Politics: Northern Ireland UK: Paisley's DUP rejects common ticket and de facto coalition govt with former IRA terrorists
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Northern Ireland's 108 assembly members gathered on Monday for the first time since they were elected in November 2003.
Yesterday BBC reported an astute manoeuvre in parliamentary politics in Northern Ireland's Stormont, the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly. The move was made by Gerry Adams, leader of the Sinn Fein political party - built to front for the terrorist organization Irish Republican Army, now presumably defunct. Adams guided his SF party to displace the non-violent Catholic-based nationalist party, Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP).
Among "Catholic" voters, the shouldering aside of SDLP by the terrorist-spawned SF is a story in itself. SF has become the party with the second largest number of votes in Northern Ireland. In the British Parliament's House of Commons (nicknamed "Westminster"), SF has 5 seats (a gain of 1) none of which it uses, while the SDLP gained 1 and lost 1, to end up with only 3 seats at Westminster (popular vote: SF-174,530; SDLP-125,626, coming in third).
The details of the Catholic vote results from Britain's Oct 2005 Parlieamentary elections are worth attention because the SDLP is the main party of those now convincingly calling for a return to the Good Friday Agreement in which the Brit govt under Tony Blair guaranteed, and all parties previously agreed upon, an arrangement based on the principle of a plurality of parties participating in a NI home-rule government. Nowadays, the SDLP complains that Blair reneged on his commitments, deciding instead to deal only with Sinn Fein for the Catholic side, and making secret accomodations to the Protestant side's then-second party.
Thus, we come to yesterday's and today's developments in which Ian Paisley, at Stormont in Belfast immediately shot down the proposal of the SinnFeinistos that Paisley be elected First Minister of the new government and that convicted terrorist Martin McGuinness be elected First Deputy Minister. It was a ploy whereby technically SF could not be accused of refusing to cooperate; but, as easily, Sinn Fein could, on an intermim basis, have simply allowed Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to run the regional state-bureaucracy, as a minority govt without support of a coalition (we do it in Canada). Or, it could have nominated an SDLPer to be First Deputy Minister. Or, Gerry Adams could at least have avoided nominating so disingenuously, a convicted terrorist to a post alongside Paisley. Surely, some members of the SF Stormont caucus have never committed an actual act of terrorism?
I think Paisley was taken by surprise, but he nevertheless immediately rose to the occasion and made exceeding short shrift of the SF ploy.
Declining the nomination, Mr Paisley said his "reasons were well known and had been endorsed by the majority of the unionist voters".Paisley gives the most consistent Christian-democratic leadership on the over-arching NI issue of cooperation or no with those who have engaged in actual terrorist acts, or are aligned with such. Paisley says, No! DUP wants British democracy. Period. - It was this stance that motivated the "Protestant" voters of NI to shift massively from UUP to DUP in October. As a consequence, UUP fell from largest to second Prot party, while DUP grew from second-place among Prots to first (DUP went from 4 seats to 9 at Westminster, UUP fell from 5 seats to 1, while the PUPies gained no seats there). Thus, the DUP became the largest party overall in Northern Ireland.
Despite Mr Paisley declining the first minister's post, it is still possible for members to debate policy matters under the assembly's temporary rules, although laws cannot be made.
Speaking afterwards, Mr Paisley said: "Our stand is clear, it is not going to be altered and it is simple: let's have British democracy in British Ulster."
Mr Paisley also said he would refuse to sit with Ulster Unionist [Party - UUP] leader Sir Reg Empey because of his association with [Protestant Unionist Party - ] PUP leader David Ervine, whose party has links to the loyalist paramilitary [Ulster Volunteer Force] UVF.
The UUP's move could mean they receive an extra ministerial post, at the expense of Sinn Fein, if a government is formed.
"If Mr Empey wants the support of a terrorist organisation [PUP-UVF], let him have it, but he'll not have my support," Mr Paisley added.
Or, is Paisley really quite so innocent? Certainly, he doesn't mix with terrorists, whether Caths or Prots. Yet, SDLP says DUP has entered into over 100 secret understandings, memoranda, and notes with Blair; Paisley himself has long been an elected member of the European Parliament, and while present as a member of the British EU delegation he has railed ignominiously and, from his own standpoint, unnecessarily - against the very Pope who had as much to do with the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe as did Ronald Reagan and his convert Mikhail Gorbachev.
SDLP regards Tony Blair as duplicitous; so does much of Paisley's constituency, I understand. But one thing is sure: if the parties in the Stormont can't devise among themselves a way to govern Northern Ireland together, come November 2006 home-rule will have died, and Tony Blair will rule NI in tandem with the Republic of Ireland to the south. - Politicarp
Further Resources:
Sir Roger Empey, UPP [2001 profile]
Progressive Unionist Party
Vanguard Progressive Unionist Party
George Seawright
David Ervine
Ulster Volunteer Force
Loyalyist Volunteer Force
Ulster Defense Association
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