There’s a lot you could say about the results of the European elections in Northern Ireland this week. My finger was well and truly off the pulse, to the point that we didn’t vote in our house. We forgot.
The big news was the biggest electoral loss for the DUP in something like 30 years. Maybe people just don’t like this ‘couples in politics’ thing that’s going on in the DUP – Peter and Iris, Nigel and Diane. Maybe people just don’t rate Diane Dodds. From what I’ve seen of her, there’s something distasteful that I can’t put my finger on. I thought Peter Robinson did a reasonable job of taking the defeat on the chin, even if his “we’re too busy running the country to campaign” line was a bit of a stretch.
Unionism was apparently divided and weakened, according to Jeffrey Donaldson. Jim Allister tried to spin his gain in votes as a trend toward traditional Unionism and a rejection of Unionist politicians going into government with terrorists. I find all this anti-agreement bullshit terribly yawnsome though – does Allister really suggest we go back to the old way of doing politics, freezing out Sinn Fein and marginalising communities all over again? I know what we’ve got at the moment isn’t perfect, but it’s leaps ahead of where we were at even a few years ago.
Besides, Bairbre De Brun’s results would suggest that there’s a substantial portion of Northern Ireland who are happy to have their favourite terrorists in government. I wonder how Jim Allister sees that in terms of his mandate. I also wonder if his definition of criminality will extend to Ian Paisley Jr’s ongoing efforts to keep a source under wraps?
Anyway, on to Nationalism. There’s not much to vote for if you’re of that persuasion, is there? You either vote for Gerry’s all-powerful cabal, or you vote for the tired old boys in the SDLP. And God love ‘em, I couldn’t stick with the SDLP while they tried to finish a sentence. They’ve been on the back foot for far too long, nobody has a good word to say about them.
The one thing that hasn’t changed in Northern Ireland since any other election is that I don’t identify with any of the parties. In fact, other than the handy colour-coded election posters, I haven’t got a clue what any of them stand for. I wonder how many people actually do?
(Apologies for the rambling and probably factually incorrect post…I’m a little rusty on the politics front. These are just some random thoughts from watching the news the other night. Do check out the wonderful Alan In Belfast for far better coverage. And Slugger. Obviously.)