I admire David Cameron. I re-joined the Conservative Party when David became leader. On every occasion I have met him he has shown a wonderful insight into Northern Ireland’s political problem – namely a political system that is defined on the basis of religion and constitutional division. And he is correct that the constitutional business is done. This article in the News Letter articulates his view well.
Unfortunately, however, we still have political parties that are defined on the basis of religion. Their social policy positions are defined by a religious world-view. The DUP is a fundamentalist Christian Party. So much so that Gregory Campbell was unable to answer a silly end-of-show question on Let’s Talk posed by a WI Member i.e. did he prefer money or sex? He declined to answer. Such is the DUP’s hang-ups about sex, religion, and changing ethics, that the answers to silly, and not so silly, questions are always deferred.
We need to replace the politics of constitution, nationalism and religion with the centre left/right system of the United Kingdom.
It is for this reason that David Cameron is right that Conservatives must contest every seat in Northern Ireland. Because the issue is not about Unionism. It’s not even essential that a maximum number of “Unionists” are returned. Rather, David is right because contesting every seat brings a little bit of real, national politics to every contest. By having Conservative candidates contest each seat we are saying to the electorate that the Conservative Party wants to break, forever, the sectarian basis of our political system and replace it with an essentially secular form of UK politics.
The key question to ask, of course, is whether the candidates will adequately reflect this ambition. The joint committee has an important part to play in ensuring that sectarian candidates are not selected.
Moreover the UUP can show that it understands the political imperative and does not put forward candidates from the Orange wing of its Party.
I think the point is that the Ulster Unionist Party has broken its links with the Orange Order and what I’m trying to do with the UUP is not look backwards, but look forwards and say we can build a new force in Northern Ireland…which can attract people irrespective of which church they go to or how they worship God or which part of the community they come from. David Cameron
Recent Comments