The 2019 vote was also done on a Stop Brexit drive so there were also unique circumstances there.
Colum was running around Derry telling everyone that he would stop Brexit if he got elected.
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It will absolutely melt their scones…playing second fiddle to a taig, and a shinner taig at that…and a shinner taig woman if you dont mind.
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Michelle should come out as gay for the craic.
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It’s a delicious thought .
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What I’ve never really understood about Unionism is how and why it has always largely defined itself by ultra-right-wing social values. I mean being anti-abortion and anti-gay, and pro-creationism has about as much to do with Britishness as it has to do with Irishness.
Unionism is not a monolith, but the DUP think is. Growing numbers of people from a Unionist background have socially liberal values. There is no political home for them.
In a way I sort of feel slightly sorry for Foster in that she tried to make the DUP very slightly less homophobic and paid for it. Overall though, she fed the crocodile that is the bigoted boys’ club. She tried to make up for her crime of being a woman by being an anti-feminist. But’s impossible to appease the BBCs of the DUP. The race to succeed her should be some laugh, if there is one. It would make the next Fianna Fail leadership contest look like a battle of the all time great statespeople.
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Some nice words from the leader of Unionism to the departing Mrs Foster.
Mrs Foster’s resignation - Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“I have no doubt this has been a very difficult day for Arlene Foster and that the speed of her dispatch will have added to the hurt. I therefore wish Mrs Foster and her family all the best for the future.
“I have known Arlene for many years, dating back to when we both practised law. In all my dealings with her I found her straightforward and honourable, whatever our political differences.
“Going forward, I trust the new DUP leader will be wholly committed to restoring the Union and undoing the severe damage done by the iniquitous Protocol. Only the unstitching of the Union-dismantling Protocol can restore our place within the United Kingdom and afford us the equal citizenship we require. This should be the priority of every unionist.”
I’d suggest that especially post partition they have been on the defensive. Inside their borders exists a substantial anti union population while over the border are … ROMAN CATHOLICS! So the development of “not an inch”, “no surrender”, “NO” to everything becomes ingrained and they can’t find a way out of it. It is what has been appropriately describes as the siege mentality. Intransigence becomes a virtue.
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I suppose this is it, but you’d often wonder that even from a strategic viewpoint they might have thought it wasn’t working and wouldn’t be a good strategy going forward? I mean even from a basic societal viewpoint, when has this sort of stuff ever worked?
I used to wonder about a chap called Duncan Shipley Dalton, who was ex-RIR and was a rising star in the UUP around the time of the Good Friday Agreement, he was an English chap who had made his home in the North, he’d appear regularly on Hearts And Minds with Noel Thompson and the like. Duncan came across as very reasonable and conciliatory altogether, he was heavily critical of the dominant “never, never never” train of thought within Unionism. I guess you could say at that time he looked like a future star of a sort of positive brand of Unionism.
But within a couple of years Duncan had disappeared from Unionism. Last time I looked he was living in Southampton and was a Corbynite member of the Labour party.
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Naomi on Newsnight now
Well that’s exactly it. You get nowhere in unionism by being conciliatory. The grassroots refuse to accept that change is necessary. Few unionists ever got voted out for being too intransigent.
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Holy jaysus, Nelson could do with a new sofa/
It’s really quite simple. They just need to keep the gay bashers happy while keeping the gays happy. They’ve at least 2 men made for the job…mccrea or donaldson…a win win for either
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Emily visibly withered there during naomi’s whingeathon
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D
Chess
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The Unionists, rightly as it turned out, were worried about Rome rule and now ironically have ended up being the religious zealots.
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Some people believe they are actual saviours. Well Michael McNamara does, anyway.
Some top banter here, some of it unintended