To not get the hysteria over the DUP?

[dingit]

Cropping up on Facebook statuses today, photos with rainbows to stand against them.
I admit until last week I knew nothing about them. A quick look at their website does not show them to be homophobic, racist etc. And surely Teresa May has bigger worries than LGBT rights? They have 10 seats!
I'm not posting to be goady, I genuinely don't get it?

Oops sorry for derailing the thread to double carbs!

It is a faint and feeble wish that the daft spirit of Tayto can conquer tribalism.
I know that sounds trivial and stupid and I certainly do not wish to minimise the suffering and hurt that murderous tribalism has caused.

They are SECTARIAN and intolerant of those with political / religious / cultural differences. They behave with arrogance and superiority. They behave like NI is 'Protestant state for a Protestant people' and they are corrupt to the core.
Google RHI scandal, iris robinson and her comments about sodomy. Sammy Wilson etc. Gregory Campbell is the worst. His comments would lead you to believe that he sees Catholics as 2nd class citizens. Still!!!! Jim wells... I could go on all day.
They are a bunch of fucking cunts.

Me writer I also hoped for a sdlp/uup partnership. I wouldn't dream of voting Sinn Fein

And sausage roll baps with butter and red sauce are fucking awesome

The DUP have the highest no. of seats and the biggest % of votes (although just) in NI. Lots of people agree with them and who are we to tell other people what to think. That said, I don't want their beliefs influencing our policies.

Personally 2 difficult women was enough for this country, now we have 3.

Let's put it this way, as long as the Conservatives are shacked up with that lot of Neantherdals I will not vote for them.
The sooner the people of this country do a bit of research into the history of DUP the better.
And just look at Arlene's behaviour in the recent debacle over the water issue.Not nice.

Someone away back further up the thread said that the DUP were not democratically elected. What was meant by that? Is it just that people in the rest of the UK can't vote for them? Because that would apply to the SNP and Plaid Cymru as well. And the Labour party and Lib Dems don't have candidates in N Ireland, and until recently neither did the Tories.

The DUP are unpalatable but they've been elected just like every other MP in the House of Commons.

And also, someone posted a link to the tragic news story about Savita Hallapanavar but that didn't happen in N Ireland, and whilst the abortion laws here are very strict, my understanding is that she would have been allowed to end the pregnancy here in her circumstances, because she was in danger.

I'm not a DUP voter and I don't like them, but I just wanted to mention those two things as I think they are relevant.

@treaclesoda I don't believe she would have got an abortion in NI either - they didn't identify that there was a risk to the life of the mother at the time, only that the baby wouldn't survive and miscarriage was inevitable.

I was in the same situation in NI and had to just wait until the heartbeat eventually stopped before I was allowed a ERPC. It took 4 weeks.

ffsnotthisagain I think anyone who wants to list the many transgressions of the DUP should list beside them the many transgressions of Sinn Fein.

Arlene Foster has never been affiliated with any terrorist organisation just for the record. She hasn't murdered or sanctioned the murder of anyone. You can't just lambaste one side without considering whether it is possible to vote in good conscience for the alternative.

Politics in NI is infinitely complicated, and very few would ever want a return to how things were, but the reality is that roughly half the population believes NI should be united with Ireland and the other believe it is, as it is currently designated, a part of the UK. As others have said people who vote for the more extreme parties are rarely voting because they support their policies, they are voting on the core issue of where they want their union to be, Ireland or UK.

...as I said earlier on this thread:

maybe look at the stance on abortion of all the churches and other political parties in NI and not just restrict yourself to complaining about the DUP. Have a look at the abortion laws in the Republic of Ireland.

How about other than being outraged you do something about it... as women all over Ireland have been trying to for years without a lot of support or interest.

www.abortionrightscampaign.ie/

Quite right Eve.

Politics in NI is infinitely complicated, and very few would ever want a return to how things were, but the reality is that roughly half the population believes NI should be united with Ireland and the other believe it is, as it is currently designated, a part of the UK. As others have said people who vote for the more extreme parties are rarely voting because they support their policies, they are voting on the core issue of where they want their union to be, Ireland or UK

and it looks like Scotland is heading in a similar direction, except that the Unionist vote is a bit more split (I guess a bit of the SNP vote goes to the Scottish Greens, too). And between (much) less extreme parties.

