Initially, Staff at Bobballs weren’t going to look at the McNarry liberalisto thing (I thought an exasperated reply on threethousandversts was comment enough... sorry Chekov!).
But then we saw the DUP’s statement.
Now, we're not conspiracy theorists (yes, you are. Ed.) but these statements of empathy have the look of footsie. Is McNarry looking to jump to the DUP?
It goes without saying that McNarry has no genuine politics whatsoever. He’s largely an aggressive retort to media headlines and people he thinks might be (cocktail-drinking) unionist pooftahs.
So, let's dumb it down a bit (we're thinking of you David!) because the Weir statement is where the politics lies.
The DUP are happy to push out harder and harder pro-OO statements. Why? Because they know the UUP cannot follow them. The Tory deal means the UUP are definitely not a subset of the Orange Order, and that McNarry (as the OO's Deputy Grand Master) is an increasingly isolated voice within the UUP. McNarry's just the wrong fit - and the DUP are trying to show him that.
Why is he the wrong fit? Well, the Tories are desperate to avoid sectarianising their vote. They want the UUP link-up to demonstrate breadth of UK representation (so as to exploit the West Lothian question and relegate Scottish MPs .ie. Gordon Brown). They do not want this link to lead to intra-unionist deals that make some UK citizens (nationalists) feeling alienated and excluded from having a voice in Parliament (FST?).
The Tories cannot be associated with suggestions of disenfranchisement of Catholics in NI (cos that's how it'll get portrayed). And because the Tories cannot risk the damage of sectarianising their vote, they in actuality cannot tolerate people like David McNarry -because that’s what David is all about.
I think McNarry realises this too. He has no relevance inside a UUP party that is restrained from sectarian/tribal politics by the Tory party. Hence his ‘liberalisto’ speech.
I think this is the start of footsie with the DUP. We’re willing to bet that 2009 is the last year that the UUP membership roll contains the name ‘McNarry’.
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2 comments:
They should good partners buried in the past with nowhere to go.
Partly agree Anonymous - happily McNarry genuinely has nowhere go, safe to say he'll crop up every so often in The News Letter to smear the OO's territorial scent all over the politics page (uuueegh!).
The DUP on the other hand...?? It's getting interesting now - the Tory thing rules out a single unionist party.
The real meaning of the Tory relationship is that the UUP Assembly Group has to move away from the same old tribal guff eg. signing OO letters against national Ministers.
No place for a buffoon like McNarry in that. But I'm quite sure the DUP are bound to be with us for some time to come.
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