A Tangled Web

Dirty Dealing on Belfast City Council



Tom Ekin, Alliance councillor for Belfast's Balmoral ward, has just been elected Lord Mayor of that city. Notwithstanding the fact that a Unionist councillor has not occupied the mayoralty for two years, the Alliance block on the council conspired with the representatives of Irish separatism to ensure that Ekin would be elected, and that a proxy of insurrectionist terror - in the form of Sinn Fein councillor, Joe O'Donnell - would occupy the Deputy Mayor's post.



Irish separatists are quick to preach the merits of power sharing when they are at an electoral disadvantage. Such sentiments soon dissipate once they hold the whip hand. We can only hope that this unseemly pact will cost the Alliance Party dear at the polls in future elections.