I'm afraid you don't quite get it (which is fair enough, I think unless you live here it IS hard to understand why people vote for such dinosaurs)

You're right. I really don't understand. Although I think segregated schools need to become a thing of the past (and I don't favour faith schools in the rest of the UK, either).

And in particular why the DUP and Sinn Fein? And not the UUP and SDLP? What I really don't get is why the vote has become so polarised, it wasn't this polarised at the height of the Troubles.

I think anyone who wants to list the many transgressions of the DUP should list beside them the many transgressions of Sinn Fein.

Why? Both sides are murderous arseholes. Just because Sinn Fein are a bunch of pricks doesn't make the DUP any less so.

You can't just lambaste one side without considering whether it is possible to vote in good conscience for the alternative

The alternative to voting DUP is not SF. No one is forcing the people of NI to vote for terrorist affiliated parties. There's the UUP, the Alliance Party and the SDLP. They cover off both nationalist and unionist view points.

If you choose to vote for the DUP then you are voting for gay bashing, women hating, terrorist sympathisers. People who do that need to own it, not dress it up with 'oh, but you don't understand, I had no choice'. Of course you do.

Mulled, seriously, Scotland is not like NI - footie issues notwithstanding. I would guard against persisting with the analogy.

"What I really don't get is why the vote has become so polarised, it wasn't this polarised at the height of the Troubles." Again, mulled ... seriously?

mulled you clearly don't want to see the reality of the situation. The reason it has become so polarised has been explained many many times.

Laurie given the degree of knowledge of NI politics I think painting the DUP as "murderous arseholes" and failing to mention that Martin McGuiness was an actual leader of a terrorist organisation might be viewed as a little disingenuous by some. Though I have never personally and would never personally vote for either party.

Sycamore I'm afraid that's just patently untrue. Arlene Foster met with a senior UDA leader just a few weeks ago. I'm not defending Sinn Fein - far from it - but it's disingenuous to suggest that the DUP don't have paramilitary connections.

Laurie Well said, and I completely agree, but I do think it's important that the outside world understands why someone might vote DUP even though they don't support their policies on LGBT rights or abortion.

Everyone knows Sinn fein have an equally dodgy history. They used to be called the political wing of the the IRA.
But this thread isn't really about Sinn fein as they are not in discussion with TM at the moment. Thus potentially threatening peace in NI.

Peachgreen, did she? Urgh. This just stinks even more.

And, just to remind you, Sinn Fein fuckers would get sniffy whenever they were called the political wing of the IRA. At least with British based media. Maybe they couldn't brass neck that lie in NI.

Mulledwine1 - I posted this yesterday on what seems like lots of threads

I don't vote for the SDLP and haven't for some years - I don't vote for them because of their stance on abortion. They would give the DUP a run for their money on their desire to limit women's rights. No one in my family votes for the SDLP anymore and we were brought up in a very SDLP proud household,my dad had something in his eye cried when Seamus Mallon won his seat in 1986 from Jim Nicholson. All our votes went to Sinn Fein, the odd one to Alliance and People Before Profit. I've daughters, nieces, sisters - the right to an abortion is the main issue when I decide who to vote for.

In the space of twenty years - the SDLP have lost all their votes from my family - this has been repeated over and over again among people I know.

@peachgreen I'm so sorry you went through that. My apologies for getting it wrong - I remember it being discussed at the time and a lot of 'you can't compare the situations, that wouldn't happen in N Ireland' and I suppose I naively took it at face value.

peachgreen - I think you are accidentally suggesting that AF met with a senior UDA leader to sanction some kind of paramilitary action. I find it difficult to believe people place AF meeting anyone in the same category as Martin mcGuinness and his past. I don't support either party, but I genuinely don't believe that she has blood on her hands.

I wish as much as anyone that Northern Ireland could be lead by people whose principles exceeded those of either of the current parties, but I have no answer on that front.

Syc The IRA are also murderous arseholes and I've been clear about that. However, I don't need to say that every time I say the DUP are murderous arseholes. Both sides are repugnant.

The wrongness of one side does not in any way justify or diminish the wrongness of the other.

The people of NI (on both sides) are comfortable voting for parties that are terrorist affiliated and have disgraceful records on human rights issues. I don't buy the 'but you don't understand' argument.
They have alternatives and they still choose to do this, that's the sad truth.

I'm from NI myself and heartily ashamed of it.