There's nothing like a political defection to bring the skeletons out of the cupboards. The betrayed party and its supporters dig out all sorts of old statements and quotes to embarrass the turncoat, and (s)he in turn produces embarrassing counter-quotes. It is fine entertainment for those not directly involved.
And so it has come to pass in Northern Ireland's narrow and incestuous political world. The defection of Ian Parsley from the Alliance Party to the Conservatives has led to a mixture of furious insults and sad head-shaking in the press, on television and in the blogs.
Parsley has left many hostages to fortune in his past, but the one I like best was quoted on the Slugger O'Toole blog - it was a comment that Parsley made in a discussion in 2007:
"After 80 years, there has been no recorded incidence of a Nationalist elected rep defecting to Unionism or vice-versa. Even Conor Cruise O’Brien showed his true colours in the end!
We live in a divided society. Basically, if there’s a Protestant majority the Union’s safe - and if there isn’t, it’s not.
Don’t kid yourself that there’s anything you can do about it."
And there, expressed by a leading light of the Alliance Party (at the time, or recently before, he was Chairperson of Young Alliance), and now a Conservative Councillor, is the basic philosophy of this very blog. So it seems that the religious basis of the political divide in Northern Ireland is more widely accepted than some people would like to admit.
However, expect Parsley to backpedal on this as on many of his other 'principles' in the next few months.
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16 comments:
"After 80 years, there has been no recorded incidence of a Nationalist elected rep defecting to Unionism or vice-versa. Even Conor Cruise O’Brien showed his true colours in the end!"
The key words here are "ELECTED REP". Even in a society polluted with politicians, they are still a small minority of the population!
In any case, no one denies there are 'died in the wool' Nationalists and Unionists (from which 'elected reps' are generally drawn), but there are many others who see themselves as small 'u' unionists. They don't have a 'tribal' loyalty to UNIONISM, merely a preference for staying within The UK. It is these people who would need to be won over by those favouring Irish Unity - and lashings of hot air won't swing them. And they will take all factors into account when making their minds up, including their career position and the likelihood of violence.
... but there are many others who see themselves as small 'n' nnionists. They don't have a 'tribal' loyalty to NATIONALISM, merely a preference for a united Ireland when the time is right. It is these people who would need to be won over by those favouring NI maintaining within the UK - and lashings of hot air won't swing them. And they will take all factors into account when making their minds up, including their career position and the likelihood of violence.
This is generally known. So too is the above contribution by Watcher. But these are not addressed by the article.
Yes, but there are currently far more small 'u' unionists than there are small 'n' nationalists - many opinion polls have shown this. The onus is on Irish Nationalism to show these people what exactly they would have to gain in a United Ireland, to make any change worth their while.
You could say that lethargy and fear of change makes the status quo the default position.
watcher u say theres more small unionists, but this kind of statement is pointless its quite clear uv just made it up, straight off the top of ur head, are you going to wait 4 every post and then just start talking shite just to get on everybodys wick, ill bet whatever u want that unionists like u make english ppl sick , ill also bet u whatever u want that a border poll in the whole gb and erin would result in a ui. nobody cares apart from the scuzzy childish unionists. ru english? no scottish ? no welsh ? no. look basically no others nation support ur cause while they do support the irish cause. spoil sport smelly unionists do u really no why u dont want a ui. we want 1 because the british have destroyed our country and our ppl 4 a long time. u dont want a ui why? fucking why u little prick, uv givin me the flue
You could say that lethargy and fear of change makes the status quo the default position.
you keep clinging to that Watcher. Undoubtedly we have a challenge in persuading people of a UI outside of our constituency but Unionism (epitomized by your comment above) never engages in a real debate and prefers to either try and scare people or take them for granted - we only have to look to the 1st Lisbon Referendum to see how that can work out.
pagasp -
Look mate, I don't want to be offencive, but you're really coming over as a mental retard. Try proof reading and spell checking your posts and cut down on the text talk.
This is not an anti-Irish comment by the way, there are retards just like you on The British side unfortunately.
Watcher,you said 25% of PSNI are catholic.This will even increase over next number of years to over 30% thanks to Patton report.
Ultimately the head of the PSNI will probably be a catholic and over the coming years the catholics will take over the PSNI,thus further weakening unionists position and strengthening the arguement for a united Ireland.
This has already happened to Queens university-it is now catholic and all the protestants now go britain to be educated(and hopefully will stay there).
The PSNI will eventually be catholic under the control of a catholic First minister,probably and ironically a Sinn Féin MP !
Watcher "offenSSSSSSSive"
Robert -
How will large numbers of Catholics joining a UK police force weaken The Union? I'd have thought it would strengthen it.
The (26 co) RIC morphed seamlessly into the Gardai. Expect the same thingto happen with the PSNI
There's too many of them. Redundancies all round I'm afraid.
Any thoughts on the £4000 per family per year The Republic will have to find to keep Northern Catholics in the style to which England has made them accustomed?
brilliant watcher, the bad grammar argument, and im the retard, why r u on this blog, annoyance and u no it typical unionist.
iv just read my post, didn't see any spelling mistakes, just a bit of text speak, which of course saves time when talking to ppl who infuriate me. i look at yours and u don't want to be offensive, but u r and u spell it wrong. the pathetic grammar argument and u get ur grammar wrong. need i say more. well yes, u say u don't want to b anti-irish but ur probably sitting in ireland. they reckon the original irish hav been here 20.000 years. whats a couple of hundred years of brit rule to that m8, particularly when final independence is in the post, just a bad tasting blip in OUR history. our is in capitals as we have a history all of our own, unlike you who let on ur british. A HISTORY OF OUR OWN- AS I SAY AT least 20.000 years
"Any thoughts on the £4000 per family per year The Republic will have to find to keep Northern Catholics in the style to which England has made them accustomed?"
Theres nothing worse than getting used to something thats then taken away. The normal reaction is to complain at first but then to strive to achieve that previous level of comfort, hence less reliance on public and a leaner fitter private sector with employees more willing to achieve. This argument about not being able to afford is just nonsense though certainly there would be short term pain.
Ye, right.
> Anonymous said...
"Any thoughts on the £4000 per family per year The Republic will have to find to keep Northern Catholics in the style to which England has made them accustomed?"
This is a very simple problem indeed. First, inspect the GDP per capita data for the UK and ROI. You will find that the ROI long ago overtook the UK and the gap is getting wider. Yes, there's a hole in Republic's finances now but the same is true for the neighbours. The Republic will, however, recover and then resume its trajectory to overtake Lichtenstein as the wealthiest country in the EU--while the UK falls further down the league table. Harder of course, with an East Germany type situation, but probably doable.
Westminster would pay to be shot of the problem. Uncle Sam and the EU would probably help too.
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