A Tangled Web

Unionist Unity? Only for the Right Reasons



Today's Belfast Telegraph makes an impassioned plea for the two tribes of Unionism to come together and agree a common strategy for the forthcoming talks scheduled for September. I am all for encouraging Unionist unity, but only to develop a common strategy which will hasten the end of the Belfast Agreement, not attune its implementation.

Notwithstanding the reassurances I have had from various quarters, my gut instinct is that there is sufficient power hunger in the DUP to drive it towards a deal with Irish fascism in the near future. What is the point of Unionist parties coming together if it is only to agree on certain modalities which will, ultimately, weaken the very Union they claim to defend? As Kent Orangeman, Christopher Luke, argues, it is the institutional framework of the Agreement, not the modus operandi of Unionist consensus on its final implementation, which holds the real danger for the pro-Union electorate.