Peter Robinson's Leader's Speech at the DUP Conference on Saturday can be summarised in a word cloud:
Those who accuse the DUP of being an 'Ulster Nationalist' party (including, of course, this blog) will be interested to see that the two most commonly used words were 'Northern' and 'Ireland', with 'Britain' occurring even less than 'Dublin' (though 'British' outscored 'Irish'). The obsession with Sinn Féin is noticeably less than in Jim Allister's Leader's Speech a few weeks back. Just like Allister, though, Robinson made no reference whatsoever to his partners-in-government, the SDLP.
11 comments:
Very Interesting comment from Seymore earlier on slugger Horseman,
"Just one more thing for Unionists to think about. Should they not be thinking about the long term demographic trend tending to show that Catholics will outnumber Protestants. They already do in the under 27 age groups. Would they not consider the Conservative efforts to seek cross community appeal a bit more important for the long term future of NI than a one-off deal over a coupld of parliamentary seats. Dont Unionists ever stop to think what message these deals send to the Catholic community?"
What did you make of it?
Bangordub
Maybe they're confident that enough Catholics will vote in their own material interests to kill any border poll that might materialise.
Or maybe they think a UI is stone dead because The Republic will never be able to afford it.
Or maybe they think that many senior Irish politicians will be looking for more than a 50%+1 unity vote prior to a UI - as some have expressed publicly.
Or maybe they think Irish politicians will reject a 50%+1 unity vote on the grounds of potential civil unrest.
Not necessarily my views, as I support FULL normalisation of Ulster including it's political parties, but some might see it that way.
Normalisation?
Telling comment
Bangordub,
I didn't see that comment by Seymour. Pity! It seems that he (at least) has started to take seriously the message of this blog.
However he is himself somewhat guilty of not taking seriously the impending 'need' to attract Catholics to his own party - his recent anti-GAA rant (on his own blog) hardly inpires a sense of cross-community anti-sectarianism. I wonder did he think of the message it sent to the Catholic community?
Probably not but would be interested to see his response.
For what its worth the sudden interest of uncunf in gaining nationalist votes speaks volumes.........
Watcher list of IFs is an implicit admission that the thesis of this blog is becoming truer by the day and will in time become irresistable.
He overlooks one important point.
There won't be a border poll without both governments having decided in advance upon their responses to the outcome, both those declared publicly ahead of time and those agreed privately.
And he forgets that the British have declared "no selfish interest in N.I." and would dearly like to be rid of it.
The British will very likely pay the Irish government whatever it takes to take it off their hands. What resources the Irish and well wishers (US and EU) can contribute will be in addition, and the whole will exceed the means of the beleagered British taxpayer.
It's really just a question of timing--not so much 50%+1, or +25 or any larger number.
"And he forgets that the British have declared "no selfish interest in N.I." and would dearly like to be rid of it."
Words to fool Republicans. Willing fools as they were.
Anonymous
"no selfish interest in N.I."
You missed the key word which was strategic.
Republicans have always been motivated by the imperitive of national self determination. (Not sectarian or cultural self preservation)
Britain has always acted in a strategic interest.
THe key difference is that that
strategic self interest is no longer there.
Endgame is now being played out.
The end game has already been won.
Explain and articulate please
Still awaiting a reply, but there never is one!
MPG .....
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