What does “moving backwards” mean? Spike Milligan used to sing a song called “I’m walking backwards for Christmas,” and although it sounded daft, we knew what he meant. Nigel Dodds said at the weekend that the DUP must not move backwards because that would return it to an age when it was “powerless and impotent”.
What does that mean? Maybe that Nigel is going to assume the role his predecessor played briefly, where he was inviting Catholics to join his party. Once the flag protest got into full gallop, of course, that idea quickly went to the wall. But maybe Nigel figures the time is now ripe to have another go at wider recruitment.
Nigel says there are people who want to bring unionism back to “a wasteland of despair and stalemate” and he’s agin that. Mmm. I wish he’d be more precise about this period. And what made it a wasteland of despair. And who did what to make it that way.
Or maybe Nigel is appealing to the proverbial prod in the garden centre. People think of me as right-wing but honestly, folks, I’m not just highly educated, I’m also forward-thinking and liberal, once you scratch my surface.
That has never been the DUP way in the past, and their tough-knuckled ‘not an inch’ has served them well so date. Could it be that ‘so far’ is the reason for Nigel’s call? Might it be that those who said the last election represented a high-water mark for the DUP, and that a number of things, notably demographics, will show the start of DUP descent, are right? And that Nigel sees this, and is keen to do a bit of rebranding?
Smile, Nigel, so the natives know you’re friendly.
The man most likely to succeed Peter Robinson as DUP leader warned his party that if it moved backwards it would be returning to an age when it was “powerless and impotent”.
Deputy leader Nigel Dodds told delegates at the party conference on Saturday that unionism at the time of the Anglo-Irish Agreement 30 years ago had been “shouting from the side lines. Powerless and impotent”.
He warned that some of the DUP’s critics would bring unionism back to a “wasteland of despair and stalemate”.
Much of Mr Dodds’s speech dealt with national issues with which he has been involved in Parliament.
But a considerable section praised Mr Robinson.
He said: “We were in the wilderness 30 years ago. Wronged and risking defeat.
“Now we’re in the heart of government, with our fate in our own hands. That’s wasn’t an easy thing to achieve, it wasn’t a certain thing.”
why do all these parties keep saying their a goverment
Beware the Ides of March
The words of the Bard and Yosser Hughes came to mind as the party conference reached its finale,
“Et tú, Brute?”
“Give us a job, I can do that.”
There is no reliable evidence that Caesar ever spoke the words. Suetonius himself claims Caesar said nothing as he died and that others only reported that Caesar said that phrase after recognizing Brutus. Plutarch reports that Caesar said nothing and merely pulled his toga over his head when he saw Brutus among the conspirators.
Caesar may not have uttered the words, however, during all the smiles and back slapping at the weekend, at least one individual uttered the phrase, “leadership challenge.”
New image? A pig however well dressed will always remain a pig !!!
Comparing pigs to the DUP Jim? Come on Jim, that’s not fair, pigs are intelligent and friendly creatures!
Well if you want to compare parties to animals, what about Sheep and SF sorry that’s not fair sheep are far more intelligent than the average member of SF…..
Neill – I’ve said elsewhere that the pigs comparison is borderline – and so is the sheep comparison.Please – enough alrady…
“Neill – I’ve said elsewhere that the pigs comparison is borderline – and so is the sheep comparison.Please – enough alrady…”
I think he was entitled to that one jude, you did post the pig comments. freedom of speech and all. I like a bit of banter
So do I – but I don’t like people being referred to as animals.
Hey, what’s wrong with sheep Neill? I honestly don’t see why it would be offensive to be compared to an animal. Some of the kindest creatures I’ve ever met were animals, particularly dogs. Indeed I have seen more “humanity” from animals than from humanity itself. That’s not to slate people, btw, there’s far more good people than bad people, in my opinion.
Think about it, Ryan. If a woman called you a pig and you called her a bitch…It goes from there…
“Think about it, Ryan. If a woman called you a pig and you called her a bitch…It goes from there…”
So Ryans a pig, neill is a woman, who is the sheep again Jude?
