A thought struck me the other day: why do we have unionist parties here? After all, we know that David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage all believe in the United Kingdom. And unionist leaders repeatedly insist on the degree to which we in the north are an integral part of the UK. So why don’t we have branches of those parties here, as elsewhere throughout the UK, and let us vote for them (or not)?
Well we can, of course – there are Conservatives and UKIPers here. But that’s where the not-bit comes in. Will the Tories and the UKIPers prosper in the coming Westminster election? There are few things in politics one can say with certainty but I feel secure in saying the Conservatives and the UKIPers here will not sweep the boards on May 7. In fact they’re so marginal, you sometimes wonder if they exist at all. No, the DUP and the slowly-expiring UUP are the guardians of unionism here. The very existence of these parties gives the lie to the frequently-asserted contention that we’re as British as Finchley. Not if we have to have totally different parties from Finchley, for starters.
The truth is the DUP and the UUP exist because we’re Irish. I know that most members of both parties would deny this. Sammy Wilson has boasted that there’s not a drop of Irish blood in his veins (though how he can be sure remains uncertain). If you were born in Ireland (and it is Ireland, like it or lump it, from Malin Head to Mizzen Head) then it’s a good indicator that you’re Irish. If you and your people have lived here for generations, it’s another good indicator that you’re Irish. And it’s because unionists are Irish – and more and more are prepared to accept that self-evident fact – that they need distinct and different parties from the rest of the UK.
The DUP says that this election is crucial – that unionist MPs in Westminster will be very influential because they may hold the balance of power. The unspoken other side of that equation is, of course, that they normally have virtually no power in Westminster. For many English MPs, the unionist MPs are an embarrassment. Weird. Sort of outlandish. In a word, Irish.
William Crawley had a spirited discussion a few weeks back about Irishness and Northern Irishness and Britishness. Interestingly, the focus was on whether one would refer to oneself as Irish or Northern Irish. The British bit didn’t feature with nearly the same emphasis. Could it be that, in this newly-minted term ‘Northern Irish’, nationalists/republicans aren’t tiptoeing towards a new identity, but that a lot of unionists are in fact tipteoing towards a recognition of their Irishness?
I was listening to the Scottish author Irving Welsh on the radio this morning. He said he believed the United Kingdom was irredeemably damaged, a slowly-dying concept. How ironic it would be if our own dear unionists, by their very existence, were to be hastening the day of its demise.
Does NI Labour Party still exist in any form, Jude? It had affiliate status to the British Labour Party at one time. Eamonn stood against Hume in 1969 on a NI Labour Party platform. In a brief, party political career , I was chair of the Derry Independendent Labour Party which promoted similar policies but did not recognise the Border. In truth, it was just an ad hoc vehicle to promote a candidate in opposition to Big Eddie and the Nationalists.
T’was ever thus, Jude.
The main British political parties – Tory, Liberal & Labour have no history of organising here (exception being the Tories who were forced into organising in NI in 1987 by Bob Mccartney’s Campaign for Equal Citizenship).
Even before partition there were broadly sectarian parties – the Irish Unionists (who tended to vote Tory) and the Irish Independence Party who propped up the Liberals in a vain attempt to get Home Rule.
So the government of the UK has never been accountable to the Irish voter, unlike in Scotland & Wales where all the British parties organised & made themselves fully accountable to the electorate.
I believe this legacy is why (with a few rare exceptions) people in NI on both sides of the ‘divide’ do not understand democracy. They think if you can vote you have a democracy. They don’t stop to think what their vote achieves or in our case fails to achieve. For example our vote has never elected a government that levies our taxes.
Democracy is about people electing a government to represent their views and to make major decisions based on that representation. Voters in NI have never participated in such a process.
I do not think there is another region in the developed world where democracy has never existed and where there is such democratic illiteracy.
This leads to the nonsense that passes for ‘politics’ here. It is little more than a soap opera and should be given no credence by any democrat.
well said which is why we need to bring this part of Ireland into an all-island political unit where our taxes are paid into an Ireland tax system and then we can vote on regular political and economic issue and effect real change on those issues.
“[W]e can vote on regular political and economic issue and effect real change on those issues”
Don’t know about that. The experience of the Republic recently is almost like a limited form of democracy where you can vote but nothing ever changes.
