Horrified by the prospect of a deal with the DUP

[MrsFogi]

Just that really - I can't believe we may have a government propped up by a party with such a backward stance on reproductive rights. I will be doing all I can over the coming days to raise awareness of everyone around me about the DUP's stance on this and other issues and the risk to the Stormont talks. Interesting video

Someone said to me to say that things could be worse, it would have been a Tory victory. I tried to explain the problems with the DUP and his eyes just glazed over.
So in one way that was useful; I now know he thinks those problems are womens problems and therefore irrelevant.

Try having them as your local MPs!

"Try having them as your local MPs!"

They're voted in.....by their electorate. This is extremely condescending to the NI people. The law in NI mirrors quite closely the law in the ROI. Its something they feel strongly about and have the right to decide themselves.

Its this sort of demand for interferance from Westminster, that will cause absolute chaos. Leave the NI people with their right to decide. They are equally as free to vote against it as they are for.

I don't know a single person who doesn't think the DUP are a disgusting bunch of ....

I'm not sure what you mean carolines. I am from ni, these idiots are my MPs.

I genuinely do not believe that a significant proportion of their voters care about their stance on reproductive rights or gay marriage. It's a simple vote for a lot of them, green or orange and they don't think beyond that to the policies of the party they have voted for. Many dup voters who I know when you actually talk to them about these issues dont agree with the party's stance, but just don't want the other side to get in.

I know its only an example but when they were canvassing in my area, they weren't able to answer a single question on their manifesto and when challenged couldn't escape quickly enough. They may as well just have handed out leaflets that said if you are Protestant vote for us because it was all they were interested in. And in other areas local to me, the word that was being spread by local paramilitary influences was that a vote for the alliance party was traitorous to the union.

It's not great, is it?

Ruth Davidson has already expressed her concern.

It's really worrying. It's also difficult to express that worry, because you're immediately told that you don't understand NI politics, and you're a massive hypocrite for only having an opinion on them now.

I'm a Scot, so I do get how irritating it is to feel like your country's politics is broadly ignored by the majority, until it suddenly isn't, and then everyone's a wikipedia expert. Conversely, though, I also understand that it can be difficult to get involved in an issue when it doesn't directly affect you - and I think people do feel that these misogynistic dinosaurs are now able to wield more power over more of the population, and that surely is a worry.

I just would like to know what deal DUP went for. In fairness I don't think, beyond the ethics of it, it will have any impact in GB but for NI, they may have used their leverage with May to reinforce their position on samesex marriage, abortion, etc. In NI. This would greatly impact the rights of people here for years to come. Hopefully they just went for money, though probably that would still be used to line the pockets of DUP cronies. Time will tell.

My hope is young people will save us again. When I heard I was appalled but not surprised I know who the DUP are and know the Tories have done deals with therm before.

I hope, I really hope when all these young voters realise exactly what the DUP stand for the Tories will be swamped with even more revulsion.

Its this sort of demand for interferance (sic) from Westminster, that will cause absolute chaos. Leave the NI people with their right to decide.

Nobody has said that people in NI are not allowed to vote for whichever batshit new earth creationist takes their fancy, or that they can't vote for a party who wants the GFA torn up or even that they have to offer women the same level of healthcare as other women in the UK, while still collecting their NI contributions.

What people are horrified about is that, in getting into bed with a party that holds those views, May appears to be legitimising them and giving them credence, which must be very disappointing for NI women and LGB folk.

The law in NI mirrors quite closely the law in the ROI. Its something they feel strongly about and have the right to decide themselves.

And when the 8th is repealed in RoI, what then? Far more people in RoI are pro-choice than anti now, same sex marriage is legal in RoI and while things are still far from perfect in RoI for LGB people, it's a lot lot better there than in NI right now.

What is quite interesting though Caroline, is the depths to which the Tories are prepared to stoop to shore up their crumbling power base. The whole of the smear campaign of the Labour leadership was about their links to paramilitary terrorists in NI, and yet all that is forgotten when May needs to get into bed with politicians who have simply been allowed to obfuscate their links to gun runners and paramilitary terrorists, because they were useful to the British during the Troubles and who have been implicated in a serious corruption scandal in NI.

I also think that a lot of people on the mainland had been fooled into thinking that, because of the GFA, the militia had disbanded and everything was ok in NI. Maybe shining some daylight onto the Byzantine and sectarian workings of NI politics won't be a bad outcome for the women and LGB community there?

I think it's a good thing if it raises awareness of the shite political situation in northern Ireland. As Nyancat says- voting in ni has damn all to do with policy. Choice it very limited, and if you want to keep "themuns" out then you have to vote for te biggest protestant or Catholic party. Mainstream parties don't feature at all - there is no choice

I'm interested in what this deal with the DUP means for Brexit and the border with the Republic

Given that SF won all the border constituencies, I have no idea, but surely even the DUP understands how disastrous a hard border would be?

The DUP don't want a hard border tho do they?

This thread is worrying: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2951063-So-it-begins-Owen-Paterson-suggests-reducing-abortion-limit-to-get-DUP-support

Yes -you wonder how that will sit with the Whole ' closing our borders, keeping people out,' rhetoric of borisJohnson-- the brexiters.

In theory you can fly to Dublin and easily enter the UK right now and people in Ireland obviously cross the border for work etc

As far as I read at the time of brexit the DUP were pro brexit but with open borders, and free market access.
I'm not really sure what that means in reality but although NI brexit voting was roughly along nationalist/unionist lines I believe there was no real support for "hard brexit" and nobody wants a hard border with the RoI.

Irish passport holders have been able to travel to the UK to live and work since the creation of the free state in the 1920's. Someone from say China wouldn't be able to come to Ireland and then cross into Britain and legally work without getting a visa to work in Britain.

but surely even the DUP understands how disastrous a hard border would be?

From the little I read yesterday they want a soft Brexit and a soft border. They won't want a result which strengthens support for a united Ireland.

As far as I've read, the DUP want a soft border. Purely because anything else would lead to a massive rise in support for a unified Ireland which is exactly what they don't want. In every other respect, their opinions and morals are utterly horrific.

I like to find something positive.

Ian Paisley snr would have been overjoyed.

But how on earth would a soft border continue to work? There would have to be a hard border somewhere? Ireland wouldn't agree to that would they? It's all just madness.

"What people are horrified about is that, in getting into bed with a party that holds those views"

Weve always 'been in bed' with them. The only reason we're not 'in bed' with the SInn Fein, is their abstention from Westminster (however their position on this issue is almost identical to the DUPs).

I agree that Id be mightily pissed off that suddenly, the people of mainland UK are not only suddenly interested, but banging drums about doing something about it.

Perhaps the suggestion now is, the NI people arent able to govern themselves and need guidance from the moral majority police overseeing westminster? The OP seems to think so. Shall we send in a feminist task force?

Shall we send in a feminist task force?

Oh, don't be bloody ridiculous.

Also, try and educate yourself a bit, women and LGB groups in NI have been begging Westminster to do something about their lack of the rights guaranteed in British law for a while now, and a lot of us are far from suddenly interested unlike you, obviously, because if you had even the most passing understanding of the issues, you'd know about that. The only person who has suggested that NI are not able to govern themselves is you, and you should own that.

I'd also like to point to to the internet for a definition of "in bed with" in this context, because you've failed to comprehend that as well.

I gather the task force is gathering, if this is correct.......