Ben Archibald is a Cameron Tory from Bangor. He lives in Dublin and writes on the threats and opportunities to the Conservative Party.Unionism in Northern Ireland now faces an unravelling crisis which endangers the peace and stability of the whole country. I place the blame squarely on the games players within the DUP and the Alliance Party, but blame is secondary. As ever in the clusterbang that is Northern Ireland’s politics, the one question nobody appears to have the sense to ask properly is ‘Cui Bono?’- who stands to gain? (although ‘Cui Prodest?’ is perhaps a more amusing construction)
Our nationality and national identity is not materially affected by the flying of a flag. When the Argentine marines hoisted their flag at Stanley, it did not make the Falkland Islanders Argentinian. On designated days when the Union Flag is hoisted over PSNI stations, it does not make the constables therein more British. At the going down of the sun and the playing of Taps, America does not become less American.
Who gains from British people behaving un-Britishly?
A) Sinn Féin – Definitely
If I was a Sinn Féin member, I would be rather amused by the whole spectacle. Not only have the huns lost their flag, but they’re now running around smashing up the place and splitting the previously solid support for the DUP. It’s likely that in some peripheral wards their vote will split and the seeds of Unionist electoral minority will be sown.
B) Dissidents – Definitely
If I was a dissident republican, I would see the opportunity to ‘defend my community’ and gather membership to be indoctrinated into the hate which makes it easy to kill and maim.
C) Alliance – Probably Not
If I was an Alliance Party member, I might see the opportunity to consolidate in East Belfast – but hopefully the people there will see their hand in the crisis for what it was – a bumbling, incoherent failure to foresee an obvious (but stupid) outcome of siding with the nationalist and republicans on the City Council. Far from being even-handed and sensible, this was Alliance playing kingmaker in City Hall – whether they were right or wrong, they should have been able to work out the likely outcome.
D) UUP – Definitely Not
If I was a member of the UUP, I’d probably pack up and go home. By allying with the DUP, they’ve lost the wriggle room to back off from the position they’ve taken. With the exception of, to a certain extent, Basil McCrea, they have not covered themselves in glory in this dispute.
E) DUP – Definitely Not
If I was a member of the DUP, I would probably have to look back at my notes to work out why I’d moved my Knight rather than my Rook, and why nobody on Facebook had told me to concentrate on the Realpolitik rather than getting the designers in to make a pretty red, white and blue logo to keep the flag flying. By making the flag a do-or-die matter, they deserved a fail.
But I’m none of these – I’m a Conservative who dreams of a politics where those who claim to love my country don’t hand every conceivable advantage to the enemies of it. I dream of a politics where someone in addition to the Secretary of State has the fortitude to stand up and say ‘I like the flag, but I like peace, security, the rule of law and mutual respect a whole lot more – and by the way, stop smashing up the place and trying to set fire to the police’.
Democracy has been done – the representatives of the people in City Hall have voted, and they have decided on designated days. I have no confidence in the leadership of the DUP, the UUP or the Alliance Party to effectively engage in a way likely to bring about peace and justice in Belfast.
When I’m in Belfast I know where I am. I see the history of the place, the peculiarly British Irishness (or Irish Britishness) of the city all around me, and I know that the city is part of the United Kingdom. I know it will be until a day (which will likely never come) when the people of Northern Ireland decide otherwise. Never once have I had to look up to the front of City Hall to identify the country I was in. That we’re being led into an existential crisis by people who rely so heavily on eighteen square feet of cloth to affirm their national identity is a deeply upsetting thing.
9 comments
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Sammy McNally
January 7, 2013 at 10:29 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
re. “I place the blame squarely on the games players within the DUP and the Alliance Party”
One other group which may be impacted upon by this carry on with the flags and its aftermath is the Tory party. The quote above, blaming the Alliance party, in so far as it reflects Tory party thinking may well have the potential to increase the Tory vote in Unionist areas.
Perhaps you could confirm if this is the official Tory party position on the matter?
boondock
January 7, 2013 at 8:18 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I cant see how the Alliance should get any blame unless you are suggesting they voted against their own party policy just so that the mob didnt then trash the place.The blame lies squarely with the unionist parties for not having the wit to see this coming. Every nationalist controlled council has no flag so why would Belfast be any different. At the last election the unionist parties got 33% of the vote in Belfast. 33%!!!! you think the politicians might have prepared the people for what was likely to happen instead of lying and continuing to lie to them and pretend that by some magic force the flag will be back up all year round soon.
Ben Archibald
January 7, 2013 at 9:27 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Sammy – I can’t confirm that, since I am no longer a party officer. If people of commonsense see that the Alliance isn’t quite the intellectually engaged party of peace and evenhandedness they seek to portray, then their natural home certainly isn’t the UUP anymore.
Boondock – I agree with designated days. I agree the DUP should have prepared their community. Now they don’t have one.
Sammy McNally
January 8, 2013 at 12:38 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Ben,
What is most surprising is that a moderate Unionists(if I can be so presumptuous as to refer to you as that) would seek to at least partly blame the Alliance Party for the very vicious attacks (in the physical and political sense) that have been carried out on the Alliance Party in the name of ‘Unionism’.
From what I can tell your views seem to be largely in line with ‘moderate Unionism’ in general (in so far as such a thing either exists or can be identified) and are not shared by the Tory party(mainland) – or we would all be heading back into the violent past at a rate of knots.
Has the Tory party (Northern Ireland) given it tuppence worth on the flags malarkey?
Open Unionism
January 8, 2013 at 7:17 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Sammy,
The NI Conservatives and the TUV are the two N.irish parties kind enough to send us their press releases.
As you can see from the Conservatives’ feed (http://www.niconservatives.com/news) Trevor Ringland in particular has been quite forthright in his condemnation.
Sammy McNally
January 9, 2013 at 12:37 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Good statement by Trev no whiff of equivocation or trying to shift the blame on to some of the victims(Alliance).
James
January 15, 2013 at 8:48 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
You of all people can’t be allowed to make that argument. 30 years of IRA Violence seems appropriate to blame on it’s victims after all
Bangordub
January 8, 2013 at 11:41 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I have to agree with Boondock above. The DUP and UUP now have an almighty job ahead of them if they are to reclaim the working class Unionist vote convincingly. If any message has come out of this it is the alienation of this demographic from the democratic process. I fail to see how Conservatives will in any way benefit from this.
Sammy McNally
January 9, 2013 at 12:41 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
BD, having read the statement linked above by Trev I tend to agree. The only possible beneift for the Tories is that they may attract (and split) the ‘moderate’ unionist vote by being sensible and moderate. This may have the effect of taking votes away from the under siege Alliance party( in middle class areas) who will probably now lose East Belfast.