In case you happened to
miss it yesterday, I made a wee blog post; The Death of the Progressive Unionist Party?
What I thought I was producing yesterday afternoon
in the throes of belting my political frustration out on the
keyboard, was nothing more than another rant, much like any other I
have published to my site. Turned out to be an altogether
different beast entirely …
With massive thanks to LAD for sharing the post,
over 4,000 people had read my mutterings and musings before lunch
time today. And since last night I have been inundated with very kind
and generous comments by those who agree with the sentiments I
shared, and even nice words from those that did not.
While I have nothing else specifically to add to
what I said yesterday I thought it only right to address some of the
questions and comments put to me since the blog published. Many I
simply do not have the time to reply to individually while some also
deserve more than a few lines. Hence the arrival of a new blog post
to do just that.
I suppose the first thing to mention is my remarks
on Gareth Cole. While not one person disagreed with me on the
character of the guy, few people did point out the following on his
Twitter bio:
“My tweets don’t necessarily represent the
PUP and may be used to stimulate debate”
 |
| Cole's twitter account https://twitter.com/GarethCole_PUP |
In my opinion, if any politician uses their
Twitter account to promote their electoral campaign, makes it
abundantly clear that they are a candidate for their respective
party, and plasters their face and party email address over their
bio, rest assured your actions on that account may reflect on your
party. If in addition you are being inappropriate and your fellow
party members not only choose to ignore but defend your actions, you
can be pretty certain that it is reasonable to conclude that your
actions are representative of your party.
I have never understood the disclaimer many
politicians, or public figures, use on their social media accounts.
It is the real world equivalent of masturbating in public while
shouting, “Please don’t tell the boss!”
When you are a public servant representing others
and you choose to open a social media account, whatever you say and
do on there will be held to very close public scrutiny, and
rightly so! If you don’t like it, get out of politics or off social
media. Simple really!
Let me put it another way. Imagine Gareth Cole had
a column in the Belfast Telegraph and published half of what he has
published on his Twitter timeline through the newspaper. Would he
still be as openly defended by his PUP colleagues? Would he still be
a candidate for Carrickfergus? Would he even still be a PUP member?
Would he even make it to print?
I suppose my overall annoyance with Gareth Cole is
in the fact that he will go on the canvassing trail soon doing the
whole door to door thing. What Gareth will show up on your doorstep
that day? Will it be the Gareth that will claim to bring jobs,
security, rejuvenation, and all sorts of wonderful things to all the
good people of Carrickfergus? Or will it be the Gareth that will
absolutely do feck all for any Republicans, posts photos of Anna Lo
with the headline, “Tiocfaidh Ar LO”, always ready to stir
anger and hate towards Nationalist communities, and will be only too
happy to put a Union flag up on your nearest available lamp post?
The later Gareth is unlikely to produce itself in
the real world, though I would have so much respect for him as a
person if he did deliver the true version of himself. No, I am sure
it will be the aforementioned fictional Gareth knocking on doors with
a wonderfully bright innocent smile.
Damn shame that he is even still being put forward
as a credible candidate …
Bigger shame that his party and colleagues cannot
comprehend the damage he is doing them all …
I had dozens of messages from young men and women
from, what they described as, working class Loyalist communities
across Northern Ireland thanking me for my words and wishing that
they could put in to words also how they were feeling. They wanted to
be able to tell people it’s not all about flags and marches in
those communities and that they wanted more.
This is what angers me more than anything! How is
it even possible that these young people feel that they have no
voice? How the hell are the people charged with giving these people a
voice not being held to account for an unacceptable failure of their
duties? Because they do not rally behind flags and protests they are
of no worth?
Despicable! No excuses or apology can even begin
to fathom it.
The only thing I can say is to any young (or
older) person left to feel abandoned by those that call themselves
(and clearly not fit to be) political representatives, is that you
have the loudest and greatest voice of all; your vote!
Don’t vote for any of them. If anyone has put
flags and marches to the fore of any of the real issues that
genuinely affect you, vote for none of them! Vote for a party that is
prepared to tackle the things that matter to you.
Better yet, why not vote for a party where their
political policy is all inclusive? Try voting for a party the works
for you irrespective of whether you or your community is
predominantly Catholic or Protestant. There is nothing to fear and
everything to gain by breaking the mould of an unspoken political
staple in Northern Ireland of voting based on religion, not policy.
You can make a positive change if you become the
change that you want! There is no better time than now!
Most parties are holding voter registration
sessions across the province. If you are not registered then do get
yourself registered. If you choose to register through a session held
by any particular party do not feel you are then obligated to vote
for that same party. You are not. Your vote is between you and the
ballot box, no one else.
