The UUP are spent as a political entity and have been for 20 years
They were the party of apartheid for 50 years, they mellowed after the GFA and then were usurped by the DUP hardliners
You can’t just rebrand as a wishy-washy progressive one day while exclaiming loyalism the next
The name itself is anathema and should be retired
It goes to show the state unionism is in though. After the work Trimble put into the GFA the Unionist people abandoned the party in favour of the more hard-line party, the DUP.
Same can be said for the nationalist community, they abandoned the SDLP for Sinn Fein too.
I guess when your politics ignores everyday issues and is solely focused on giving it to the other side this is what happens.
Oh no! Anyway.
*Unionists can’t unify.* Says it all really
The DUP’s idea of a merger is UUP absorbing into them and business continues as usual when the reality is that political unionism needs a massive facelift and a fresh moderate party with no trappings of Orangism . At this point that is almost unimaginable because Ulster Unionism/Loyalism has buried itself so deep in an image of thuggery, bigotry, isolationism and right wing evangelical Protestantism that would make the yanks blush. It’s hard to imagine young, liberal unionists, most likely of a protestant background being able to wrestle the steering wheel from the wrinkly sausage fingered death grip of self absorbed egotistical dinosaurs who follow a staunch creed that in 100+ years has hardly deviated from its roots.
So instead they’ll go to the Alliance Party, who also have a strong vote transfer to nationalist parties. In theory the plan is fairly simple for Unionism. You make the place run relatively smoothly and keep people content. Sure things might not be great, but the status quo is always an easier sell than upheaval and the unknown of a United Ireland, but still they’re making a balls of that and they probably always will do because a moderate status-quo unionist party that appeals to Catholics but abstains from the orange sash and various other cultural pillars is still anathema to certain sections of the community. It’s the notion that they are conceding their deeply imbedded identity, which they shouldn’t have to. Have the cake and eat it.
Many of the senior figures in the DUP were there standing behind Paisley 40 years ago, and now they are still there in their 70s, collecting an easy pay cheque by doing fuck all, so far removed from the working class that elects them following a diet of fear mongering. Gregory Campbell, Sammy Wilson, Jim Wells etc. Most people in the six counties couldn’t tell you any young visionary names in the DUP or UUP.
In the space of 10 years Gerry Adams has stepped down from political life and Martin McGuinness is dead. Sinn Fein still has a good few “tiocfaidh ár lá up the ra” wingnuts in its ranks but they’ve none the less revitalized themselves under fresh, popular female leadership on both sides of the border, neither of which carry any old school paramilitary baggage and we are seeing that the electorate are willing to reward that and there isn’t a damn thing FF, FG or the SDLP can do about it despite their best efforts. In the meantime, the DUP have backstabbed and ousted every leader they ever had. The fact that Jeffrey Donaldson is in such a weak position as leader yet still remains shows you just how little road they have left to run out. Nobody wants the position in this climate.
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Doug Beattie is fucking useless though
The UUP are spent as a political entity and have been for 20 years
They were the party of apartheid for 50 years, they mellowed after the GFA and then were usurped by the DUP hardliners
You can’t just rebrand as a wishy-washy progressive one day while exclaiming loyalism the next
The name itself is anathema and should be retired
It goes to show the state unionism is in though. After the work Trimble put into the GFA the Unionist people abandoned the party in favour of the more hard-line party, the DUP.
Same can be said for the nationalist community, they abandoned the SDLP for Sinn Fein too.
I guess when your politics ignores everyday issues and is solely focused on giving it to the other side this is what happens.
Oh no! Anyway.
*Unionists can’t unify.* Says it all really
The DUP’s idea of a merger is UUP absorbing into them and business continues as usual when the reality is that political unionism needs a massive facelift and a fresh moderate party with no trappings of Orangism . At this point that is almost unimaginable because Ulster Unionism/Loyalism has buried itself so deep in an image of thuggery, bigotry, isolationism and right wing evangelical Protestantism that would make the yanks blush. It’s hard to imagine young, liberal unionists, most likely of a protestant background being able to wrestle the steering wheel from the wrinkly sausage fingered death grip of self absorbed egotistical dinosaurs who follow a staunch creed that in 100+ years has hardly deviated from its roots.
So instead they’ll go to the Alliance Party, who also have a strong vote transfer to nationalist parties. In theory the plan is fairly simple for Unionism. You make the place run relatively smoothly and keep people content. Sure things might not be great, but the status quo is always an easier sell than upheaval and the unknown of a United Ireland, but still they’re making a balls of that and they probably always will do because a moderate status-quo unionist party that appeals to Catholics but abstains from the orange sash and various other cultural pillars is still anathema to certain sections of the community. It’s the notion that they are conceding their deeply imbedded identity, which they shouldn’t have to. Have the cake and eat it.
Many of the senior figures in the DUP were there standing behind Paisley 40 years ago, and now they are still there in their 70s, collecting an easy pay cheque by doing fuck all, so far removed from the working class that elects them following a diet of fear mongering. Gregory Campbell, Sammy Wilson, Jim Wells etc. Most people in the six counties couldn’t tell you any young visionary names in the DUP or UUP.
In the space of 10 years Gerry Adams has stepped down from political life and Martin McGuinness is dead. Sinn Fein still has a good few “tiocfaidh ár lá up the ra” wingnuts in its ranks but they’ve none the less revitalized themselves under fresh, popular female leadership on both sides of the border, neither of which carry any old school paramilitary baggage and we are seeing that the electorate are willing to reward that and there isn’t a damn thing FF, FG or the SDLP can do about it despite their best efforts. In the meantime, the DUP have backstabbed and ousted every leader they ever had. The fact that Jeffrey Donaldson is in such a weak position as leader yet still remains shows you just how little road they have left to run out. Nobody wants the position in this climate.