'Pie in the sky with a twist of malice'
FROM:- Junker George (name and address supplied),
I should like to comment on the European elections.
My overwhelming impression is, that unionism has emerged from this election in worse shape than it has been for decades.This is going to continue to send shock waves throughout the unionist community and no-one will be immune from its ravages. To me the only people who emerged from this debacle with any degree of credibility were the hardcore of DUP supporters who stood their ground, and were not blown off course by the prevailing anger about expenses, justified, but whipped up into a frenzy by the media that swept the nation.The party is very lucky to have the support of people of this quality, I hope they realise this.
At a time when the media exerts such frightening degree of influence on the way people think, they restore your faith in the capacity of human beings not only to think for themselves, but have the courage to express their opinions, even when a form of mass hysteria has gripped the nation. I hope that time will earn them the recognition they deserve and vindicate the stand they took.
This has been a disappointing election for the DUP. It is their first serious reverse for many years, it happens to all parties. How they cope with this reverse will be the measure of the party. They must now knuckle-down, re-engage with the grassroots, and get their message across. If they do this, I am confident, not only will they win back those many thousands of people who felt let down, and stayed at home, but many of the people who fired a shot across the bows by giving a protest vote to TUV.
As for the UUP who are trying to talk up this result, and their much vaunted link with the Tories, they could not have got the DUP at a better time, yet they only managed to increase their vote by less than one percent, it is hardly cause for celebration and doing cartwheels.
The UUP was the party that put terrorists into government . Not only that, they had this mandatory coalition enshrined in the Good Friday agreement which they negoiated. An agreement that is now enshrined in law and cannot be changed without the consent of both sides of the community.
The TUV further compound their deception by telling us that the alternative to the present system of powersharing is direct rule, or voluntary coalition. Neither of these are viable options. In the past when sucessive British governments set up a local executive that unionists didn't like they could bring it down and revert to direct rule. The British government moved to close this loophole and made it clear that the alternative to powersharing was a form of direct rule, with the Irish government having a major input. in reality, this would be joint rule, with local politicans being marganalized.
As for voluntary coalition, this is an non starter. Nationalists will not buy into that and the British government will not accept anything that does not have cross community consent. The weakness of the TUV position is they continue to advocate solutions that are not attainable.
The TUV still don't get it. The Good Friday agreement changed everything, and there is no going back. To tell people ontherwise is "pie in the sky".
The present internecine warfare within unionism will only lead to further fragmentation and has the very real potential to plunge the country into chaos. Those who continue to stay at home and don't vote should take note of this.
It is all so very sad because the TUV has within its ranks people who have so much energy and talent, but it is being wasted, because they have been sidetracked into fighting battles in the wrong theatre of war. They have no vision, and are looking back instead of forward. Fighting their friends, instead of engaging the enemy, they are stuck in a time warp, ladling out rhetoric from the past to empty begging bowls, while the rest of the world moves on.
Only God knows where it will all end. One thing is for sure, there is the very real danger that by the time it is finished there will be no winners, only losers. If that happens we will all sink in the mud together.
Then, sometimes people get what they deserve.
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Weather for Carrick
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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