Tuesday 15 September 2009

Resign, Parsley

It is rarely that this blog ever agrees with Gail Walker in the Belfast Telegraph, but today she has an article on the sorry tale of Ian Parsley's sloppy defection from the Alliance Party to the Conservatives which sums up much of what many people think, and comes to the conclusion, correct in this blog's opinion, that Parsley should resign his seat on North Down council:

"Parsley also said that he'd be staying on as a councillor in North Down but would probably be changing his designation. In a suave soundbite out of the Cameron handbook, he said he was mindful he'd been elected by Alliance voters and would work closely with the party. Thanks, Ian. If Parsley was that mindful, he'd resign and fight a by-election. Those Alliance voters wanted an Alliance man, what they've got now is a Tory.

Sorry, Ian, that may work in the dreamy shires, but in plain-speaking Ulster it all seems, well, a bit self-serving."

Sinn Féin defectors can have enough honour to resign, so why does Mr Parsley not also do so?

1 comment:

menace said...

With respect but, Ian Parsley's move from one unionist party to another cannot be any different to that of Donaldson, Weir or others, none of whom permitted the electorate to decide the rights or wrongs of their decision.