Jeff Peel's Diary

I recently engaged in a bit of an email spat (I’m like that) with Jeffrey Donaldson.  Apparently he’s my MP – but I’d like to make clear, here, that I didn’t vote for him.

I wrote to ask him why he had threatened a Norn Iron constitutional crisis if the government attempted to extend the 1967 Abortion Act to here.  The point I wanted to make was that he was hiding his head in the sand.  The Act applies and doesn’t apply here.  It applies to the extent that women from here can legally obtain abortions if they travel to England.  It doesn’t apply in that they can’t have abortions performed in local hospitals.  I wanted to know why he’d thrown his toys out of the pram – and I made the point that the decision (relating to the extension of the Act) should have been taken in our mother parliament. 

But that’s not really the point of my story.  I just wanted to draw the attention of my readers to the opening paragraph of his response.  It read as follows:

“It is good to see you return to your traditional battlefield, that of taking issue with Christian politicians!  As a well known and leading atheist, I suppose I needn’t expect you to understand the strong viewpoint that Christian politicians bring to the political process.”

Hmm.  Now consider this for a moment.  Mr Donaldson, faced with a rabid Atheist (yours truly) now describes himself as a Christian.  I presume that means that he is at one with the motley collection of “Christians” that pack the corridors of Stormont.  Does he include Catholics in his definition of Christians – or are they more, kinda, anti-Christians? 

But let’s ignore that for a second and concentrate on the whole Christian politicians thing.  It’s creepy.  That’s what it is.  Creepy.  The whole idea that a politician defines himself as a Christian politician.  It reeks of democracy with some type of agenda.  Politics defined without free thought.  Politics operating within the vacuum of a doctrinally closed mind. 

Northern Ireland is choc full of “Christian politicians”.  Even the ones who aren’t Christian would be afraid to say so.  And yet this is a society that has no real public discourse about real ethical issues.  Christian politicians refuse to even discuss the fact that our society collectively looks at its shoes when the discussion focuses on issues of unplanned/teenage pregnacy, sexual health issues and abortion.  Christian politicians are everywhere but there is a scant amount of human decency and tolerance on show. 

We need to wake up, as a society, to the fact that we need politicians who do not delimit their thinking with a doctrinally defined set of protocols.  Give me a politician over a Christian/Muslim or Zeus-worshipping politician any day.  Politicians are elected to represent us and to think about stuff – to reach conclusions based on rationality, judgement and fairness.  They should leave the baggage at home.

Mark Devenport has rightly pointed out that Jim Nicholson has adopted “Conservatives and Unionists” as his short-hand campaigning name – suggesting that UCU:NF may want to distance itself from other New Forces in other parts of Europe. 

Get a load of the Italian version.  That’d go down a treat with Jim’s core farming vote…

New Force (Forza Nuova, FN) is an Italian far right political party, often described as fascist.  Founded by Roberto Fiore and Massimo Morsello, and supporting the ideas of Julius Evola, the party is a member of the European National Front and was a part of the Social Alternative from 2003 to 2006….publishing fascist propaganda and using Celtic crosses as a political symbol.  The party’s ideology has strong roots in traditionalist Roman Catholicism.  (Wikipedia)