Remaining hopeful that with some tactical voting and a DUP underperformance, Alliance can get 3 seats this time: keeping North Downs and grabbing Belfast East and Strangford, which is perhaps a bit of a push requiring a 7% swing, but in that seat there's no real viable competitor based on 2019 results. There's also Antrim East and Lagan Valley, which theoretically require a similar 7-8% swing and they were second last election, but there the UUP were just behind them and will probably overtake them if there's a DUP collapse.

One very important thing to explain why Sinn Fein do not take up and have never taken up Westminster Seats ,this situation has been since December 1918 when Sinn Fein won an overwhelming majority in the last All Island election a Parliament, Dail Eireann was set up in January 1919 and Sinn Fein never again recognised Westminster as a legitimate Parliament......this is the reason why .....the 43 Westminster seats promised by Home Rule Bill passed in 1914 never came to pass thus Southern Ireland 🇮🇪 went it's own way followed by the Anglo Irish War, The Treaty in 1921 ,independence inside Commonwealth followed by Civil War and Full Independence in 1949 .......Sinn Fein only began to hold seats in The Dail in the 1980s again...

it's great to see the orange bit getting smaller and smaller every election, another 20 years they'll be nothing but a fringe party

The TUV only getting 1 seat isn't the fault of the voting system. Had they another voting system they would have none.

It's ironic that there's now a Northern Irish Irish Conservative party considering that the full title of the Tory party is The Conservative and Unionist Party!

the direction of travel is toward a new Ireland. Btw, the 6 counties of the 9 of Ulster is not a 'country' or as you said, 'a nation,' in the usual or normal way those terms are used. Even those in Britain see it as part of Ireland and as Irish.

Political friction is in the eye of the beholder. The DUP create their own friction. Sinn Fein are relatively moderate. I am hoping that Unionists will finally ask Sinn Fein and the Irish people for forgiveness for imposing partition on Ireland against the democratic wishes of the people and causing so much violence and pain. I'm sure the BBC will continue to ask for apologies from Unionist candidates for various British atrocities during the troubles and will share how unnecessary Partition really was. Maybe a few headlines about how those apologies are still not forthcoming.

Cool video

Good synopsis

Lagan Valley and Strangford will be interesting

I suspect Sinn Fein won’t do as well as expected. Fermanagh South Tyrone will be close as Gildernew left to fight for an EU seat in the republic

Hardly a nation!

Referring to 'the six counties as a nation is so laughable.

North Down, South Belfast and North Belfast may elect Unionist this election but that depend greatly upon the Unionist electorate showing up at the polls. Sinn Fein has long maxed out it's native electorate and has nothing left to draw from other than the SDLP electorate. The SDLP are very much a L/Derry party and their electorate being moderate Nationalist voters and isolated Unionist voters. Alliance gain a lot of votes from isolated Nationalist voters and moderate Unionist voters, east Belfast being a prime example of the isolated Nationalist vote and the other why around in L/Derry. I think Alliance will loss it's seat in North Down and fall short in East Belfast. North Belfast may remain Sinn Fein if the Unionist vote is split with south Belfast having a split Nationalist/Republican/Alliance leading to a Unionist result. As for Fermanagh, flip a coin as it will depend on which way the wind is blowing. One last thing, no idea how Jeff Donaldson will effect this election but it may have a much greater effect or maybe have no effect at all, who knows?

Why no mention of Reform UK? They're fielding a raft of candidates, on a joint ticket with the TUV.

The Republican/Nationalist vote hasn’t broken 40% yet despite all of the bickering within unionism. There will be no major changes in Northern Ireland until the union is under threat. It won’t happen for a long time. Both tribes have very ordinary leadership. At least Paisley and Adams had some charisma.