Bob McCartney is an anomaly in NI politics. Having been elected with four other UKUP MLAs, he was left on his own after a row early on in the Assembly’s lifespan. He has created and broken alliances with an astounding variety of polticial figures, including the veteran Southern poltician Conor Cruise O’Brien and Ian Paisley.
Norman Porter in his seminal work Rethinking Unionism, chooses McCartney as the quintessence of what he calls Liberal Unionism. Porter describes his fundamental position on the constitutional question: ‘…the British State is based on a principle of liberty which facilitates a pluralist society whereas the Irish Republic is based on a principle of authority which is inimicable to pluralism.”
His critique of the Assembly’s effectiveness in last night’s Belfast Telegraph is worth a read. Though it is very short on factual evidence, he does articulate something that is part of the mix of discontent within the wider unionist community.
A slightly inhuman presence that bans bad comments and works late at night to remove the wrinkles in Slugger’s technical carpet. You will need to know about the comments policy to stay off the fightin’ side of me and there is a bit of background about me here. You can email me using this spam-proof link if you really need to, and Slugger is @sluggerotoole on Twitter. But above all, remember, Play the ball and not the man.
Discover more from Slugger O'Toole
Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.