Well there it was . Lisa McAlister was standing in on the Nolan morning show as Mr Nolan headed off to the USA. Naturally enough at this time of year the conversation was the flags obsession. Nothing new there you might think. Here we are nearing Groundhog Day again and as sure as the dandelion finds its time to blossom by some cosmic symmetry , how the bluebell and the buttercup join the queue and blossom follows some weeks later, so too, at some unannounced signal , overnight the lampposts will miraculously be festooned in flags { or “flegs” , if we are being dictionary correct.}.
There are none now as I write, but as sure as “eggs is eggs”, one morning I will get into the car and as I drive towards the town centre,I’ll suddenly be in a corridor of flapping woven polyester , surrounded by a new blossom that heralds the coming Marching Season. In tandem, the kerbstones will blush red , white and blue as though weeping in sympathy with the lampposts. That’ll be it for the entire summer or longer until the tatterdemalion threads are shot to pieces and the “flegs” as our Belfast cousins have noted them, hang forlorn and wasted like the dying threadbare leaves of autumn.
Well and good, then .We are all well used to this annual outpouring of tastelessness, but what I was not expecting was the abrasive , misogynist attack by the PUP loyalist leader Billy Hutchinson on the aforementioned Lisa. Finding Nolan’s chair vacated and his show represented by a” mere female” , he thought the time was right to attempt to bully her .There, right before the listeners in aural 3-D were all the reasons why Northern Ireland is in the situation it is . The true face of loyalism could not conceal its contempt for civility and outright hatred of anything or anyone with an opposing viewpoint. There was to be no pretence at debate .The feral teeth were bared , the blood was aboil and it was to be his fascistic way or no way.His Putin obsession was in the ascendance The contempt for law and order or even the concept of democracy and fair play were being written large.This Neanderthal behaviour has been allowed to fester in the shadowy streets of the ghettoes but there it was , looming as large as life itself on the radio, armed with the backing of his own constituency.Hitler and Mussolini got their start like this. .
It only took Mr Nolan’s leaving to expose it for what it truly is…
We can’t let these uppity women dare to talk us “real men” down …especially when its about our “flegs”.
I’m starting to wonder if ‘give ’em enough rope’ is perhaps the best response to ongoing Unionist and Loyalist behaviour. Pete ‘The Racist’ Robinson got a degree of comeuppance in recent weeks, and as you say above “the true face of loyalism could not conceal its contempt for civility and outright hatred of anything or anyone with an opposing viewpoint” live on BBC radio.
You know it, I know it and dare I say it, na madraí ar an tsráid also know the grim realities of both Unionist and Loyalist thought and behaviour here in the North.
One thing to bear in mind is that people in Britain aren’t really aware of the DUP/PUP/UUP/OO – who they are, what they stand for, and what their associations with various far-right, terrorist and criminal groupings are. I suspect that if the British public had a greater understanding of these parties, that things could get interesting.
Recent talk of Cameron wining and dining the DUP in the event of a a hung parliament in Westminster in 2015 points towards some interesting future scenarios. If the Tories were to get into bed with the DUP in their desperate attempts to cling onto power, then it’s possible that the DUP could find themselves under a degree of media scrutiny in Britain. I wonder what The Guardian, Newsnight, Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru-Murthy et al would make of having a bunch of racist, sexist, homophobic, bigoted creationists (with a history of terrorist activity) in government in Westminster? Be careful what you wish for, lads…
RJC :
Yeah …It would appear that giving ’em enough rope is the way to go. If we just sit on our hands long enough and say nothing , every one of them will crawl out from under the stones and burn in the unforgiving spotlight like salted slugs.
There’s been quite a roll call over this past year of so . but who would have thought so many bigots, racists and misogynists could stand up on their own little hind legs and still with all that effort expressed , retain the power of speech as well….not neanderthal at all….further back in the Triassic period. They are really coming out to feed now , though…further exposure can only be to the good….
PS ;Thanks Jude!
“Suddenly, opposite the lampstand, the fingers of a human hand appeared, writing on the plaster of the wall…” (Daniel 5:5). I am aware that the members of the Ulster Drugs Association cannot read the writing on the wall. Political unionism cannot accept that there was a DEMOCRATIC decision taken about flying the flag in Belfast. Queen Elizabeth provided leadership to her (dis)loyal subjects on this issue during the President of Ireland’s recent visit to London. Given the ongoing tensions around the flying of flags, perhaps there is a need to establish a steering committee on cherry pickers and the contravention of road traffic regulations.