It's obviously not our "partners".....

Speaking about the recent arson attacks on Orange halls in North Armagh, local DUP MP, David Simpson said:

"This is an attack on the Protestant culture and the arson attacks in the Craigavon area - obviously by dissident republicans - are showing a pattern."

That there is a definite pattern, not really much argument about that; in a year where there is has been a lot less tension than usual surrounding Orange parades, the number of attacks in isolated areas on both Orange halls and protestant churches has increased multifold(over one hundred to date and counting). Only one person has been apprehended with regards such "vandalism" (albeit of a far less serious nature) and that person was a member of Sinn Fein Youth, presumably then not a "dissident republican"?

There is no indication from the PSNI who has carried out the other attacks, so why does Simpson automatically blame the "dissidents"?

Because if the suspicion increases that it is instead your ordinary run-of-the- mill "local republicans" conducting the campaign, then the suspicion also increases that somehow, somewhere, along the line, "local" Sinn Fein/IRA members are involved with this, either on a "local" ad-hoc basis or as part of a wider "game-plan"

Which would be rather embarrassing for their coalition partner, the DUPes.
So "obviously", the culprits must remain as "dissident republicans" then...for Mr Simpson at least.