Please do not feel any pressure or intimidation to
vote for a party that puts you and your needs second.
I will respond to each and every one of those
people individually that have contacted me with concerns and
expressed a desire to be heard. And if any of those people do have
something to say I am more than happy to give a platform through my
blog.
In closing my blog yesterday I alluded to a point
that the PUP, DUP, and UUP are all chasing the same vote. I have been
asked by a few to explain and expand on the point, so I will.
The catalyst for my blog was that News
Letter article. It was a confirmation that PUP had become as hard
line as the DUP and UUP has ever been in order to scoop up the
support of the more “extremist” voter.
So is it any surprise that the DUP and UUP have
not criticised Billy Hutchinson’s comments? After all, any derision
of Billy’s views would be a derision of the voters they are so keen
to keep under their wing.
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| Billy Hutchinson "killing catholics justified" comments gnored by the DUP and PUP |
I think it is a given that both DUP and UUP (and
PUP) see the Alliance as the single biggest threat to them, or more
specifically they see Anna Lo as the one that can potentially turn
the tide. They have proven that well in recent days.
The political crucifixion from loyalists of Anna
Lo for making innocuous comments about a united Ireland and
describing Northern Ireland as a colony, while comments about
murdering Catholics goes unchallenged, is appalling!
How does that even happen? How can anyone’s
sensibilities determine that describing a country as colonial is
disgusting and offensive, and yet someone justifying murder is just a
bit “meh!”
 |
| Anna Lo. She has views. It's a disgrase! |
It is a vulgar and crass political game which the
DUP and UUP have been playing for decades. It would be easier if
either, or both, just used the campaign strapline, “Say No to
Lo, say “meh” to murder”.
The PUP have also tried to play the game but
haven’t the wit nor experience to play it well. Very cleverly, DUP
and UUP have sat back and allowed PUP to get the hard line all wound
up over flags, OTRs, parading, and let the continued UVF
affiliation and Hutchinson comments slide so as not to “offend”
those hard liners.
You can then be sure that when the time is right,
both the DUP and UUP will come out swinging and exasperating that a
PUP vote will weaken the Unionist vote overall. And with the PUP
doing all the donkey work and getting their hands (and reputations)
dirty to put fire in the belly of those that can’t see past the end
of their flag pole, the hard liners will vote as they have always
done for fear that there might not be anyone to shout about their
flags.
Together with the ridiculous assertions on Anna Lo
and the Alliance intention to unify Ireland, they will also effort to
swing back the moderate Unionist to voting DUP/UUP having not had to
spout a single word on extremism, while the PUP have no chance of
getting the moderate because of their blind embracement of
extremism.
Game over, and the death of the PUP.
But how did Anna Lo become such a threat to the
Loyalist parties? The irony is the UUP, DUP, and PUP created the
threat themselves.
As you all are no doubt familiar, Anna Lo made
some comments about flags and murals some time ago which provoked the
most ludicrous reaction from the loyalist parties. But the
condemnation then transformed in to a much uglier beast. The racist
abuse that Anna Lo received was horrific! And not one loyalist
politician (that I am aware of) could bring themselves to condemn it
unreservedly without getting the wee sly dig in about her thoughts on
murals and flags.
Deplorable!
The outpouring of support for Anna from the
majority of people in Northern Ireland was incredible, and rightly
so! And at that point it became all too evident that the failure of
DUP/UUP/PUP to respond to the racial abuse with any kind of dignity
was losing them the moderate.
And now, despite Anna getting continued abuse
online and off from loyalists for her mural and flag comments, our
political leaders in the loyalist world still continue to portray her
as the single biggest threat to the Union to claw back the moderates
they failed to retain.
And that my friends is why the DUP and UUP have
taken a deplorable tact to avoid addressing the Hutchinson
comments on the murder of innocent Catholics. I am running out of
negative superlatives in these past days to describe these poor
excuses for leaders.
So remember boys and girls, a vote for DUP/UUP/PUP is a vote for racism,
flags, and ignorance of murder to keep the Union intact and keep the
flag flying all year around. Your health, education, social well-being,
etc, they might get round to at some point.
I have been asked opinion on some other things;
murals, parades, dealing with the past, looking to the future, and a
host of other things. I am not sure that my opinion or thoughts would
be any more interesting or relevant than the next persons. But the
engagement from people empathising and relating to what I have
written so far has been humbling.
So I will, over the course of the coming days and
weeks, share some of those opinions and look forward to engaging some
more on the real issue that affect every single one of us.
#TimeForChange
USED WITH VERY KIND PERMISSION AND ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE