers, it's baby-sitting as well.

I do feel a wee bit guilty.

One, I'm not seeing the kids nearly as much as I want to

and I don't want to look back on and think, "Gosh, where was I?"

Hello, how are you? How's tricks? Good. How are you? Not too bad.

'There's a bit of a mad couple of hours, picking them up,

'taking them where I'm going,'

then getting the canvass team out,

so, yeah, the five to half six period is chaotic,

so I'm looking forward to that bit ending.

All the weeks of campaigning and knocking on doors

has come to a head now

and it's up to us now to make sure we get our vote out

and that people have enough reasons to come and vote today.

I have nine polling stations to cover across South Armagh,

so I'll be visiting each polling station hopefully a couple of times

to try and meet as many voters as possible.

Megan! How are you today? Grand. Best of luck.

People are happy to see a new face,

happy to see a woman represent the area,

happy to see us raise local issues,

and we have been working hard over the last four years.

I've always said elections aren't won

just in the last few weeks coming up to it,

it's the hard work that you do in the years before it,

so I'm fairly confident that we're going to do well.

I suppose I've done it so many times now that I'm sort of used to seeing

my name on a ballot paper.

I mean, even as a politician,

you recognise that it is a privilege

to be able to be part of that process and, hopefully,

lots of other people will take that opportunity today,

because it's the only opportunity we have

to make Northern Ireland different.

It's the only chance we get to make change.

I'm about to go in and cast my vote.

I'm pretty decided, I think I'm going to vote for Hanna 1.

Yeah, I've been thinking about it a lot.

We don't agree on everything

but I think she's done enough to get my vote.

I suppose you don't know what's going to happen,

like, I'm junior minister up until ten o'clock tonight.

So I suppose, for the first time in a long time,

I'll be unemployed at 10.05pm.

So that's a strange feeling as well.

But you just work as hard as you can.

I think I'm trying to be pretty philosophical about the whole thing

and upbeat, so, hopefully, everything will come out OK.

Hello there. This is the second time we've met!

You were at the door! Yeah, good to see you. Good to see you.

It literally couldn't have been a nicer night to poll on.

Good weather and people are down on scooters and walking dogs

and all sorts of things.

The dogs are not registered to vote, I did check! But...

I suppose this is when we are a bit demob happy, you know.

We know that, in about an hour,

it's home time and possibly a glass of something

and maybe ring an Indian, or whatever,

anything that can distract us until tomorrow morning,

when it's the day of reckoning.

Today, you'll find out who's in line to take the decisions,

make the laws and take responsibility.

What they've done now is they've emptied out all the boxes

and we've done a sample tally.

As you can see it's a big, long... A big, long list there.

But there are six seats and I'm in second or third place,

so there will be a lot going on in transfers.

If I'm elected, it won't be for a few counts yet.

In the media world, it's as if I've disappeared...

Things are looking reasonably positive.

I think it's been a good day for the DUP right across Northern Ireland.

That's what we're hearing at this stage.

So we're hopeful that all of our candidates will stay in

and in South Belfast, it's looking as if there's a good chance

the DUP could get two.

It will come down to the last seat

but it looks like we're definitely in with a chance there.

As the deputy returning officer for the Belfast East constituency,

the number of first preference votes given for each candidate

was as follows...

I find the count is probably

the most difficult piece of the election, to be honest,

because at that point, you're finding out whether what you've

been hearing on the doors, the feeling you've been getting

when you're out canvassing, whether the work you've put in

is going to be returned the way you'd hoped. And, as I say,

there's a lot of disappointment in a count centre,

that's always going to be the case.

..4,230...

If you look at it, there will be people standing here today

who might lose their job

and they're going to lose their job not in private, in an office,

but in public, with a camera in their face.

It's pretty brutal. So, erm...

I'm not a fan of the count.

But you endure it to get to the end result.

Naomi Long, Alliance Party,

5,482.

CHEERING

The few weeks leading up to the election is tiring,

so to have it all kind of over almost in the blink of an eye

in the last two days,

it's quite unbelievable, but this is my first election,

so even the whole experience of the posters and everything

has been new for me, but this, in particular, the count,

is surreal and it's actually such an honour

to see people putting their votes beside my name

and to vote for Sinn Fein and to vote for our ticket

that we ran in this campaign, so it's really exciting

and it makes me really proud, actually, and really just happy

that people have put their faith in us.

The number of first preference votes

given for each candidate was as follows...

Paul Berry, 1,663.

Cathal Boylan, Sinn Fein, 6,822.

Megan Fearon, Sinn Fein, 6,838.

CHEERING William Irwin...

I've just been elected on the first count.

Absolutely overjoyed.

Came in at 6,838 votes, so just 19 over quota

so absolutely delighted.

It's actually quite emotional at the minute.

My family are all here, my friends are here

and it's just...it's such a nice time -

because I've been in the Assembly for four years,

to have it actually, officially endorsed by the people

and endorsed so strongly as well, by the people of my own area,

it's just a really proud feeling to have

but...not nervous about going back at all.

Looking forward to getting stuck in and dealing with issues.

I'm confident that the people of Portadown

have come out to support one of their own.

Doug has served as a soldier,

he has served as a councillor,

and I am confident that he will soon be serving us as an MLA.

We are here for Doug.

We are here working as a team,

as we have worked from the beginning

and although his team are here, backing him, we miss him dreadfully.

But our thoughts are with him and we're doing this for him.

I'm surrounded by women!

You should have seen it this morning.

The return for you, it must feel good to be back in the constituency.

Yeah, it does. It's been a lovely campaign, actually.

It's been nice to be kind of back engaged in local politics

after a short break of a year,

but it's been really good to be back involved

and I'm just looking forward now to getting to work up in the Assembly.

Claire Hanna, SDLP, Social Democratic and Labour Party,

4,516. 4,516.

APPLAUSE

Emma Little Pengelly, Democratic Unionist Party, DUP,

4,511.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The following candidate has reached the quota

and is deemed elected - Claire Hanna.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

That being the case, there are only two candidates remaining

and two seats to be filled,

therefore Emma Little Pengelly and Christopher Stalford

are also deemed elected. CHEERING

The undertaking is as follows...

to support the rule of law unequivocally, in word and deed,

and to support all efforts to uphold it.

To work collectively with other members of the Assembly

to achieve a society free of paramilitarism.

To challenge all paramilitary activity

and associated criminality.

To accept no authority, direction or control

on my political activities, other than my democratic mandate,

alongside my own personal and party judgment.

I don't describe it as a career. That's not what it really is for me.

It's not what it's about.

I actually would describe it more as a vocation.

I'm still youngest MLA here

but I still have four years' experience,

which is madness, really, but it really does mean a lot.

I'm very proud to represent my area,

I'm very proud to represent the party

and I take it as a great privilege

and it's not something that I underestimate.

I've been given a massive opportunity

that not a lot of people have or will ever get,

so I don't intend to waste it.

There's a lot of anxiety about whether you're going to be elected.

You have to believe that you are going to be, or you'd give up.

You certainly wouldn't have the mental energy

to stay on the campaign trail for months, as we did.

I suppose, just before they started to open the boxes,

just a deep, deep knot in your stomach

because everything was resting on that.

Mine was... Yeah, less of a cliffhanger.

Once the boxes were opened, we knew I'd polled reasonably well.

Personally, the result was satisfying and relieving

and I suppose I was co-opted in ten months ago

and I haven't really switched off since then,

so it's nice to have that out of the way

and to have a bit more headspace to actually think politically.

Elections, vital as they are to the democratic process,

do probably direct a lot of energy

that could be used to actually getting things done.

I think probably the most stressful time

was that night just before polling day.

I think it was just trying to sit and assess how everything had gone.

You knew that really, you'd been...

You'd knocked your last door or you'd put the last piece of literature through

and there was very little else that you could do at that point

apart from stand at the polling stations.

You do go through a lot of self-doubt

throughout that quite surreal process,

so in a sense, I suppose, your first emotion is almost relief

that in a way, you know, that you did work hard

and just really grateful that people have come out and supported you

and that people want you to be their advocate

and their representative.

That is an incredible privilege

and certainly one that I want to take full opportunity of,

you know, to bring about what positive changes I can.

