A Tangled Web

DUP Dirty Dealing?



Speculation over the apparent willingness of the Democratic Unionist Party to facilitate a deal with Sinn Fein/IRA is now reaching fever pitch. Brian Rowan, of BBC Northern Ireland, adds his 'two penny'orth' on the prospect of this possible 'deal of all deals'. He claims any agreement would not only involve 'substantial movement' from republicans (in other words, deceitful manoeuvrings with only a tad less secrecy than before) but also significant concessions from: 'all the main players in the process.'



How does such political punditry translate into layman's English? Well, put simply, it is indicative of a future course of events of major asymmetrical proportions. Sinn Fein/IRA will make their usual nugatory gestures which will be hyper-inflated by a gullible, compliant media puppeteered by government spin doctors. The question of Army deployment will then be given moral equivalence with the recindment of IRA killers when the government 'reciprocates' with demilitarisation. The DUP, meanwhile, chortling victory from the rooftops, will have the chance to prove to the world that the political careers of its assembly members will be elevated above the common defence of the Union.



I sincerely hope I'm wrong. As David Vance has said, there is still a big 'if' hanging over all of this. However, should the DUP sign a deal of Faustian magnitude, they deserve to be punished in exactly the same way as Trimble was by the Unionist people. Pro-Union voters did not annihilate the UUP to find themselves blessed with a Mark 2 incarnation.