And so farewell Basil McCrea. The man who was a well-known figure in the UUP, who was the great white hope of the still-born NI21 party, has taken his leave of politics. To say there is no love lost between him and John McCallister, the co-leader of the exNI21 party would be an understatement. I like both men. Basil was working hard to re-establish his image before the coming elections, but ironically the report that exonerated him of the charges of bullying and sexual harassment proved the sword that finished him. In an interview on The View a few weeks ago, Mark Carruthers used the report to unseam Basil with questions about what happened between 5.30 and 7.30 pm in a hotel bedroom. To say it had nothing to do with his political or leadership abilities is to state the obvious. Dick Nixon probably didn’t figure that sweat on his upper lip was good reason for him to lose the 1960 US presidential election. But it was and he did. Similarly what McCrea did or didn’t do in his personal life – and as far as I know there was no proof either way – should have had nothing to do with his political survival. Alas, that’s not how politics and not how the media work. And liberal and open is not, apparently, how unionist politics works.
Footnote. Moving away from the McCrea subject entirely: have you ever wondered what sort of sounds seven wildcats would make if you put them together in a bag with a stoat and sprinkled them liberally with pepper and acid? Wonder no more. In today’s Indo, Ruth Dudley Edwards has a turbo-charged hissy-fit about Sinn Féin. Bet that surprised you.
Pity about Basil. A rare glimmer of sense in the swamp of unionism
You know your doing something very right when nutty Willie Frazer goes to Stormont with a face like a fried tomato looking to confront you…..
There would appear to be no place in unionism for anyone other than the most conservative minds . Anyone who steps outside of the cookie- cutter world of religion/orangeism/casual homophobia/the odd little bit of bigotry mixed in with a soupson of spicy racism is really an odd square peg trying to fit into the same tired round holes. As you say, Jude , someone like Basil has no real place to settle within political society in Norneverland .He must have felt like a duck in a chicken coop within the UUP. The interview on “the View” obviously wounded him greatly .He wasn’t equipped with enough brass-neck to close that one down…and brass-neck is one requisite that every politician requires. Take note of how Sammy Wilson wriggled out of his latest crude insult. Basil should have blazed through it but he constantly weakened himself when questioned about his sex-life.I have to say , although I am no lover of the obvious conservatism that most strands of unionism usually cultivate , I had a lot of time for Basil and John McAllister too . They appear much less paranoid than most of the UUP or DUP politicians we are asked to listen to. They appeared to be onto something very new but whether or not their potential supporters are yet ready for their kind of political party is still very much up in the air. It is still not clear what exactly happened between these two to unwind their party .Has anyone got the real juice on that story?
Can you kindly explain therefore, the hidden secret of the former leader of the UUP, revealed in last week headlines??? Surely hidden loves, sorry lives, can enable a polictician to rise to the top
I liked Basil as a politician. Unionism should have more like him.
Now, that said…
A few months ago I listened Basil objecting very strongly to the extension of the Irish Presidential franchise to Citizens in the 6C. I was very surprised and dissappointed by his knee jerk rejection of the proposal.
He was a good politician but still fell some way short of the type of unionist I hope to see emerge in the years a head. That is, Unionists that will not seek to limit the rights of Irish citizens.
It is said that a country without a language is a country without a soul. What are we to make of 26 counties without a government on Proclamation Day 2016? Flags will be raised and shamrocks presented in the land of the free while homelessness in Dublin remains a major problem. Many families face the reality of eviction from their homes in Dublin as a result of the actions of bankers and vulture companies. This on a day that an RTÉ presenter suggested that the ‘current’ pay and conditions of LUAS staff is adequate.
Prior to the election Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil firmly ruled out a coalition. Prior to the election, the Irish Labour Party staunchly supported Fine Gael. Prior to the election, Sinn Féin clearly advocated policies designed to deal with a range of political, social and economic problems. The party continues to proclaim the need to develop a system of government that will reflect the needs of the electorate and not just the vested interests of transnational corporations. Turbo charged hissy fits and censorship in the media will serve only to delay the formation of a stable, representative government, a government that truly reflects the value base of Forógra na Poblachta.
Its like the traveller who met a black person (can I say that,Harry) for the first time and was filled with astonishment that as well as hands and face being black, the rest of him was black too. In this case Basil’s hands and face were white and the rest black and to unblacken the rest would cause the creature to disappear. You cannot be liberal and unionist in the colony. You must be bigoted and prepared to press your case very firmly on the natives although the majority are quite good chaps and would live like protestants if they had a good house and a good job. When you are present day representatives of the perpetrators of one of the biggest land grabs in Western Europe you have certain standards to uphold.
Didn’t read that turbo-charged hissy-fit by Ruth D. in the D’Indo, Esteemed Blogmeister, but, having heard Her Royal Shyness on RTE this morning dissing her own mammy, oops, mummy as a ‘fascist’ one is considering one’s options as to whether one should check out the piece in q. There is, after all, only so much lack of filial piety one can hack in one day.
