WE certainly live in interesting times.
The UK General Election that was meant to usher in strong and stable government has done anything but that. Theresa May’s occupancy of 10 Downing Street increasingly seems to rely on the most bigoted and homophobic political party in the UK.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), a party born out of religious intolerance, is holding the door of 10 Downing Street ajar allowing the Tories to remain as the party of government, for the time being. However, it’s only in recent days the rest of the UK has been playing catchup with the residents of Northern Ireland and finding out exactly who the DUP are and what they stand for.
Endless Facebook posts have highlighted the DUP’s extremely close links with terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland – a position that the Tory government seem totally unfazed by. It is incredible the lack of reporting given to this fact considering the intense scrutiny and outrage over Jeremy Corbyn’s supposed very tenuous links to the IRA.
In the past two UK General Elections the Tories raised the spectre of the SNP controlling a Labour-led coalition, enticing fear in voters in England that the SNP would force our policies on the rest of the UK. Yet they are now climbing over themselves to get the DUP to sign up to some form of a deal to ensure their continued survival. An alliance with the SNP and Labour may have led to more progressive policies for the whole of the UK (after all, Corbyn’s manifesto commitments were mainly pinched from policies already enacted by the SNP Scottish Government) yet we now sit in fear that the DUP will be the tail wagging the Tory dog. The Tories never really need an excuse to push their right-wing agenda but now they could have the DUP calling the shots as the perfect excuse to carry on with their cold ideology.
Apart from their links to violence and terrorism – as if that’s not bad enough – the DUP are as right-wing as they come. Thanks to their political and religious intolerance Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK where same sex marriage is not allowed. In fact, the current DUP leader Arlene Foster even contacted the Scottish Government to oppose the promotion of equal marriage rights in Scotland. Is this the type of person you think would remain silent on UK politics if she has the power to exercise her views?
The DUP consistently oppose LGBT rights as well as being pro-life and very anti-choice for women regarding abortions, and have even gone as far as wanting to promote creationism within schools in Northern Ireland. This is not a party of free thinkers or progressive politics. The DUP make the Monster Raving Looney Party appear as a beacon of sanity on an increasingly ridiculous political spectrum.
The determination of Theresa May to retain her post as Prime Minister has even put the Good Friday Agreement in doubt. Under this agreement the UK Government is meant to be a neutral arbiter of disputes between political parties in Northern Ireland, and this would be hard to do if the Tory government forms any sort of pact with the DUP.
The devolved government of Northern Ireland is at a standstill at the moment and the threat of direct rule from Westminster via the DUP’s new political allies won’t do anything to help resolve soon-to-be-exacerbated political tensions in Northern Ireland.
The traditional Queen’s Speech to herald the policies of a new government after a General Election has already been delayed as the Tories scrabble to build a tawdry deal with the DUP. However, the recent resignation of Tim Farron as the leader of the LibDems may open up another option for the Tories. Farron was clear (well as clear as any LibDem could be) that there would be no deal with the Tories after the election. However, with him now finding it difficult to reconcile his religion with being the leader of the LibDems, a new leadership contest is due to take place and all the front-runners were previously members of the Tory-LibDem coalition. This has resulted in speculation that a new LibDem leader could open the door for talks with the Tories and the potential for a new coalition. It seems strange that the LibDems haven’t learned their lesson from the political hammering they took for being part of the previous coalition but maybe the lure of a ministerial Mondeo is too strong?
The UK voted for Brexit. Theresa May called an early election and lost it. Theresa May somehow has survived as both leader of the Tories and as Prime Minister. Labour has now overtaken the Tories in the polls despite being more than 20 points behind when Theresa May first called for a General Election. Donald Trump is President of the US.
At this stage there is so much madness in the world and there are so many rumours flying about Westminster, let’s aim to remember that just about anything is possible in the utter omnishambles that is our political system.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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