The DUP Unionist Unity campaign e-petition - notice the sponsored link. (click on the picture to see more clearly)
Purile? Yes
Petty in pointing this out? Yes
Did I have an ironic laugh to myself? Yes
The link is also tagged Unionistfightback. More like each other, again.
3 comments:
I think that's more likely a symptom of the somewhat hit and miss analysis done by Google Adsense. It's spotted the words UK and Election and decided to serve up a Labour Party advert.
The petition does pose an interesting dilemma. Is the question of the Union above all? In that sense I also asked a similar question of a Scottish Conservative - whether he felt Unionists in Scotland should vote Labour. An irreverent silence followed. Naturally there is a case for vote consolidation in South Belfast and Fermanagh and South Tyrone, but certain Conservative commentators would argue that choice is required in every constituency and the constitutional question if 'off the table'.
There will be a post-election blame game though if the SDLP and SF pick up those seats as a result of fragmented Unionist voting. That outcome seems depressingly likely.
Yes, Steve, slightly mischievous, but funny (to me anyway)
You have certainly hit on the unionist unity issue. One of the difficulties i have is that all the current DUP MPs (with the exception of Jeffrey Donaldson) stood against a sitting Unionist in order to obtain their seat.
Thier big difficult now is they are not liberal enough to be Ulster Unionist nor hard-line enough to be TUV. In trying to overtake the UUP in electoral terms they have forgotten who they are. This was an issue during the tenure of David Trimble where the UUP started lurching a little after taking so many poundings from the DUP on the outside and from Ulster Unionist Party members on the inside (most of which joined the DUP). The principle being that there should be no parley with Sinn Fein/IRA. Where does their present position leave them now? The DUP have a lot of thinking to do, and calling for Unionist Unity , in some quarters, is a sign of weakness of the DUP arguement. The Conservatives are right in one way - of providing democratic choice. FST is not currently represented at Westminster because of an abstentionist MP. One solution is that as an independent Rodney Connor (the former Chief Ex of FDC) pledges to take the Tory whip.
I don’t believe the Conservative Party would countenance withdrawing a joint candidate as they are resolute that “every constituency must have representation in the new political dispensation”. This leaves the question of whether the DUP would “give way” in South Belfast and/or Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Unlikely I should expect! It’s hard to see how you could have “quid pro quo”, as I say Mr. Cameron would be most ‘put out’ to hear that the UUP had withdrawn from either seat in a side-deal with the DUP. A future without a coherent policy on re-unification of the Unionist position (aka single party) is dim, but for now there is a ‘war of attrition’ as we look for the leadership that will steer that (very) difficult path.
Opinion from pundits that Hatfield House was about electorate pacts is in my mind unlikely (or more bluntly a nonsense). I think Cameron is worried about what he inherits in Northern Ireland and was seeking to push through devolution of Policing and Justice. With a major deficit and strains on the armed forces in other regions, I imagine Cameron keen to diffuse resurgent / dissident republicanism.
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