“Turn out the lights, the party’s over!” – Don Meredith
Back in 1998, the DUP made a living out of trying to destroy David Trimble for agreeing an international accord with the Nationalist community in the North. This was on the simple basis that Nationalists would permanently remain in ‘power’ alongside Unionists, until the Northern state is dismantled and destroyed as part of an eventual reunification with the wider entity of Ireland. They knew the inevitable then and they ‘work’ the inevitable now.
What I mean is this, the Unionists have no options left now that there’s a strong British government with a massive majority that doesn’t need them for anything. Their only “wiggle-room” is to try to make devolution seem a bit more ‘Orange’ here and there. Token concessions will be handed out to the people they need to keep on board until the “ship” finally sinks.
I have to say I admired Arlene Foster in some ways. She was a moderate but a conviction politician, and an Anglican trying to minimise the worst excesses of evangelical extremism in our devolved government plus her party. I’m glad she won her legal battle and I wish her well for the future as she, whether you like her or not, has bowed out with such graciousness and good manners to her Nationalist neighbours that her successors won’t have when they get the electoral “boot”. She will have the last laugh as they had their best days under her, propping up Theresa May and dictating Brexit terms and conditions (at one point) in return for massive financial demands, and some of the lower points we witnessed at the RHI Inquiry. She made disparaging remarks about feeding the Nationalist “crocodile”, only to succumb to the GAA “alligator” match she attended thereafter. At least with her there was a flexibility and an understanding that we have to make this accord ‘work’ otherwise the British and Irish governments will do the job for them. And will do it in such a way that the Unionists have little sway over events.
Should ‘Direct Rule’ be implemented at any stage, remember this – it has always been a British government at Westminster that betrays the Unionists. From the abolition of the apartheid Unionist government under Brian Faulkner to the Anglo-Irish Agreement and all it’s successor documents. All of this was signed off by Ministers in London empowered by the Queen to remove undue ‘influence’ from the Unionists – after they abused it for decades. They are not ‘loyal’ to the Crown, they are fixated with an imperial view of the world that died out after the Suez Crisis.
When Ian Paisley was leader, people knew where he stood on things and he did change for the better in a way nobody has quite matched in his party. Able people followed him, but now there is a serious disunity in the ruling Unionist party which will only have a “sticking plaster” applied on the basis of “keeping the Nationalists out” and “frustrating the Protocol” until the next election is over.
We all know what is going to happen when the public go to the polling booths. Brexit and a Nationalist as First Minister will be the “rock” upon which the DUP will split. There is no more emblems of supremacy in that event. All the old battle cries are gone. And they will come to the table after their political “kicking and screaming” on the basis of ‘bread and butter’ issues that our society needs addressed. Edwin’s resignation is a reflection of the betrayal of the Unionists by those in London they have sworn an allegiance to. If he or his party cannot deliver due to this “psychodrama”, then let the British and Irish governments intervene immediately.
All in all, I imagine the ‘intrigues’ based at Dundela Avenue recognise that now is the time to either embrace “power-sharing”, or risk losing any clout at all over affairs when Direct Rule Ministers are flown over – courtesy of the Queen. It’s a do or die moment for the DUP, with Jim Allister snapping at their heels!
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