A Tangled Web

EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW - THE PAISLEY LETTERS.



Here it is folks, as promised and exclusive to ATW readers..soon to be appearing in the Newsletter...



Dear Sir,



With the Stormont Assembly deep frozen and our handsomely paid MLA’s at somewhat of a loose end, I was not entirely surprised to see Ian Paisley Jnr respond with alacrity to my recent comments in these pages. However, given the ad hominem nature of some of his comments (Letters, Page August 18th) I would be obliged if you would permit me to correct his more extravagant claims.



Whether the DUP will make the same mistake as the UUP by facilitating the IRA’s propagandists into Executive power time will tell, but it is a fact that DUP Deputy Leader Peter Robinson has declared this past week that his Party could work with Sinn Fein/IRA “in the right context”. Indeed under the “Devolution Now” blueprint, the DUP appears positively eager to embrace the return of devolution to an Assembly Chamber packed with an unrepentant fully-armed Sinn Fein/IRA. Is it too unkind for me to point these details out? Has electoral success insulated the DUP from the idea that its policies may be critically examined?



Mr. Paisley then suggests that the BBC runs “manufactured” stories. It strikes me that attacking the professional standards of local journalists is hardly the most “nuanced” approach from the North Antrim DUP man. The media has a duty to challenge the political class here and it is a sign of a healthy democracy when politician’s words are not treated like holy writ!



Mr. Paisley apparently feels he would not benefit from hearing the sage advice of philosophers. More modest men might believe that one can always learn from others. However in deference to Mr. Paisley’s views on this matter may I finish with a quotation much closer to home with which I fully agree but which seems oddly discordant with current DUP mood music; “David Trimble's credibility collapsed when he sat down at the table with Sinn Fein before decommissioning and any weapons surrender." The speaker, of course, was Ian Paisley Senior, DUP Leader.



As the DUP prepares to sit down next month around the table to discuss how to share power with Sinn Fein (in the right context) before IRA decommissioning and any weapon surrender, I can’t help but wonder if this will be the first time that a political party decides not to take it’s own advice?



Yours Sincerely,



David Vance

Donacloney