Carried as their lead story, the Sunday World the report that UDA Boss, John Bunting, has been helping out in the Ulster Conservatives and Unionist Euro election campaign.
That’s from Andrew Charles on Slugger. I haven’t read the Sunday World from yesterday (it’s not available where I’m presently working) and there are no other links, so for the time being, I have to rely on (I’m sure as he’d admit himself) a partial interpretation of the original, but for me there are three serious questions here:
1.How far up the UUP hierarchy was it known that Bunting was “helping out”?
2.If that knowledge stopped, as I guess, at the local level, then does the UUP hierarchy believe it to be acceptable that a paramilitary is “helping out”?
3.If the answer to 2) is “no” then what disclipinary action will be carried out against those who brought Bunting into the “team”?
This episode, like the Rev Coulter’s outburst last week, is way more important than Lady Sylvia’s future because it involves a question of morality and not just plain party political politics. No point talking about “change” to a new type of politics for N.Irish Unionism if you’re not prepared to take the difficult action on the ground which is necessary to effect that "change".
Disclaimer:
This post has been based solely on the information contained in the blog put up on Slugger and an email I received, not the original article. If anyone wants to scan it through to the comments zone or by email address, please feel free
2 comments:
In reference to point (1) - it is not the first time. This happened, and was reported in the media during the Assembly elections in 2007. Therefore the party was aware of what happened in the not so distant past and should have addressed the issue this time around.
It also raises the question about posters. Why are the party members not doing it? Contrary to what people think, it does not take long to poster an area. If you have three teams of 4 (1 being a driver) you could cover a constituency in around 2hrs. It's not a big ask.
You also have missed the Sunday Life article on Cllr Diane Peacock, its pretty bad alright.
Hmmm, 600 posters in 2 hours: get a grip in a rural constituency it will take at least 100 hours for a team of 3 i.e. 300 manhours not 24 man hours.
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