My grandson, Cameron, passed away the day before the election.

Right now, it's still incredibly difficult for me

to think about the loss of Cameron

and signing the register as an MLA, the Thursday after the election,

I was very close to saying that I can't do it

and was very close to leaving the building at that time,

but people who have gone through this type of bereavement

will understand that time helps.

But one week after his death,

and just a few days after we had laid him to rest,

it was...it was just the most difficult experience

that I'd been through in my life.

And I've done a lot. You know, I've seen a lot

and I've seen death at close quarters,

but I wasn't prepared for it to knock on the door

the way it did that day.

It's just holding me back a little bit right now.

You know, so to say that I'm full steam ahead,

I don't think I am.

I think that grieving process is still ongoing,

that battle between career and family is still being fought

and I'd hope that my constituents will understand that

and give me a little bit of grace and time

to be able to come to terms with that.

I very much felt that I wanted to come back.

I still have a lot of passion, a lot of things that I wanted to do

and being elected on the first count like, that was, for me,

just a really positive experience

and a nice way, I guess, to come back to politics.

My ambition is for that liberal society -

wanting to see Northern Ireland as a more normalised place

in order that everyone can benefit from the peace that we had.

That's why I joined the party in '94.

It's why I became an elected representative in 2001

and it's why, in 2016, I decided to come back,

because for me,

that is the biggest job that Northern Ireland needs to do.

We need not just to change how we do politics

but we need to change how we live as a society.

Society has to be all-inclusive,

in terms of the Northern Ireland that I want

and, I think, most people want.

If we are a settled people, then you can do things.

Then you can move on

and then you can accept many challenges and get over those,

so I just want to be as settled as a people, and content, as we can.

There's no such a thing as utopia.

I think the public have decided to embrace the future.

I think they want to live together, they want to work together,

they want to socialise together.

They want to be educated together.

They want to see a future that, actually, is based around

a sound economic policy, a good education system.

Their... The public, I think,

want to see politicians catching up with them.

I think we can do it, but we have to be much more forward-thinking.

We have to get out of our silos and actually work together

and I think that's a very possible thing to achieve.

It is possible that we could produce a better political culture.

I think if we wait for it to evolve,

it may proceed at the pace of evolution,

which is very narrow shifts generation after generation.

I think we can't depend upon that.

We need a much more definite and firm commitment

that we will change this society faster and fairer

and that that will be a key priority in the immediate future,

not something that waits for generational change

over 50 or 100 years.

I would like Northern Ireland to be

one of the most attractive little countries in the world.

And that would be measured by proper peace,

the absence of paramilitaries and the associated criminality

and organised crime.

It would be a country where people are glad that they're born here,

that they want to live here, they want to come back here,

even if they are going away for universities or for jobs,

that people want to invest in, that they want to come and visit,

that they want to come and settle in.

I think, you know, in many ways,

what everybody needs is a spirit of generosity.

We all have to recognise

that where we were in the past was a terrible place.

Where we've come from in the course of the last 20 years

has been a far, far better place.

And where we'll be 20 years from now will be a far, far better place.

And we could do all of that,

holding on to our political allegiances.

I mean, I'm no less an Irish Republican.

Arlene Foster is no less a Unionist.

But it really comes down to our ability to, er...

..our ability to accept that and respect that

and continue to work together

to ensure that we are delivering for everybody

and...I think we can do it.

It is about encouraging, motivating, inspiring young people,

as I've said, to be proud of coming from Northern Ireland,

to give them a sense of hope.

If people have confidence in themselves

and are proud about where they come from,

I think it does lead to ambition

for the place where they live as well

and I hope that people do have ambition for Northern Ireland

because I think it can do great things.

Well, at 20 minutes to five,

we can now say the decision taken in 1975 by this country

to join the Common Market

has been reversed by this referendum to leave the EU.

Good morning, this is BBC Breakfast. Morning, Dan.

Morning, Jenny!

In the sports news, we have the latest on the Welsh rugby team,

Poppy's sports day, and news on Andy Murray.

The headlines coming up, but our next guest is really quite special.

Jack, the toast's burning. Welcome, Daniel Radcliffe.