Probably me, Jessica…
Great.story.
You.Said.It. Jim.
Surprisingly I have some empathy for Dodds or Foster or whoever takes the wheel of the DUP ship. No matter what way you look at it they are taking on water! Picture the captain up to his/her oxters in seawater asking his nervous crew to patch another hole in a ships hull that is peppered and going down.
Every strategy is one of applying the brakes on progress and equality which just keep on coming and coming. It is hard to remain positive about being negative!
If Nigel Dodds does become DUP leader and we are expecting no backward movement, we may have to wait for some time. In fact there might be a better chance of Ruth Patterson being a forward looking conciliator.
And you think that Nigel might smile – the last time he did that was when some republican died, but even then the fact that I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’m still not so sure.
We down here are blessed on Liffeyside, Esteemed Blogmeister, in so far as we don’t have to wonder or worry or fret about the next leader we are about to get for our DUP.
For, the leadership of our DUP is a moveable beast. Which can alter on a day to day, even indeed, if the circumstances so warrant it, on a hour to hour basis.
Take last Friday evening, for example: the Leader of our DUP was the four dimensional 4 F who emceed a most moving and solemn musical ceremony (‘Concert for Paris’) in the devout, de facto National Cathedral of Sr. Patrick.
The 4 F could refer to both the musical menu on offer (from Faure’s Pavane to Faure’s Requiem etc) and the distinguished emcee: F.F. Fergus Finlay (for it is he!) whose grave bearded presence has been a constant in Irish public since before many mature citizens of today had even begun to put razor to unshaven cheek.
4 F, it has been remarked by many, bears more than a passing resemblance to Fungus Faced Charles Stewart Parnell.
Although 4 F is incurably unelectable himself he has been the cause of others being elected. While he failed to get the nominatory nod to run for the Presidency in 2011 before that in 1990 he was so influential in getting Memsahib Mary the First elected to that position that he was awarded, by popular acclaim, an Honorary Spin Doctorate.
Thus, while the authority which the tedious thumb-licking of ballot papers can confer on a successful candidate is not to be entirely sneezed at, a much more dignified wheeze is the one which involves that rather more rare commodity, and which 4 F has in spades: m for Moral Authority. Hence his Leadership of the DUP last Friday evening.
A goodly segment of which M.A. was accrued when in 2007 he calmly and courageously suggested that Amhran na bhFiann ‘should be retired with honour’. Given the surgical choice of words it is presumed that this suggestion was made by the honorary spin doctor on the battle grounds that the de jure National Anthem was a tad too bootiful on the grounds and perhaps even too beautiful for the groundlings.
Now, it is reasonable to presume that the pacific strains of ‘La Mareseilaise’ were lustily chorused by the shoulder to shoulder singers in St. Patrick’s Cathedral and that the esteemed emcee enthusiastically joined in as part of what the French call ‘se tenant epaule contre epaule’.
Not least in the (dashed unavoidable) chorus which goes:
Aux armes, citoyens ! To arms, citizens !
Formez vos batallions ! Form your batallions !
Qu’un sang impur Let impure blood
Abreuve nos sillons Water our furrows.
This cannot have been at all easy for 4 F’s inner pacifist or indeed for his outer conscientious objector either but still the awesome ambiance of the devout and de facto National Cathedral must have eased matters somewhat.
With all those Union Sean pennants (it is called the sacrament of pennants in waggish ecclesiastical circles) hanging down amidst the marbled memorials to military victories of yore in the Middle Eastern Empah.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral is indeed a, erm, warm house for the established Church of Ireland and the DUP alike. Call it, if one will, and indeed some wag is bound to, sooner or l., the House of Dodds.
It is, and one is only speculating here, a reason why the puny Papish Pro-Cathedral which is located on Out of the Way Street in Dublin’s North Side was overlooked.
