TROUBLE IN THE RANKS...

I see that there are growing signs of disquiet amid the DUP rank-and-file and supporters over details of the St Andrews Agreement with just over ten days before all the parties are required to say whether they are signing up.

While the party leadership has clearly signalled it is, on balance, in favour of the St Andrews package, it is this week continuing its province-wide series of consultations with grassroots members. A former councillor meanwhile has called on the party's MPs, Assembly members and councillors to "have the courage of their convictions" and tell the leadership it is wrong.

Walter Millar, who served on Cookstown council until 1993, said he found it "beyond belief" that Ian Paisley and the DUP would agree to a coalition government with "Sinn Fein/IRA as a result of the Belfast Agreement Mark Two."  In a letter to the News Letter today, he argued the present deal is worse than the 1974 Sunningdale and 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement. Deputy leader Peter Robinson, meanwhile, did not deny that at one meeting he and party leader Ian Paisley were told that people would rather pay the higher water charges than see Martin McGuinness in government.

Mr Millar is right - but there is one subtle difference. With the UUP slavishly pro-power sharing with terrorists, the DUP leadership figure that there is relatively little threat to their prospects at the ballot box when they endorse the Belfast Agreement Part 2.

So, I hope there are more like Millar, unionists who realise when they are being sold a pup.

Comments

[willowfield]

It's hard to believe after all the complaining the DUP (rightly) did about ridiculous and unnecessary institutions such as the Civic Forum; and about "north-southery", that the hypocrites have actually signed up to:

- A parliamentary tier of the North-South Ministerial Council (yes, a NORTH-SOUTH PARLIAMENT)!
- An all-Ireland (!) Civic Forum

So much for "replacing" the Agreement and providing a "fair deal".

I have always said that the DUP could not, and would not replace the Agreement: "I told you so".

[Garfield]

No referendum south of the border and no substantial changes to the Good Friday Agreement. Willowfield is right.

Gregory Campbell actually thinks there is a chance that Northern Ireland will get its own corporate tax rate from Gordon Brown and Ian Paisley Jr. is the justice spokesman.
The union is safe in their hands.

The DUP can walk away if they want. Nobody cares and nothing will change. I don't understand why they don't.

[smcgiff]

‘So, I hope there are more like Millar, unionists who realise when they are being sold a pup.’

And what? Stop voting, or Vote UUP? What are you suggesting unionists do if the DUP share power with SF?

Re a Northern Ireland tax rate similar to the Republic. I don’t see it happening, but that the DUP are pushing for it is proof that the DUP are more nationalist than unionist, albeit NI nationalist.

If NI received a concession, by a weak PM, to allow it to have the same tax rate as the Republic it would split the union. After NI, the Scots would demand it. After Scotland the Welsh and English regions would want it, and after that the South East of London would even more evidently be seen to be propping up the union.

Instead of ‘for the want of a nail a kingdom was lost’, it’d be more like, ‘for the benefit of a tax break the [United] Kingdom was lost’!

[kloot]

Ive just finished reading a biography of Carson, and its amazing how some of the items currently being hammered out were first raised in the proposed settlements of the early 1900s. The north south council for instance.

[Cunningham]

kloot,

There was an excellent lecture on Carson by Martin Mansergh on RTE1 last night.

This talk "Edward Carson and the last ditch stand of the Ascendancy" is part of the excellent "Speaking Ill Of The Dead" series.

You can listen to the talk under

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/speakingillofthedead/

Click on "Listen to the lastest show", wait for about 1 min until the news is finished and enjoy.

[kloot]

Cheers Cunningham. will check it out. I thought the biography of carson was excellent. It shone a light on the history for that period of time that I wasnt aware of. It showed obvious support amongst northern protestants to opt out of a UI, but carson himself still foresaw the NI parliament eventually coming under the Dublin government.

[Paul P]

"I see that there are growing signs of disquiet amid the DUP rank-and-file and supporters over details of the St Andrews Agreement with just over ten days before all the parties are required to say whether they are signing up."

Is someone who was a councillor 13 years ago really representative of DUP rank-and-file?

[Josephine Mcdowell]

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