No bright future for the Paisleys…

The first time I met Ian Paisley senior was at an official function at Hillsborough Castle, not long after the publication of our study on the future of Unionism, A Long Peace? After some warm-ish comments from him on the subject of the report, he turned to one of his younger party colleagues and warned him as I turned to go, “never trust the gentlemen of the press, there is always a sting in their tail”. It’s ironic that members of his party are now apparently bombarding the press with their own critical views of his son’s conduct of public business. And, as Pete spotted yesterday, there is a prima facie case for a complaint to be lodged with the Parliamentary Commission for Standards at the House of Commons. As I’ve argued over at the Guardian, it doesn’t look good for the Big Man of Ulster politics.

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.