Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Paisley goes
Just heard it on BBC news: Paisley is to resign as first minister after the investment conference. The BBC website reports him as saying that: “I came to this decision a few weeks ago when I was thinking very much about the conference and what was going to come after the conference.”
He also said that it was up to the DUP who replaced him:
“This is not the Church of Rome. This is not Apostolic succession and I have no right to say who will succeed me.
“The person will succeed me when the mark is on the paper and the ballot is cast. “Whoever that will be will have my support and encouragement and if he wants to take my advice, he will get that advice if he asks for it, but I will not be sitting like Putin in Russia saying to the president ‘This is the way you have to go’.
“When I make a break, it is a break.”
Well there you go then.
Turgon @ 06:07 PM
Reliable sources say the DUP assembly party met recently and all but 3 signed a letter to the Ould Croc asking him to consider his position
The three non-signatories were the ould croc himself, Junior, and… Jeffrey.Presumably the first two weren’t asked.Apparently Paisley told the Shinners and the NIO at the end of last week he was going- possibly before he told his own party group. This has given the NIO the time to start briefing for Robinson, as there are still some NIO people who think Dodds isn’t sufficiently committed to the project.
Which begs the questions- who drafted the letter, and who was asked to go round the group with it? A surprise promotion in the new order may answer the latter.
And what is the etiquette for a DUP offer you can’t refuse? The pearl handled revolver can’t be accompanied by a wee dram of the Devil’s vomit. Perhaps a cup of Ovaltine?Meanwhile, the farewell tour will conclude at the Vatican, where, like Samson, the ould croc will have one last hurrah, and symbolically throw snowballs specially imported from the Alps in a coolbox at the Popemobile as it drives past
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 11:26 AMDarth, perhaps the sheep didn’t fancy coughing up £20 grand.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 12:24 PMDiluted Orange (post24,p5)well said.
His legacy will always be accomapanied by the voiceless 3500+ who died to fulfill his ego filled, bigoted, fundamentalist onslaught.Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 01:00 PM“Good and bad news for TUVvies. Obviously there’ll be a lot less chuckling to get up the noses of Unionists, and no gaffes from Punt. The party will be managed more tightly than Mick Fealty’s wallet at the Manchester United Superstore. But the potential for voter slippage increases- I mean who actually likes Peter? Jim Allister has a more effective opponent, but one who he knows the Unionist electorate don’t trust or like- plus he knows the man inside out.”
100pc correct, although I can’t comment on Mick’s wallet.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 01:26 PMSo, the Demon Doc’s finally outflanked from the right - pace the TUV result at Dromore - and he’s out within a month. It’s almost as if there was an historic lesson for Ulster Unionism there.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 02:05 PMJimmy
To be honest I think it’s pretty unfair to pick out Paisley as some sort of bogeyman and blame him exclusively for the Troubles. He can definitely be regarded as a major accessory IMO, however. It seems to me that most Nationalists want to paint Paisley as the devil incarnate and blame him for all that was bad over the past 40 years and on the other hand most Unionists see Adams and McGuinness as the sole culprits. The truth, I think, lies somewhere in the middle.
The Troubles aside, my main gripe with Paisley is his manipulation of the Unionist people for his own ends. You only have to look at the Shankill to see his work at first hand. The DUP were founded on the principles that they would look after the Protestant working class; the DUP were their voice. Back then everyman on the Shankill had a job and some sort of self respect.
Now, however that same area is just a wasteland - one of the most deprived areas in the British Isles, where kids can’t even get a decent education and where the only career path for a lot of them is to become a drug dealer. Paisley brought legitimacy to the terrorist thugs that have ruined that community for the past generation. Yet he washed his hands of them when it was politically opportunistic to do so.
“We won’t go into government with terrorists” was the DUP mantra in the 90s, yet they were more than happy to depend on some paramilitary muscle only 10 years earlier because they didn’t have a mandate to back them up then.
He gave armed struggle credibility when he and others were responsible for grinding Northern Ireland to a halt in the 70s when the government didn’t do things their way. He helped arm the Ulster Resistance. I think he contributed to the loyalist paramilitary cause significantly and he has blood on his hands. At the same time he also has a responsibility for the deprivation that has gripped loyalist communities as a consequence, in no small part, to his actions. His lackey Robinson is not much better.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 02:25 PM“So, the Demon Doc’s finally outflanked from the right - pace the TUV result at Dromore - and he’s out within a month. It’s almost as if there was an historic lesson for Ulster Unionism there.
Posted by Karl Rove on Mar 05, 2008 @ 02:05 PM”
I doubt it, closer to the mark is that Paisley gave Junior another high profile job when he should have been keeping his head down and out of the public eye, within less than a week daddy is gone.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 02:37 PM‘ It’s almost as if there was an historic lesson for Ulster Unionism there. ‘
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it !