Though to be fair, when you run a budgetary deficit like the Republic it is hard to make decisions that goes against your creditors’ wishes.
The experience of Syriza in Greece is illuminating. Democratically elected, they cannot implement their manifesto because they need cash from their creditors who have other ideas. If Greece was running a budgetary surplus they could do what they want.
After the Asian financial crash in the 1997, the IMF and their cronies showed up to tell the countries effected what to do. The loss of economic independence had a drastic impact on domestic social policy. The consequence of this was that when the Asian countries got back on their feet they went against economic orthodoxy and built up and hoarded huge foreign currency reserves so they could resist the imposition of the IMF in future. Essential they decided that they’d pay more in tax in the good times so they would not need fear a knock at the door in the bad time.
As the saying goes, he who pays the piper calls the tune.
Known secrets
On 12 April, Pope Francis addressed Armenia’s efforts to promote greater awareness of the massacre of 1.5 million of its people during the fall of the Ottoman Empire with his description of the atrocities as genocide. It is estimated that as many as 1.5 million Armenians were killed in state-organised violence between 1915 and 1922.
There is no definitive figure for the number of Irish people who lost their lives as a result of An Gorta Mór in Ireland, on coffin ships or in quarantine centres in Canada and America. Many lives were lost in Ireland as a result of state-organised violence between 1916 and 1922.
In 1849 the Newry Telegraph stated
“It is true that the potato has failed in Connaught and Munster; but it has failed just as much in Ulster; therefore, if the potato has produced all the distress in the South and West, why has it not caused the same misery here? It is because we are a painstaking, industrious, laborious people, who desire to work and pay our just debts, and the blessing of the Almighty is upon our labour…”
The reality was somewhat different. The workhouse in Belfast was full in 1846 and soup kitchens were opened in Hercules Street, Howard Street, Great George’s Street. Ballymacarret, Whitehouse, Dundonald and Holywood as a result of the distress prevalent in the town. Fatalities increased in 1847 to the extent that it was necessary to dig huge graves in order to accommodate the growing number of fatalities. Mortality in Belfast was highest in 1847.
There are those who flaunt a misplaced and misinformed sense of identity. Does one become more British by battering out a version of the Sloop John B in the precincts of a Catholic church? It is clear that some individuals may be ignorant of their famine history or perhaps just prefer another sort of cultural expression.
“…Drinking all night…Got into a fight…The first mate he got drunk…And broke in the Cap’n’s trunk…The constable had to come and take him away…”
And what will Peter and Nige and Wee Sammy and Wee Jeff do with their newly gained influence in the ‘Corridors of Power? Use it to bring more jobs to N. Ireland? Increase (or at the very least protect) benefits and pensions, raise the standard of medical care, improve the roads in Co. Fermanagh? My educated guess is that the present, much hated system of government and a return to genuine democratic Unionist rule will be the first item on the agenda. That and a properly constituted committee to ‘adjust’ electoral boundaries, adding a little bit of future proofing ..!!
larry I think you will enjoy
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2015/04/10/why-the-dup-should-neverever-be-kingmakers/
Thanks Ben
Enjoy is hardly the right word, but it is all so horribly true.
“The mental, moral, spiritual and intellectual vacuum of the Unionist.
Unionists are, I have to admit, a pile of dusty cliches, shells of former parties.
Totally without passion, direction, substance.
The expectations of Loyalists are sunk in a sense of tradition and obligation so stultifying that
they simply cannot hear anything new.”
The driving force of Ulster Unionism is not the desire to remain part of the U.K. but hatred of all things Irish and Catholic.
The North already has an electoral commission changing boundaries. Mostly it does not make a difference as nearly all seats are safe enough to withstand a bit of tinkering. For the few marginal seats, I think the electoral commission avoids radical boundary changes so as not to upset the politicians. It just would not be worth the hassle for the civil servants involved.
As for getting rid of the GFA it’s an international agreement with the Republic so it’s going nowhere.
My guess the DUP would make noises about constitutional change but know they wouldn’t get it, something on parades (that is a Twaddle victory) and a big dose of venality. Couple of peerages, membership to the Privy Council and money for pet projects. Like Ian Paisley Jnr getting the money for that Giant’s Causeway Centre for his mate the builder at the St Andrew’s Agreement. Read and weep:
http://republican-news.org/current/news/2008/01/paisley_peace_for_land_deal_re.html#.VSxGZoxwrIU
I think you are right Jude. I think the reason that Unionists did not vote for the Conservatives in large numbers when they stood here was because they were British and couldn’t be trusted not to do another Lundy on Unionists.
