Unbelievably, for a Unionist, this is what Simon Hamilton, one of the more intelligent DUP MLAs, said yesterday:
The UUP is divided on the Party’s marriage with the English Tories even though the electorate wants MPs answerable to people in Ulster not to home county Conservatives.As Hamilton well knows Conservative and Unionist MPs will also be elected in Scotland, Wales and, hopefully, Northern Ireland...why then the sole and undoubtedly pejorative use of the descriptions "English" and "Home Counties" - does he see them as a lesser breed of British?
Early days yet, but it looks like the ugly beast of Ulster nationalism is being slowly let off the leash for the election campaign
9 comments:
It's nothing to do with nascent nationalism. Say what you like about the DUP, but when it comes to strategy it makes the UUP look like amateurs. Hamilton wants to tap into the sturdy independent streak in potential voters. He's making a dividing line, as he sees it between unionists who are for Ulster first and those who are in Dave Cameron's pocket. You can bet the DUP is keenly waiting to see what happens to Adrian Watson. (BTW, the Tories are now predominantly a party of the southern English shires so Hamilton isn't incorrect there.)
Why the need to use "English" as a term of abuse, you haven't answered that core point.
"Say what you like about the DUP, but when it comes to strategy it makes the UUP look like amateurs."
A strategy which taps into an atavistic hatred of our fellow British is not only nascent nationalism, it is downright bigotry unworthy of anyone who describes themself as a Unionist.
I'd rather belong to a party of amateurs any day than a party than a party which is content to use such out-dated and short-termist nationalism as a selling point.
>>A strategy which taps into an atavistic hatred of our fellow British is not only nascent nationalism, it is downright bigotry unworthy of anyone who describes themself as a Unionist.<<
Your consistancy is often lacking in this department Oneil. Unless these standards only apply to your culturally Germanic Britons (sic)
>>Plaid Cymru and the SNP often refer to "London" Labour and Conservatives as a sly dig at those political representatives in Wales and Scotland who just happen to belong to pro-Union parties.<<
No. It is a direct reference to where these parties get their orders from and from where their political orientation stems. After all we get all these potentially corrupt Labour types having the cheek to call themselves Scottish labour, when the only thing Scottish about their allegiance is their accents, those that don't strangulate them anyhow.
>>does he see them as a lesser breed of British?<<
Is this intentional irony?
Exactly how far up the 'British' tree do you think you bog-wogs get rated? Lol!
“… the inability of English dominated parties to understand and represent adequately the interests of the people of Northern Ireland.”
Lord David Trimble
Done a quick google on that quote, cant find it- got a link?
You're making a mountain from a molehill, O'Neill. You'd hear far worse at Windsor Park when NI is playing England. You also miss the point: namely that the DUP wants to paint the UUP as London lackeys. Better find a way to deal with that.
It predates google by some time. It is from a booklet produced in 1991 called Unionism, National Parties and Ulster.
Orangeman,
"You'd hear far worse at Windsor Park when NI is playing England."
That's not the best defence of a politician ever made, at least he's politer than a football crowd?!!
"Better find a way to deal with that."
The way of dealing that is by pointing out that I find it strange a Unionist would use "English" as a perjorative term.
Question for you, if Hamilton isn't trying to tap into a seam of Ulster nationalism, then why didn't he just refer to "the Conservatives"?
Anonymous,
From 1991? Trimble's views has moved on a bit from then, do you not think?
How long before Hamilton makes the same realisation about what being part of the Union actually entails?
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