Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

They’re a complicated little lot, the DUP, are they not? Mervyn Storey MLA is decidedly unexcited by the prospect of full frontal nudity, extreme violence and orgies, promised by the forthcoming television series ‘Spartacus’. In fact he’s called for it to be banned. Regrettably we are not informed whether he canvassed the opinions of other film enthusiasts within the party before he issued his statement. I was interested, however, in the juxtaposition between Storey’s take on ‘Spartacus’ and the fashion in which Culture Minister, Nelson McCausland blithely swatted away concerns that the HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’, due to be filmed in Northern Ireland , might be, well, extremely violent as well. The grin was practically cracking Nelson’s face as he expressed his comfort with middle-ages themed, on screen violence. Now either the DUP is quite relaxed about violence, and it’s the sex which makes it go all squirmy, or it doesn’t give a monkeys, as long as the filth is filling the cof...

Who knows what lies ahead this weekend for the MP for Lagan Valley, Jeffrey Donaldson? It's good to know, however, that Jeffrey's thinking of old friends. Scroll down this list of useful links and click on 'Friends of the Union' . Well it was a Conservative ginger group!

Tom Elliott MLA has appeared on Hearts and Minds attempting to fudge the issue of agreed candidates. He also claims to be 'relatively' supportive of the Conservative and Unionist pact. O'Neill has previously pointed out that the Fermanagh man appears to have a shaky understanding of what UCUNF actually involves. We know that it entails eighteen candidates and yet UUP representatives still remain coy about declaring unequivocally that eighteen candidates will stand.

Permit me to start the week by venting a personal peccadillo. The Irish Independent reports that Jeffrey Donaldson objects to Youtube carrying videos celebrating terrorism. A rather unremarkable story. However, both the headline and story refer to the Lagan Valley MP as 'The Unionist MP' (note the capital letters). I appreciate that there is no factual inaccuracy here. Jeffrey professes to be pro-Union and he is an MP. I have noticed, however, strenuous DUP efforts to style itself 'the' Unionist party. The independent's use of the capital 'u' exacerbates the sense that the little Ulster party is the principal voice of unionism. This is neither factually, historically nor statistically correct.

If there were no Democratic Unionist Party to rebut and ridicule where would Northern Ireland blogs find material? Actually, given the extra space the Dupes absence might create, in which proper local and national politics could flourish, I’m sure we’d do alright. Fewer instances of nutterdom to discuss would allow more space for serious, reasoned debate. Still, it’s rather futile pondering the counterfactual. The DUP will be with us for the foreseeable future. At the tail end of last week, Jeffrey Donaldson decided the best way to defend the Act of Settlement was to invoke some turn of the eighteenth century, anti-Catholic propaganda. This week begins with his party employing a cross community mechanism in order to protect its infamous Environment Minister from the censure of the Northern Ireland Assembly. It is an absurd situation that a topic as universal as climate change should be subject to a cross community vote. And it demonstrates how ineffective are the mechanisms by ...

Satire is the only sane response to Jeffrey Donaldson’s remarks on plans to reform the Act of Settlement. O’Neill’s post on ‘Unionist Lite’ is, therefore, especially nicely judged. The DUP junior minister’s religio-constitutional musings would be funny, if they were not so serious. Donaldson is, after all, a leading representative of Northern Ireland’s biggest pro-Union party. There is an argument, based on constitutional conservatism, which can be invoked to defend the status quo. Cranmer, good Anglican that he is, makes a fist of it . It does not involve inferring that Catholics cannot show sufficient loyalty to the United Kingdom because of their religion, nor does it bizarrely imply political, rather than merely religious, allegiance to the Vatican as a component of Catholicism. Personally I am more readily persuaded by Henry McDonald, and his contention that the constitutional impairment of Roman Catholicism is to the detriment of the Union, particularly in Northern Irela...

When Diane Abbot sought to amend the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, in order to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland, Jeffrey Donaldson threatened ‘constitutional crisis’ unless the government performed a tactical manoeuvre to block the amendment being heard. Now the Department of Health has issued guidelines in order to advise health professionals in Northern Ireland on the legal position as regards terminating pregnancy. Donaldson and his colleagues have voted against the advice at the executive. On Good Morning Ulster, Jeffrey, with all the smugness one associates with him, assured listeners that laws on termination would not be liberalised in Northern Ireland. All the political parties agree. Which is all well and good, but rather overlooks the fact that abortion falls under the remit of justice, and as we are all aware, policing and justice remain reserved matters. Donaldson and his ‘toy town parliament’ buddies (to borrow O’Neill’s phrase) are not re...

The government’s procedural manoeuvre , in order to block parliament voting on an amendment to extend the Abortion Act to Northern Ireland, was widely applauded by unionist politicians. Indeed Jeffrey Donaldson had gone so far as to threaten ‘constitutional crisis’ should the amendment be considered and accepted. On last night’s Hearts and Minds , Donaldson continued to argue that it was not Westminster’s business to impose abortion legislation on Northern Ireland. Although Noel Thompson made a passable fist of exposing the paradox at the heart of Donaldson’s contention, he did not make the most pertinent point. Abortion is a justice issue. Policing and justice are issues which have not yet been devolved. The Sewell Convention, West Lothian question etc. may be related issues, but they are merely incidental, because policing and justice are reserved matters and the crux of the DUP’s present impasse with Sinn Féin is that the unionist party believes they should remain reserved f...

Campaigners, unionists amongst them, gathered at Stormont on Saturday in order to protest Diane Abbot’s proposed amendment to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, which would extend the 1967 Abortion Act to Northern Ireland. That’s correct, unionists (self-described) were protesting against clear legislation on termination of pregnancies, which would afford women in Northern Ireland the same access to an NHS service, which they enjoy throughout the rest of the United Kingdom. To add a further layer of irony, Jeffrey Donaldson and other unionists, argue that it is wrong for Westminster to legislate on this issue, which should be devolved to the Stormont Assembly. Indeed Donaldson warned that imposing the British position on Northern Ireland could precipitate a constitutional crisis and the collapse of power sharing institutions. Abortion is a justice matter, which means, well …to argue that policy should only be decided in Northern Ireland, is to insist that policing and ju...