Besides, the word ‘tenant’ (see French phrase above ) might be misconstrued there. As in some unreconstructed Romanist interjecting at a particularly solemn moment to pointedly point out that the Church of Ireland (sic) had moved in to both Papish cathedrals on Liffeyside as (gulp) tenants, as recently as 1537 in the case of St. Patrick’s and Christchurch two years later, in 1539.
And that their leases may well have expired some time since. Hence, the reason why the red-socked Church of Rome still – STILL !- maintains that Christ Church is the rightful seat of the Papish Archbiship of Dublin. They have obviously never heard of Gunpowder Plotters’ rights.
As Christchurch sits atop the hill just the length of a Lurgan spade away from St. Patrick’s at the bottom of the same hill it lends itself more naturally to the attainment of an even (gasp ) higher moral ground.
That is possibly why Memsahib Mary the Second chose Christchurch over St. Patrick’s in 2007 as the location of her now legendary nose-thumbing at the males-only-for-hire Hierarchy in Rome.
Meanwhile, as the putative Pope Mary the First cools her highheels in South Bend, Indiana she relieves the boredom betimes by jetting in to LIffeyside to fill her own personal political boredom and to take up temporary leadership of the DUP before a worshipful media and fawning political class. Before jetting out again.
Our DUP of course is the Dublin Unionist Party.
Unionism as a whole is facing a downward spiral, mainly due to demographics but also social change. Its inevitable that this corner of Ireland will have a Catholic majority (I already believe we have one, its wafer thin though) and as we know 99% of all Catholics that bother to vote do not vote Unionist nor would they even consider it. Why is this? I think all the discrimination in the past (Which Unionism wont even acknowledge, never mind apologize for) and Unionism’s support of anti-Catholic organisations like the Orange Order might have something to do with it….
It will be interesting to see how Unionism reacts when/if there is an official Sinn Fein First Minister. We seen how they were deeply reluctant to honour an agreement that gave Stormont its very first Nationalist/Republican speaker. Personally I predict that Unionism will do what comes instinctively and hide behind the walls, close the portcullis, pull up the moat and shout the worn out phrase “No Surrender”. In other words: I believe the DUP and UUP would join together to form one party to prevent a Sinn Fein First Minister in order to “Keep Them’uns Out”. Of course all this will do is delay the inevitable, please the Jamie Brysons within Unionism and continue to convince Catholics Unionism is no different today than in the 1960’s.
Sinn Fein on the other hand has reached out the hand of friendship to Protestant voters, attended and respected Unionist remembrance events, met Queen Elizabeth twice, even attending banquets with her, etc And to be fair, Queen Elizabeth has done many things to promote reconciliation as well, much more than Unionism has, such as laying a wreath in the Republican Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. Will the Protestant voters now come flocking to the shinners? Not in any great numbers but its a process and as time goes on I do see more protestant voters who agree with some of Sinn Fein’s policies lending them their vote.
It’s fair to say that most of the posters above are not massive fans of the D U P.And yet,who were first on their feet today to join the standing ovation for Peter Robinson?Yes,you’ve guessed it—Sinn Fein.Obviously the best of bedfellows when it suits them to be!
Bit of an understatement Argenta. Most of humanity would be against everything the DUP stands for. Sinn Fein also worked with Ian Paisley. Working with someone and showing respect does not equate to being sympathetic towards or aligned with. It is common decency to farewell a member of your office. Remember when Robinson faced serious personal issues Sinn Fein did not try to take advantage of the situation and destroy him. This is something unionists politicians would not think twice about doing. This is one aspect that shows the moral superiority of republicanism. Maybe Unionism will develop the maturity to work with others.
“Sinn Fein also worked with Ian Paisley. Working with someone and showing respect does not equate to being sympathetic towards or aligned with.”
No mean thing either, no individual here could be accused of having more blood on their hands from decades of blatant incitement to hatred.
At one point the catholic community were convinced he was the anti-christ.