Deja vu
In always true
Especially so
In Stormont’s zooPosted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 03:01 PM“Goodbye Ian, no matter what you think, you won’t be missed and you won’t go into the history books as the saviour of Unionism either.”
Na, he’ll go down as the man who trimmed the big wild hedge between north and south.
Stiff upper lip Peter is getting his spade ready to dig up the roots next.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 04:47 PMAnd Jim Alastair will be sowing a camomile whilst Greg Campbell & Co will be cultivating flower beds. All is rosey in our little green garden isle.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 04:52 PMIt’s worth pointing out that wise man says ‘you think it’s bad? You think that man’s a problem?With his booming voice and talent for wrecking? What follows will be much worse’.
Anyone with a basic and sensible approach to politics will see the dangers of celebrating Paisley’s exit. Blair came up with his usual soundbite to crystallize it all: the man famous for saying no going down in history, the remembrance, for saying yes.
There’s a little gnome calle Jim Allister who wants to bring down power-sharing. Not because of Paul Quinn. Because the power is being shared with Catholics, legitimized by a democratic vote. And there is an army of fools - man of whom cheer at Paisley’s departure, including the person who set up his thread - behind him. It must be fought through the ballot box, tooth and nail.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 05:06 PMIs Jim Allister really celebrating the departure of Paisley? He can no longer spout vile about the First Minister “chuckling with a chuckie”.
Allister’s media performances on the departure of Paisley shows that he will never be the opposition politician that Paisley was.
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 05:37 PMWatched the BBC1 Documentary Spotlight about Paisley last night, I saw those two backwoods, anachronistic, pious freaks from Ballymena who were interviewed.. Good Lord!
The North a different country? A different feckin’ planet !
Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 06:27 PMThe they’ve taken away all our services since the B Specials remark by the TUV guy was particularly disturbing.
And in fairness Daithi, Ballymena is a planet all of its own.Posted by on Mar 05, 2008 @ 09:15 PMGood riddance. Hope he realizes something on his deathbed, before he’s left to whip up frenzies of hatred in hell.
Posted by on Mar 06, 2008 @ 02:57 AMMaybe he will make hell freeze over when he gets there: surely that will be another good thing he does ;)
Posted by on Mar 06, 2008 @ 08:14 AM“There’s a little gnome calle Jim Allister who wants to bring down power-sharing. Not because of Paul Quinn. Because the power is being shared with Catholics, legitimized by a democratic vote. And there is an army of fools - man of whom cheer at Paisley’s departure, including the person who set up his thread - behind him. It must be fought through the ballot box, tooth and nail.”
What a typically pompous load of tripe from a snide and blinkered process fan- probably some otherwise unemployable teenage nephew of an MLA who’s on the payroll at my taxes’ expense running around Stormont in his first shiny suit from Burtons with a covetted pass for the members’ restaurant.
Allister- and people like him, like me - don’t want to share power with terrorist related parties- includingthe PUP. He’s never been against voluntary coalition with constitional nationalists, though not as his first choice. It’s perfectly democratic not to believe in powersharing too BTW, before you flounce out your contempt for majority rule as something indescribably evil. In fact mandatory coalition is a negation of real democracy, and has hardly proved a resounding success anywhere it’s been tried. But you wouldn’t be able to debate at that level of politics, you just resort to cliche ridden cant.
Fight away through the ballot box if you will.
So will we. Election results are as appropriate a way of validating constitutional contructs as the vote for Dustin the turkey makes his music superior to Mozart.
Last year’s mandate is as irrelevant now to gauging public opinion as the 1998 referendum. And rest assured the next electoral challenge will confirm that Unionism is falling out of love with the flipfloppers of the DUP who told us they were after a fair deal but settled for any power they could get.And a wee tip if you’re on the hustings...try to make an adult contribution in future, and not gush like a hysterical schoolgirl in the front row of a Girls Aloud concert.
Posted by on Mar 06, 2008 @ 09:38 AM‘In fact mandatory coalition is a negation of real democracy’
True enough . But Northern Ireland was never a ‘real ‘ democracy? The State was a negation of democratic principles from it’s very beginning given the sectarian carve up and the manner in which the UUP came to power. After 50 years of one party rule the State collapsed in 1972 . It’s taken 45 of political efforts from British , Irish and even the US Government to arrive at the ‘fragile’ compromise that now exists .
‘Allister- and people like him, like me - don’t want to share power with terrorist related parties-’
So you are all in favour of a return to war and a bloody repartition of Northern Ireland ?
I thought so :(
Well look on the bright side . Unlike Paisley the flip flopper you will no doubt be leading your born again no sharing power with SF stormtroopers from the front and not scurrying around in a chapel or on a remote hillside screaming at the wind . Don’t forget your kevlar jacket.
Posted by on Mar 06, 2008 @ 12:18 PMI wonder will there be a knighthood for the Reverand Ian from Herself, as a thankyou gesture for his lifelong dedication to “politics”?
Posted by on Mar 06, 2008 @ 04:54 PM