The Conservatives might be British but how can you be sure that they will distrust Irish Catholics the way they are distrusted by unionists here?
There is no point to being true British here if you are not anti-Irish and anti-Catholic/pro orange into the bargin.
The Conservatives even let Catholics near the top echelons of their party like Ian-Duncan Smith & Ann Widdecome. Not to be trusted!
Quite right, Cushy Glen. NI is a Statelet. Legally, we live in a region without the ability to levy taxes or prosecute war. We have never been able to vote for either. Our democracy is a fallacy.
There’s an often heard sentence when it comes to Unionism and its this: “Unionism is only British when it suits” and that’s absolutely true. I personally don’t regard them as British, I don’t mean that as an insult to them by the way, I only say it because they are so unlike the average British person in England, Scotland and Wales. What Unionists DO remind me of is the far right in Britain, such as the BNP or National Front. Again, not intended as an insult, its just the reality of how Unionists present themselves.
The reason why Labour, Liberal Democrats, etc don’t run candidates here is because they don’t want anything to do with the place. Its a sectarian state. People aren’t voted in on their policies but on their religion or stance on the constitutional question, and that’s politics most people are very keen to avoid. The Conservatives and UKIP aren’t really serious about this place. Look at the candidates brought in by the tories to contest elections here, they have never set foot in the North before in their lives!
There’s no better evidence that the Westminister parties want nothing to do with the North than the Leaders Debate story a few weeks back. The DUP, in fairness to them, have 8 MP’s, are the fourth largest party in Westminister and may even hold the balance of power come May but were excluded from the TV Debate despite heated protestations and even threats of legal action. But yet, the SNP and Plaid Cymru were invited to the leaders debate and both have fewer MP’s than the DUP. Everyone could see the Unionists were being excluded because of their sectarian politics which the average British person would find appalling.
As I said before a few times on this blog, Unionism is its own worst enemy…..
Ryan,
I’d question some of your assumptions and statements. I’m not having a go at you or anything, I’m just looking to debate a few points.
“What Unionists DO remind me of is the far right in Britain, such as the BNP or National Front. Again, not intended as an insult, its just the reality of how Unionists present themselves”.
That’s quite a generalisation; Naomi Long is a unionist and she is about as liberal as it gets for an MP. Equally, David Ford, Basil McCrea, John McCallister all seem fairly liberal.
“Everyone could see the Unionists were being excluded because of their sectarian politics which the average British person would find appalling”.
The rationale for the DUP’s exclusion from the leaders’ debate was that in the general election they are not competing with any of the parties in that debate. If you think the DUP’s exclusion was for their politics why was UKIP let in?
“As I said before a few times on this blog, Unionism is its own worst enemy…..”
I have been wondering what you mean by “unionism is its own worst enemy”. As far as I can see the Union is safe as ever.
As I said before a few times on this blog, Unionism is its own worst enemy…..”
I have been wondering what you mean by “unionism is its own worst enemy”. As far as I can see the Union is safe as ever.
Yes Chunks I agree
And as far as electability is concerned, an extreme anti-Catholic or anti-all things Irish viewpoint has never harmed the electora prospects of Unionist* politicians.
*DUP, OU, TUV.
I have nothing but admiration for the excellent Ms Long and her lower case unionism ..!!
That’s really what I was getting at there is the “Unionist” and small “u” unionist. The imprecision in terminology is conflating two different sets of unionists.
I see Unionism today as having two main ideological currents.
One stream is based on economical and social conservatism, revivalist and evangelical Christianity, and anti-Irishness (via an intellectual leap that confuses Catholic with Irish). Ideologically they are painted into a corner. To remain consistent (Protestant Britain is best) they have to keep hammering at the Irish language, frustrate the Irish government’s role in the North and support Orange parades. The logic their position leaves no room for deviation lest they be outflanked by a rival.
The other unionists are the small “u” unionists. Alliance, NI21, and plenty of Catholics who keep their heads below the parapet. Their support for the Union is often couched in terms of the (supposed) economic benefits and they are not interested in parades and the religious fundementalism.