If you take the alphabet a to z and give each letter a number starting with 6 for a and incrementing by 6 each time, so b = 12, c = 18 and so on.
Use the values against the letters in ian paisley, you get
i a n p a i s l e y
54 6 84 96 6 54 114 72 30 150
The sum of these comes to 666
No, bridge building here has been mainly one direction unfortunately.
I don’t think Ian Paisley was evil. He played the part of firebrand fundamentalist Christian in the public sphere. I think this was only a façade. I have heard Many people say that he was a completely different person in his private life and worked hard for his constituents (even Catholics). His carefully chosen words were to elicit hysteria among his congregation and voters to promote himself as a Christ like figure. Yes, his words did motivate many nutters to go out and kill Catholics. I personally didn’t like Paisley but I am glad Sinn Fein could work with him and the British government were able to mellow him towards the end.
Argenta
It is fair to say I am not a massive fan of Sinn Fein but I think fair play to them on this.
There is no doubt they are better at working with the DUP than the DUP are at working with them, at least in public view anyway.
It is about respecting the mandate of the other lot whether they respect the individual or not.
Perhaps SF are more comfortable with the situation but whatever the reason it is good to see.
Sadly too many posters around here do not follow that example as we see today with silly remarks about pigs,.
I agree again, gio. I hesitated about putting that post up. Probably shouldn’t have. If enough people tell me to take it down again, I will.
“Sadly too many posters around here do not follow that example as we see today with silly remarks about pigs,.”
You are quite right again gio.
It is all about leading by example.
On this Sinn Fein are by far the most statesman like party and making the biggest strides.
The leaders of unionism on the other hand are far too happy to go on air and talk about stench and nose holding or think nothing about the odd rogues and renegades remark about those they might not trust to go to the shops.
Doesn’t excuse such remarks but perhaps better leadership and common courtesy at the top would help us common plebs move beyond name calling.
What party do you support by the way, I know I keep confusing you for a unionist which I will try to avoid doing in future.
jessica
I couldn’t define myself as a supporter of any party to be honest.
On the constitutional issue I am in favour of a United Ireland, though I do not consider it to be worth killing for, so I suppose that makes me a very poor republican.
On social issues my instincts are left of centre. I don’t like the SDLP position on abortion and I felt they were stagnating under McDonnell, but maybe in the future those things might change.
I could give(and have given) a vote to the Greens, but it always feels a bit of a waste.
Too much information probably, but thanks for asking.
I would be more left of centre also gio, but I also feel sinn fein are the only republican party on this island and my hope is their economic policies will mature as their time comes to take the reigns of rebuilding this country, Something that cannot happen with a far left socialist agenda.
I also have transferred to the green, simply because they are also an all island party and there isn’t really any alternative. It would be nice to have the choice they do in the south.
The SDLP are a self interest party that took their electorate for granted and lost touch with the nationalist community.
Their post nationalist ideology is still there at their core, they are a liability for the nationalist community to put their faith in, and would risk everything to bring back the days of them and UUP back to the forefront, even though nesbitt would eat them up and spit them out. It will be a relief if they continue their decline to be defunct.
Not wanting to kill for a united ireland does not make you any less republican than anyone. It is probably more because you are a good person.
I supported the IRA before I supported Sinn Fein. There was a time when had you given me a nuclear button to hit england and kill them all, I would have without hesitation jumped up and down all over it. If you think that makes me a bad person then there is not a lot I can do about it, but I would rather not deny it.
I am no longer that person nor do I still feel that way. And while i still want england out of here, I have enough sense to know we need to have a stronger and better relationship between us and that is what we should try to achieve. Something I believe Sinn Fein are also trying to do.
Have to hand it to SF that was a nice touch and when the Deputy First Minister steps down I hope it is reciprocated.
“Have to hand it to SF that was a nice touch and when the Deputy First Minister steps down I hope it is reciprocated.”
Fair play to you neill.
It is a pity all parties hadn’t the same manners is that what you are saying Argenta?