Thursday, April 30, 2009

DUPes (and others) save the ghurkas!

More local reaction to last night’s vote:
The Democratic Unionist Party has helped to ensure the passage of a motion in the House of Commons calling upon the government to abandon its plans surrounding UK residency rights for former and serving members of the Gurkha Regiment. The DUP was joined by members of the Tory Party, the Liberal Democrats and the Labour Party in voting for a parliamentary motion demanding the government abandon their plans on this issue.

For the record record, the 6 DUP MPs who voted (Iris Robinson, David Simpson and Ian Paisley couldn’t make it apparently) were also joined by members of the Ulster Unionist Party, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the SDLP in voting for this parliamentary motion.
Would it really have hurt that much to include that extra bit of information in the press-release? A very childish and petty omission.

11 comments:

Jock Coats said...

Or even, dare one suggest "The DUP was joined by members of the Tory Party and the Labour Party in voting for a Liberal Democrat motion demanding the government abandon their plans on this issue."

Oh dearie me no...:)

O'Neill said...

It was a Liberal Democrat motion?!

That's not we're being told in Northern Ireland;)

Jock Coats said...

Oh golly yes. Clegg has been campaigning on this for a good couple of years now, turning up to every party conference with a whole retinue of Gurkhas collecting more signatures and telling their stories.

Wednesday's motion was tabled by the Lib Dems, heavily trailed in advance to garner support, and acnkowledged as such even by David Cameron. The ex-Gurkha who became a local councillor last year in Dover or Folkstone or wherever the garrison is based now down in Kent is also a Lib Dem.

Has David Ford not said anything about it over there - or maybe he doesn't get a media look in these days? (Not that I know for certain that the Alliance knew of and supported it since it was just a Commons motion - but they tend to march to the same tune still don't they?)

fair_deal said...

The desire to find something wrong in whatever the DUP does is not a healthy one.

O'Neill said...

Jock,

It was not a very successful attempt at sarcasm on my part (not directed at you). It was a very worthy campaign waged by Clegg (and others) and he fully decserves the plaudits on this one.

Has David Ford not said anything about it over there - or maybe he doesn't get a media look in these days?Unfortunately Alliance tend to ignore the wider UK issues, so I haven't heard anything from them on this. On a kind of tangent I think it would do politics here a world of good if your party and Alliance came to some more of a formal pact (similar to what the Conservatives and the UUP have done) and fought elections under a united banner in NI

Jock Coats said...

Apart from the fighting of elections under the same banneer, I thought the relationship was pretty much as tight as it can be - John Allardice sits in the Lords as a Lib Dem peer doesn't he? And I always remember David Ford on the Lib Dems' internal internet discussion boards with everyone treating him as just another party member sort of thing - same at conferences. But that was mostly the best part of a decade ago and I certainly don't hear so much about them now. But I don't see why they shouldn't simply work under one name, unless there are electoral law reasons for it being better to have a distinct party rather than a party unit in NI.

O'Neill said...

The desire to find something wrong in whatever the DUP does is not a healthy one.I usually don't have to do too much digging to find where they've gone wrong. This was petty on their part not acknowledging the other parties who joined them in the "yes" lobby.

And it might be unhealthy, but to be quite frank I detest much of what they stand for and actually do and as someone who at least tries to be an honest blogger, I have held back more often than I probably should have really expressing my opinion on what the likes of Iris Robinson,Campbell and Wilson have got up to.

But I guess to neutral readers (or those disinterested in Ni politics) it is probably becoming a bit of a switch off.

O'Neill said...

Sorry that last comment is aimed at Fair Deal.

O'Neill said...

"But I don't see why they shouldn't simply work under one name, unless there are electoral law reasons for it being better to have a distinct party rather than a party unit in NI."

Jock,

I'll do abit of digging on this and find out what the present state of play is. I can't see there being any electoral law problems to be honest.

fair_deal said...

Politicians of one party not mentioning the other parties involved in a Commons vote whatever next.
http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2009/04/We_must_honour_our_debt_of_gratitude_to_the_Gurkhas.aspx
http://www.libdems.org.uk/home/nick-clegg-hails-historic-victory-for-gurkhas-243703630;show

O'Neill said...

In neither case you've linked to did Cameron or Clegg do a DUP; ie DC or Clegg didn't say "The Conservatives along with our UUP and Liberal Democrat colleagues", so bad comparison.