“DUP - Can’t Deal, Won’t Deal” - McFarland
Addressing a meeting in Bangor last night (26th Feb), Alan McFarland, Ulster Unionist Chief Negotiator and North Down UUP candidate, said:
“The Democratic Unionist Party is trying to paper over the massive cracks in their Party. They are pretending that there is more negotiating to be done, so that the leadership don’t have to openly admit that Ian Paisley hopes to join Martin McGuinness as First and Deputy First Minister.
Senior, life-long DUP members have left the Party and many of their candidates do not wish to share power with Sinn Fein. All DUP candidates have had to signed resignation letters. These letters are in Dr Paisley’s back pocket and, if any of his MLAs speak out in opposition after the election, they are apt to find themselves sacked! Indeed the DUP candidate that appears on the doorstep is not free, if elected, to represent their constituent’s views. They are stooges who will do their master’s bidding.
To support the DUP at this election is to support instability in any future Government here. Can you imaging Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness leading a trade delegation to the USA. Not speaking to each other, not appearing on platforms or studios together - a recipe for disaster and embarrassment for Northern Ireland.
One of the main DUP election platforms is that unionist voters have to vote for them or Sinn Fein will become the largest Party and be First Minister. How did this possibility come about, because in the first Assembly unionists had a veto on who would be in the two joint posts? We can thank the outstanding negotiating skills of the DUP, it was through them the veto was set aside. The DUP sat in the House of Commons and Lords and watched the change in legislation go through, without raising any objection. It suits them as a tool to frighten the unionist electorate into voting for them.
But the threat is nonsense. The polls show the SDLP making gains against Sinn Fein, the Republican Movement is deeply split on the issue of policing and their vote is fractured. So Sinn Fein is unlikely to be the largest Party. It would be very unhealthy for Northern Ireland to carve up its political system between two very large parties. It would prevent the emergence of proper coalitions and hinder the development of normal politics.
In the 2003 Assembly elections you will recall that the DUP had a ‘cunning plan’ but could not tell people what it was. In 2005, they promised a new, fair deal and one that excluded Sinn Fein from government. Both were ‘smoke and mirrors’. Now they are up to their old confidence tricks again, scaring people and pretending that they can bring stable government to the Province. So unstable is the DUP internally that the will not be able to deliver on their promises. ‘Can’t deal - won’t deal’. ‘Can’t deliver- won’t deliver’.