Ian preparing a return to the Alliance Party?

In his latest post on his blog, Ian Parsley has explained that he has resigned from the Conservative Party in Northern Ireland.  This is not entirely a surprise as Paula Bradshaw, his partner, resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party and recently joined the Alliance Party in early November this year after failing to be selected by the South Belfast Ulster Unionist Association to run for the Northern Ireland Assembly elections to take place in May 2011.  Paula and Ian had both been 2010 Westminster candidates for the UCUNF project.  No UCUNF candidates were elected.  Some of the Westminster candidates have found themselves on the Assembly election ticket whilst others have not.

Ian has been a local Councillor in North Down Borough Council since 2005, first as an Alliance councillor and then as a Conservative councillor.  In his present state of resignation that will mean he will be an independent councillor, until someone takes him in.  

This now takes the total tally of Conservative Councillors down from three to two (Dierdre Nelson and Peter Bowles).  

He had previously been the 2009 European candidate for the Alliance Party before joining the Conservative Party in September 2009 when he was employed by the Centre for Social Justice, which eventually published an interesting document 'Breakthrough Northern Ireland'.

A lot of work seems to have been put into this and it will be interesting to see if Ian continues in this role as well or if he has also resigned from this as well in which case it will be interesting to see who is supposed to drive forward the policy recommendations.  Will the CSJ maintain a presence in Northern Ireland? or will we once again be forgotten about?  

Does his resignation, along with a slap to the Conservatives and a wistful reminiscence of his time in the Alliance Party point to a wish to rejoin the Alliance Party?  Indeed the last few paragraphs of his blog post point out his regret at leaving the Alliance Party in the way he did and he apologises for the hurt he caused.  Definitely sounds like he is looking to rejoin the Alliance Party.  

He is a capable politician, amiable gentleman and has a vision.  I hope he finds a home he is able to continue his work from, whether or not that will be from a home in the Alliance Party?  I am not too sure. 

There is also a good run down on this by Aldous Duke on Slugger O'Toole