A reflection on recent political events by Jim Allister MEP
03 October 2007
For a party unconcerned by dissent, the DUP has got itself well wound up. The contrast between chuckling with Sinn Fein/IRA and the personal invective towards me and other past members of the party is quite telling. It is strange how councillors while giving years of service were valued members, but once they resigned became "headbangers", even “flat-earthers”!
There is nothing “flat-earth” in holding to democratic standards which identify Sinn Fein/IRA as unfit for government, cherry-picking on the rule of law as unacceptable and mandatory coalition as an absurdity (or, “out of the question” as declared in the DUP’s abandoned manifesto of 2005). Nor is continuing attachment to the illegal Army Council progress.
It's not only in terms of Sinn Fein/IRA that we've had minimal delivery, because, despite all the spin from Stormont, there is little of substance to show. No meaningful legislation, no Programme for Government and no agreed Budget. We have, of course, had our share of dubious decisions, like Sinn Fein's preferential promotion of Irish language schools (where was the Unionist veto to block this?) and a "minded" decision to facilitate private profit at the Causeway – to the advantage of a man with some "fishy" connections. Is this the transparent, open, good government that we waited all these years for?
On the letters page of the News Letter most days there is a spate of contributions giving sycophantic praise to the DUP/Sinn Fein regime. Many of these are not written by the person under whose name they appear, rather they are the handiwork of paid hacks in DUP Headquarters, or as Ian Paisley once quaintly described them "the servants". I know how DUP HQ works. It is a letters factory.
Indeed recently extra staff has been recruited to increase production.
Of course, speech writing is not so onerous now. Formally original thought was required to attack the UUP alliance in government with unrepentant terrorists. Now, all they have to do is dust down David Trimble's old speeches to lambast those who now stand on the ground once occupied by the DUP. It's a funny old world!
The arrogance and intolerance of those now dedicated to joint rule with Sinn Fein/IRA towards dissident opinion is quite staggering. But then, there is nothing quite like the fervour of the convert. This arrogance is at its most raw when it gives voice to the mindset of how dare anyone offer an alternative to the electorate. Predictably, "vote-splitter" is trundled out. What was it the pot called the kettle?
With the two unionist parties now working the Belfast Agreement, who are those, who still reject its ethos and trajectory, to support? Thus thousands will stay at home, particularly in the safe seats. So providing a vehicle for expression of such opinion, far from diminishing the unionist vote, would in fact maximise it.
