With walkouts and resignations Edwin Poots’ leadership of the DUP gets off to an eventful start…

Exciting stuff at the DUP leadership meeting last night. Arlene Foster, Sir Jeffrey, Gavin Robinson, Diane Dodds and Gregory Campbell all walked out before Edwin’s speech.

Then Paul Bell, a member of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone DUP Association for 20 years, quit the party.

Paul Bell, a member of the Fermanagh and South Tyrone DUP association for 20 years tells @BBCGarethG he is leaving the party… pic.twitter.com/Ja43uRfM8N

— bbctheview (@bbctheview) May 27, 2021

And just for good measure, Ian Paisley claims his father’s removal as leader of the DUP was what killed him. He died of a broken heart, he said. Being 88 was probably a factor also, to be fair.

"It killed my father," Ian Paisley says he knows exactly how brutal the changing of leadership within the DUP can be… pic.twitter.com/Rq7zT5Lc7f

— bbctheview (@bbctheview) May 27, 2021

To add to Edwin’s woes, Mervyn Storey has turned down an offer to be the First Minister, reportedly saying he did not want to be Edwin’s Mudguard. So who will be the First Minister? I imagine Sinn Fein are hoping it will be Paul Givan. Givan has a history of alienating Nationalists that should galvanise the SF voter base in the run-up to the next election.

In the social media version of sticking chewing gum under the desk for the new guy to find, Arlene Foster changed her Twitter handle from @DUPLeader to @ArleneFosterUK, taking all 96,000 followers with her. The Twitter handle @DUPLeader was then taken by someone else and is now being used as a parody account. But the barriers between parody and reality have been blurred quite a lot lately.

Implosion? Civil war? Things are looking pretty rocky for the DUP and, let’s face it, Unionism in general. Popcorn at the ready, more twists and turns are expected.

Brian O'Neill

Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.