The story says that:
“DUP leader Peter Robinson has raised the possibility of his party merging with the Ulster Unionists to prevent Sinn Féin being entitled to the First Minister role in a future Northern Ireland executive.”
A full-scale merger of the two main unionist parties would change northern politics more than anything seen for a generation. Whether the RTÉ story is correct, or whether it is an exaggeration of the speculative reasons behind the DUP-UUP-Tory ‘secret talks’ is hard to say. No other news outlet appears to be running with the story.
5 comments:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8476202.stm
So much for trying to attract RCs!
Wouldn't surprise me if the Tories were pushing for this to go after every seat possible in case of a hung parliament.
It would be interesting to see the powerplay between a united DUP - UUP political entity. Political history is littered with the ruins of many party mergers, most notably the Liberal-SDP coalition. I would expect that if there was a united unionist party to secure the first minister's post in a new stormont government it would be a short-lived government.
I'm really surprised that the Unionist community engages in 'vote-splitting'. You would think they would know enough to be better off with just one party representing them. Strange...
http://www.newsletter.co.uk/columnists/Alasdair-must-face-political-reality.6009599.jp
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