Saturday, January 06, 2007
Jesuitical Paisley and the tactical abandonment of the straight-talkin Ulster Scot vocabulary
Taking stock: It wasn’t so long ago that republicans were accused of employing the language of evasion to avoid answering direct questions. It woud appear things have turned on their head and it is now the leader of Unionism, Ian Paisley, who has been accused of evasive language at a time when clarity holds the key to progress.
Of course, there are reasons for Paisley’s evasion, and they’re to be found in the numerous interviews given by party colleagues like Gregory Campbell and Jim Allister, which has provided an insight into what the DUP see happening once republicans have jumped the policing hurdle.
Aware of the traps that lay ahead- thanks (doubtlessly intentionally) to a heads up from Campbell and Allister- Martin McGuinness (today’s Inside Politics) has indicated that republicans will await a much clearer and firmer commitment from the unionist leader about his future intentions before committing to the Ard Fheis.
An interesting divide is emerging between the stated positions of the two governments at this point. Foreign Minister, Dermot Ahern, decisively pointed to the need for clarity from Paisley in his RTE interview earlier in the week; whilst the decision by the NIO and Tony Blair to accept Ian Paisley’s ‘jesuitical’ welcome of the British Prime Minister’s statement has been criticised by Martin McGuiness.
It all essentially boils down to this: if Sinn Fein pass the Ard Fheis motion on policing by January’s end, will the DUP, firstly, go live with devolution on March 26 and secondly, support the devolution of policing and justice by May 2008?
Chris Donnelly @ 01:16 PM
Martin M pleads for Paisley to use the word “agreed” when referring to T Blair statement.He has no chance. Unionists remember asking SF/IRA to use the word “permanent"when describing IRA ceasefire. We are still waiting.
Posted by on Jan 06, 2007 @ 11:17 PMIt’s understandable that the DUPes are wary of getting caught out by the Shinners given their track record, however the DUPes position makes little sense, first we have Paisley Sen saying that if the Shinners move on policing they (the DUPes) will move, or words to that effect, and thats part of the problem, then we have Allister saying that an unspecified period of time will be required before his party can contemplate devolution, before thought is given to policing and justice, Dodds, Simpson and Campbell have each made similiar statements, we then have Ian Paisley Jun assuring us that all the DUPes are singing of the same hymn sheet, so who do we believe, Paisley Sen or Allister, this pretence of DUP unity is in danger of distroying the whole process, which is probably what some of them want anyway, Paisley is going to have to take on his dissients, or see his dream of being First Minister go up in smoke!
Posted by on Jan 07, 2007 @ 01:03 AMChris
I don’t claim to have a great insight to the nationalist community that is why I began my comments i said “I don’t know” before I mentioned a number of possibilities.
However, there is one thing I do know from my time in politics, when a political party was expected to:
1. Commit to call an AF in November but by the start/middle of January is still debating it.
2. Won’t tell people what they actually will commit to
3. Has a sitting MLA saying the decision hinges on electorate reaction
4. are creating a mini-’crisis’ to get a blame game going
5. has an MLA team dropping like fliesThey are not behaving like a party that is confident of its position.
“The idea that the SDLP held its ground in 2005 by cloaking themselves in the PSNI is ludicrous: their electoral ‘reprieve’ was a consequence of the reaction within some quarters of nationalism to the Robert McCartney killing/ Northern Bank robbery”
I said law and order not the PSNI. A brutal murder and a record breaking robbery are pretty big law and order issues.
AF motion
Maybe it will maybe it won’t but your persoanl expectations and Adams talking about sentiments is not ‘clarity’. Paisley has been clear, if the RM don’t like what he said unlucky them, Tony does.Posted by on Jan 07, 2007 @ 12:11 PM