Meanwhile, back to B.
Basil is said to be the King of Herbs and is much favoured as a remedy by those who have been stung by a scorpion. That said, it may be prudent for those intending to attend an iffy book launch in Hodges Figgis store, a stoir, on Dawson Street, Dublin 2 later today to bring along a jiffy bag full of basil.
For the book in q. to be launched is RDE’s latest take-away on 1916, called ‘The Seven Up-rising’ or something like that. But it will not be just any old launch, unhampered as it will be by the traditional cracking open of a bottle of champers .
Rather will it be in the unorthodox form of an interrogation of the authoress by an unsympathetic critic. One who will be employing all the full gamut of the mammoth Castlereagh menu. One of which is said to involve the unusual use of a (gasp) a pomegranate. And a particularly humongous pomegranate at that. Guaranteed, it is rumoured, to coax the minutest detail from even the staunchest Hearts of Oak.
-Say no more, Seymour.
Indeed it is said by interrogation experts (i.e. those who have been on the receiving end, where it is assuredly better to give than to r.) that the only thing worse than the Castlereagh sort is the Healy-Rae variety. But that, of course is a blessing small enough to be negligible.
As the spin-doctored press release has it:
-I met Furthermore on the way
He had a mask like Castlereagh
Very smooth he looked but grim
Seven blood-hounds followed him
-Geddit?
No?
The Seven Up-rising v. Seven blood-hounds.
Now, you have it.
Confucius say: velly Shelley.
Which latter are in no way to be confused with the Seven Spanish Angels who native habitat is the Valley of the Gun. And, of course, the Gun has been defrocked / taken out of Irish politics, having been more than adequately replaced by the Leprechaun for frock (gasp), Guna.
The interrogator is an eminent immigrant from LeIcester who promises to grill the authoress with all the vulpine intensity of a voracious fox grilling a chicken run. (Leicester City are colloquially known by madrai rua na sraide, of course, as ‘the foxes’.)
An unconfirmed rumour aka the dogs in the street, has it that the launch has been billed as:
-The Fox v the Vixen.
But that remains to be obscene.
By now, the identity of the unsympathetic interrogator/ griller will have been guessed by the sophisticated blogtrotter:
-The very model of a modern MG, and late of picket duty on Kevin Street, where he picketed many a nationalist nose, the only, the lonely Major General Myers.
This may well be a crucial inquisition which will leave the Spanish strain seem like a mere sun-holiday in an unfinished hotel. For there is more than mere sales at stake here. There is also a short matter of a a long term vacancy in the House of Lords at the moment, as distinct from the vacant lots whose ascendancy asses currently occupy most of the deadhead, red benches.
The larger than death vacancy filled by the lamentable passing of the former mechant seaman, Lord Fitt of Bell Bottoms. Should Ruth survive this ruthless Inquisition there is a less than remote possibility she will be invited to fill the vacancy which will entail her (gulp) walking reverentially backward, resplendent in her exquisite Edwardian Duds, as:
-Lady H. Fitt of Hell’s Bells.
To conclude, the very smooth but grim-looking Major General Myers of Castlereagh has not only helped to banish the gun from Irish politics but he has also in the clipped, no-nonsense way of his dispelled the fog of romanticism which has wrapped itself round those rabid dogs of war, the Risible Wretches of the Rising.
But in doing so he has, in all fairness, going forward, replaced it with the Romanticism du jour, one which the monolithic media of the Free Southern Stateen , with it cyclopean eye firmly fixed on the Mainland, has relentlessly championed, day on day, week on week, 27/4..
One is, of course, referring to the Irresistible Rise of Leicester City FC, aka, the Foxes.
Has there ever been a more uplifting, spine-tingling story of unsullied romance and the indomitable spirit of vulpine man?
Involving as it does, Leicester FC., a full third of whose panel actually hail from ….(all places !) England. And whose average salary is a paltry 2,000 squids. It is only when one realizes that this is their meagre income per day, that one can begin to fully appreciate the true romance at the heart of their heart-warming Voyage of the Imagination.
Knowing as they do, that should they succeed in winning the Premier League (that is, the premier league of, erm, Engand) the gallant, selfless players are putting themselves on the line to be snapped up by such vulture-funded outfits as Merchandise City and Mercenary Utd..Thereby, compelling them to leave, reluctantly, their beloved Leicester.
In this the highlight week of horse-flesh, only an incorrigible anti-Leicester bigot would begrudge them.
Only such an enchantingly romantic club could have a player named Danny Drinkwater and an assistant manager called (verily) Craig Shakespeare.
Not sure about Norneverland but Romance with a capital Or is alive and kicking in the Republic of Irony in this, the Year of Our House of Lords, 2016..
