Mount argument against Tory policy rather than relying on Anglophobe innuendo
I’ve ‘fisked’ Roy Garland’s articles in the past (to use the modish phrase) but with his latest broadside against the Conservative and Unionist arrangement it would be a waste of time. There is nothing new here whatsoever, still less anything approaching an argument, substantiated with facts.
Roy doesn’t like the Tories and he doesn’t trust English people. Actually if he had the courage to follow through his instincts he might conclude that Northern Ireland should be independent. It is ‘unionism’ at its most insular.
I am fully cognisant of the fact that Northern Irish unionists, like pro Union British people elsewhere, cover a broad span of political opinion. They will not all, uniformly, find modern Conservative party policies to their liking. Their arguments, developed on this basis, are, naturally, valid and worth listening to.
But spare me sly innuendoes about English people which preoccupy commentators like Roy Garland and the little Ulstermen of the DUP.
Roy doesn’t like the Tories and he doesn’t trust English people. Actually if he had the courage to follow through his instincts he might conclude that Northern Ireland should be independent. It is ‘unionism’ at its most insular.
I am fully cognisant of the fact that Northern Irish unionists, like pro Union British people elsewhere, cover a broad span of political opinion. They will not all, uniformly, find modern Conservative party policies to their liking. Their arguments, developed on this basis, are, naturally, valid and worth listening to.
But spare me sly innuendoes about English people which preoccupy commentators like Roy Garland and the little Ulstermen of the DUP.
Comments
Proof?
"Only 54 per cent are prepared to support the Union at all costs."
Would Roy support the Union at all costs? Even if those costs involved *our* La Mon, Enniskillen and Frizzells? I know I wouldn't.
"Tory selfish interest might be better served in a truncated Union."
So they go out of their way personally, finanicially and logistically to set up joint candidates in a part of the Union where they had negligibile presence before? Cunning plan Mr Baldrick.
"But what if it becomes apparent that it is no longer in their selfish interests to support Northern Ireland within the Union?"
What if...still hasn't answered the question, what exactly is their present selfish interest to support Ni within Union whilst simultaneously working to cast the Scots adrift?
"Whether or not the rumoured Tory disenchantment with the Union is for a real the UUP should never have hitched their declining fortunes to Tories grandees."
Rumoured where?
"Cameron’s selfish interest is by its nature fly-by-night and could change in the morning. The UUP faithful have been misled for pure selfish reasons."
And those selfish reasons are?
"But David Cameron condemns this while perhaps secretly welcoming the new possibilities inherent in possible Scottish independence."
"Secretely welcoming"? Proof?
"Unionists have placed their trust in the broken reed of Tory self-interest and might live to regret it."
And that "self-interest" in getting involved in the mire of NI politics is what?
Yes, at the very core of this article is "The English can't be trusted because...well, they're English you know." Not a very Unionist attitude to have.