General Election 2024: The dullest campaign in NI history?

For all the TV debates – and the social media campaigns – elections are still won and lost on the ground.

The sound of leather on gravel as doors are knocked and leaflets are put through letterboxes.

Once there was even a thing called the loud hailer in which candidates were driven around neighbourhoods, urging people to vote for them at ear-splitting decibel level.

David Ford was not a fan.

“We had a candidate who was very keen on them but my feeling was – don’t use them unless you’re in an area in which you’re sure of at least 50% support or else you’re just annoying people.”

Dr David McCann, deputy editor of the political website Slugger O’Toole, says a dull campaign is actually a sign of things getting better.

“Yes, it’s been dull. However, Stormont is up and running and only it being down would have made it interesting,” he said.

“2017 and 2019 were Brexit elections with no Stormont. So I suppose people cannot have it both ways. Surely it’s good we’ve moved on past both issues.”

When was the last time we had a really interesting election? Alex Kane is nostalgic for the 2007 election to Stormont.

“It was genuinely exciting because it was the prelude to the coming together of Sinn Féin and the DUP in government,” he says.

“There was hope in the air. And then the Chuckle Brothers. For a few months we dared to dream.”