So, fare thee well Horatio!
your former friend RDE, I had the misfortune to hear her promote her latest ‘literary’ outing this morning, after which, I was left to wonder, just what ‘research’ (she said she had researched the topic) she had undertaken, in light of the fact she informed RTE listeners that Tom Clarke had been brought, as a young boy, to northern Ireland. I must take it she meant, the northern half of Ireland since, at this time, our country had not been partitioned.
Her ‘research was further flawed in her assertion, to the listening masses, or perhaps just myself, that he had been brought to the most sectarian place in this, then still mythical, northern Ireland.
Now, Dungannon is a place I am, unfortunately, too familiar, near by Armagh, with the Ogle St. English St. Railway St.’s interfaces is substantially more sectarian, even, once, the Moy could have been regarded as such, and I haven’t even gotten beyond Loughall to the beacon of sectarian hatred, Portadown, all of which, in the 1800’s, the period RDE references, were extreme hotbeds of sectarian hatred, Dungannon, I’d be a lot certain of, too many taigs there, the Protestants always seemed to be next door in Moygashel, banging drums and plotting insurrection.
The problem too is, our national broadcaster seems set on employing fools too.
The interviewer, neither corrected RDE’s patent mistake on geography and history but, later repeated the same mistake, I’m away to find if I can get a refund on my TV licence.
I have never given much thought to Basil McCrea one way or another.
But I saw that ‘interview’ with Mark Carruthers and was disgusted by the line of questioning.
Carruthers was just out to claim a scalp and he certainly did that – but by doing so he lost a great deal of respect.
Whether Basil had sex with the woman in question is of little consequence, but that was not an allegation in the investigation, so why did Carruthers bring it up, again and again?
I now feel sympathy for Basil and utter contempt for Carruthers!
It really is a great shame that Basil has choose to leave politics. I tweeted him earlier offering words of encouragement and even purposing that he should reconsider (after all, Unionists like Basil are very rare to come by). Basil just “liked” my tweet and choose to follow me on twitter without tweeting back. I understand though, I’m sure it wasn’t an easy decision for him to make. He went from on the verge of becoming UUP Leader to leaving politics altogether in a 5-6 year period. (How the HELL did he lose out to Tom Elliot? That big lanky bigoted drip cant even use a knife right, as we seen when he cut off his thumb last month)
In many ways it may be very fortunate for Republicanism that NI21 and Basil McCrea did crash and burn. Let me explain why.
Everyone knows Unionism is its own worst enemy. The likes of Gregory Campbell, Nelson McCausland, Arlene Foster, etc scare off potential Catholic voters like Pope Francis sprinkling Holy water would scare off an Orange man. This works greatly in Sinn Fein’s favour. Now of course I know the vast majority of Catholics would vote SF anyway because they are Republican but still, Unionism does itself no favours in attracting the minority of “small R” Republicans, those Republicans who might be conservative economically, like the DUP or UUP. The same way “small U” Protestants might be socialist economically like the SDLP or SF but are scarred off voting Sinn Fein because of SF remembering the Hunger Strikers, the IRA, etc (Which, of course, they will always do), hence why many vote SDLP.
Now Basil and NI21 could’ve did a good job in sucking up these middle of the road Catholics and Protestants (hence he was also a threat to the DUP/UUP too) and could’ve started a whole new political, non sectarian, movement based on “Northern Irish” identity. Unfortunately for NI21 it imploded before it could get off the ground due to infighting between its two leaders.
Of course many said that NI21 would’ve just been another Alliance Party and Alliance is pretty far from being a major political force here despite being active for decades. But I think Basil and NI21 would’ve been different if they had had a chance. I think Basil’s compromises, understanding of the past from ALL perspectives, etc would’ve helped many “small R” Republicans feel content in the Union with NI21’s brand of Unionism, maybe the only one that has no ties to the Orange Order and a history of fundamental, radical Protestantism.
That’s my take on it anyway. Of course, on the other hand, if Basil had succeeded along with NI21 then we could’ve seen a new movement of moderate Unionism and that would held benefits for everyone, including Republicans, despite the potential squeeze on SF/SDLP votes. Progressive on the past and going into a new future would’ve been significantly speeded up but alas it was not meant to be. We’re still stuck with the “Never Never Never”, “Not an Inch”, brand of Unionism that is in Government simply because they have to be, not because they want to be.
When it comes to poor Ruth, she really has went into overdrive over the past few days. I’m starting to wonder if Ruth should consider retirement because I don’t think her poor heart can take anymore Sinn Fein election successes and its proving pretty difficult for her to convince people they weren’t successes but “defeats”.
But I think Ruth’s fan base would miss her too much if she retired. Ruth loves to retweet their tweets on her twitter page. Many of these fans of Ruth have great admiration for the UVF, UDA and for the likes of Billy Wright, as one look at their twitter pages show…..
hele be no loss just another one out of the way,maybe he felt guilty voting agin the brass nails charging for it.