The reason that I am being pedantic about this is that it does nationalists no good to treat Unionists as a single homogeneous bloc.
Chunks, a quick reply to all your points.
1. Naomi Long isn’t a Unionist, she replied many times that she neutral on that question, the Alliance party itself is neutral on that question.
2. All those politicians that you listed Chunks, David Ford, Basil McCrea, John McCallister, etc are not member of either the DUP or the UUP. Basil McCrea and John McCallister even left the UUP because its sectarian attitude to attracting voters and formed their own party.
3. Chunks there was no rationale to exclude the DUP. Plaid Cymru and the SNP contest elections in their own regions, have fewer MP’s than the DUP and yet they were still invited to the debate. John McCallister even wrote an article in the Belfast Telegraph on the subject and said the reason no NI’s parties were invited (including the DUP) was because of the sectarian nature of our politics. Chunks, UKIP wasn’t founded by a fundamentalist, sectarian, anti-Catholic preacher and it doesn’t endorse sectarian politics either. The last thing the main parties in Westminister want to do is broadcast the DUP on national TV for 2 hours.
4. Unionism IS its own worst enemy Chunks. It attracts next to no Catholic voters, it has itself padlocked to the sectarian orange order, etc want me to go on? Do you think Unionism can continue to be the dominant force in politics here if that continues?
5. Chunks, its my opinion the Union is FAR from safe. Ask yourself this, is the union more secure today than it was in say, 1990? I rest my case. As I mentioned before theres a video on youtube of Ian Paisley Snr telling Stephen Nolan on his TV show that if he didn’t go into Government with Sinn Fein in 2007 then the Union, in his words, “would be destroyed and a joint government set up with the South of Ireland”. Doesn’t sound so secure to me……
6. Chunks, the DUP/UUP are, to me anyway, comparable to the far right in Britain. Their support for loyalist protests outside a black mans house, burning the Irish Tricolour and Catholic emblems on the 11th July, their anti-Catholicism, etc does tend to give that impression to some……
Hope this answered your points chunks
I’ll take 1 and 2 together. We’ll have to agree to differ on the Alliance. To me, whatever their purposeful ambiguity on the matter they’ll always be unionists. As for the McCrea and McAllister they fell out with the UUP over the sectarianism but they’re still unionists.
3 tv debate we’ll have to agree to differ on that one, too.
4 and 5 I understand what you’re saying about the TUV, DUP, UUP and the PUP not getting Catholic votes but as I see it that’s not the pool they’re fishing in so they’re hardly bothered. My thinking is that Catholics can vote for non-sectarian unionism in the form of Alliance or NI21 and that if you add that bloc to the hard core unionist bloc you’d have 50%+ of the votes and will be for the foreseeable future. Therefore the union is safe. I accept though that for that to make sense you’d have to consider Alliance to be unionist as I do. While the Good Friday Agreement has provision for joint rule, given what has been overcome to keep Stormont on the road it’s hard to see what could stop it limping along now. Welfare reform and dealing with the past are the current problems – one is solved by money the other by the passage of another decade or two.
6 You’d get no argument from me that the DUP and PUP are far right. Other than supporting anti-Catholic Orangism, of the top of my head, I can’t think of anything the UUP or TUV have done that is really bad, but, that might be because the two have a lower profile. Not that I’m au fait with the English far right, but, I thought they were more into racial purity rather than anti-Catholicism.
That’s my lot! Thanks for replying Ryan; it’s good debating when it’s kept civil : )
If the God of the OTT (Olde Tyme Testament) had meant for, say, London and Derry to be joined,He would have built a bridge.
Seemingly He had such a plan in mind, starting at the London end. However, according to reliable reports this particular aqueduct fell down, and took a rather ignominious ducking in the Thames.
Meanwhile, Daddy Cool fared no better at the other end either. Perhaps, there is a message to be deciphered here by U’s know who.
Where Finn of the Fianna failed
The Giant’s C-way is there for all to see
A monument to a unity not meant to be
40 thou columns of basalt
Succumbed to H2O assault
UK worth seeing, not w. bowing the knee.
Good article. Jude I am a long time reader of your blog, down here in Monaghan. Isn’t it amazing, the first example of true democracy resulted in the flag above Belfast city hall being taken down.
Welcome aboard, Oriel…