Mind the gaps, Nigel

Sometimes the gaps are more important than the filled-in bits. I was listening to Nigel Dodds on BBC Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster this morning. He was being questioned about a weekend incident in Belfast where two Pakistani men, having been subjected to racist taunts and a bottle thrown through their front window, were the next night attacked in their home, resulting in one of them being taken to hospital. 

Nigel was unambiguous. He condemned all racist and sectarian attacks, and listed a number of them over the past few weeks, including a sectarian attack on a Protestant family. Conor Bradford was doing the interview and he kept asking Nigel whether he thought his party leader was right in saying what he said about Muslims and sending one of them to the shop. No go. Nigel was into the “As I say, I condemn all racist and sectarian attacks” mode. When Conor asked about his opinion of the original Pastor McConnell comments on Muslims and the spawn of the devil,  it was more of the same from Nigel.

The things Nigel didn’t say were more important than the things he did say. He didn’t say that McConnell’s sermon was about as elegant and moral as a caveman’s club, and he didn’t say the First Minister had revealed a level of arrogance that was breath-taking. Instead he set the attack on the two Pakistanis in the context of other attacks, including an attack on a Protestant family.

Why was that? Well, it’s a reasonable thing to do. Taking things out of context can be very misleading. For example, if you talk about the IRA’s part in the conflict here and don’t mention other combatants like loyalist paramilitaries and the British forces, it would be to present a distorted, partial view of history. So Nigel was right to provide a context.

Unfortunately, in emphasising the context, Nigel was also leading us away from the answer to Conor Bradford’s questions. By emphasising that racial and sectarian attacks had preceded either McConnell or Robinson’s words, the implication was that their words had nothing to do with encouragement of racism. Oddly enough, that’s not how the victims see it. They’re clear in their minds that McConnell’s words and Robinson’s condescension have both played a part in the prejudice they are now running into. Just because something happened  in the past, before your words,  doesn’t mean similar or worse deeds  won’t happen in the future because of your words. Innocent Catholics had been killed before Douglas Hogg’s famous House of Commons statement about Belfast solicitors, but only a fool would fail to link those words to the slaying of Pat Finucane weeks later.

Back at Raidio Uladh/Radio Ulster, Nigel was still slipping away from the McConnell and Robinson questions, and delivering an above-the-fray condemnation of all bad things. Back at their Belfast home, the Pakistani men are thinking about leaving the North, so unpleasant and dangerous has life become for them.

Anna Lo is thinking of leaving too. She’s about had it with taunts and pursuit by thugs as she left Connswater Shopping Centre. I’m sure Nigel and the rest of the DUP would include the racial harassment of this brave little woman in their we-condemn-it-all edict, but you may be sure they’re not going to put specific emphasis on the Anna Lo case. That’s because Anna is a member of the Alliance Party and the Alliance Party is what the DUP hate and fear most. After all, the Alliance Party voted to rip down the union flag from Belfast City Hall and the Alliance Party managed to whip Peter Robinson’s East Belfast seat from under him. You think the DUP are going to give a leg-up to Anna when, in doing so, they might also be helping another Alliance woman, Naomi Long, hang on to Peter’s seat?  Because – and I say this with no intention of offending anyone – that seat is Peter’s by rights.  Just as this wee place is our country by rights, and we don’t like strange people coming into it with their voodoo religions and their terrorist inclinations.

Makes you proud, doesn’t it? And to think the marching season hasn’t even begun yet.