We’ve reached the butt end of unionism
A lack of governmental diplomatic delicacy carried the electoral danger of the DUP replacing the Unionist Party as the majority voice for pro-union voters. This was every unionist leader’s big stick. But our electorate spoke and now there’s no need for equivocation from the Secretary of State.
O’Neill, Chichester-Clark, Faulkner and, finally, Trimble had to go, each undermined by the contemporary manifestations of the right wing in the party, all accusing their leaders of being too concessionary. Always, the spectre at the subsequent celebratory feast was Dr Paisley.
Pro-union voters, in plumping for the DUP in the recent Assembly election, unwittingly gave the Secretary of State carte blanche to implement the agreement as he sees fit.
There are no bogeymen left to deflect Mr Blair’s government from its intentions. The bogeyman’s got the parcel. We’re at the butt end of unionism.
We’re only seeing now that the Democratic Unionists are impotent. Essentially, as a party of protest, their only ploy now in any disagreement with the government is to threaten non-cooperation with setting up a new Assembly.
The uselessness of that tactic is that few care, least of all Sinn Féin who have bigger fish to catch in the Republic.
The greater danger for unionism is that threatening behaviour from the DUP has the potential to undermine the very union it purports to preserve.
If there is a case for maintaining the union intact in its old form, it’s not going to be made by the DUP. That party will begin to fragment as the starkness of its predicament begins to separate pragmatist and fundamentalist.
So, are there rational, secular, articulate unionists out there who can convince those who want to live in a sane, multicultural society that Northern Ireland has that potential?
Wes Holmes
New Ireland Group
Slievedarragh Park
Belfast BT148JA
