The DUP are unfit for coalition Government.

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On Thursday British voters go to the polls to elect their new government. It looks like it is going to be very tight, probably resulting in a hung parliament, with no single party getting an overall majority. Consequently, the right of center British Conservatives

(Tories), are looking around for potential partners to help them form a government. One party they are considering is the right wing DUP from northern Ireland. But there is a big problem, the DUP have a dubious past and are intolerant right wing evangelicals who are unfit for government in a pluralist democracy.

It is well known that since it’s inception the DUP, and their supporters in the Orange Order, have been hostile toward the Catholic community in northern Ireland. The DUP founder, Ian Paisley, was once evicted from the European Parliament after staging an embarrassing protest during which he claimed the Pope was the anti-Christ. And Peter Robinson, the DUP’s current leader, was convicted in an Irish court for participating in a paramilitary incident where pro-British thugs invaded a small Irish village. He was also a member of the infamous Ulster paramilitary group the Third Force, pictured here in paramilitary attire with convicted terrorist Noel Little who traded British missile secrets in return for support and weapons from the apartheid South Africa regime.

In recent years the DUP has also begun flexing it’s muscle against the LGBT community in northern Ireland. Examples include the DUP attempting to ban blood donations from gay men, while also opposing gay marriage. The DUP minister for Health at the time, Edwin Poots, wasted considerable amounts of tax payers money pursuing a legal battle over the gay blood ban, a battle he could never win. Some in the DUP ranks recently even expressed a desire to imprison members of the LGBT community; they actually want to criminalize homosexuality. That’s just Dickensian, an approach more suited to Putin’s Russia than a pluralist British democracy. But Peter Robinson has not moved against any in his party that hold such intolerant views. To the contrary, during his tenure, he has elevated “flat earthers” like Edwin Poots and the even more disgraced Jim Wells to cabinet positions. But DUP arrogance does not end there, we cannot overlook the DUP’s treatment of those in northern Ireland who enjoy the Irish language, a practice which is often perceived as a Catholic tradition in the divided streets of Ulster. They are “disrespectful and discourteous” to the parents and children learning the language, and block any act of legislation that would help protect the Irish language in in the North. Yet still no sanction from Peter Robinson against party members such as Gregory Campbell who engage in this prejudiced and embarrassing behavior. Last year the mask slipped and we learned what Peter Robinson and his Pastor McConnell think of Muslims. But recently, through Peter Robinson’s comments on the Abortion bill, we see the rights of women now being trampled on too. Is Peter Robinson’s idea of female equality to let women do his shopping? Does he trust Catholic women and Muslim women to do his shopping?

In proposing “guidelines” as a way forward on the Abortion issue Robinson is either kicking important legislation regarding women’s rights into the ditch, or he is displaying a colossal ignorance about women’s rights issues and how to best address them. But then when you think about it, issues involving marriage and women have not gone well for Peter in the past. He is as useful on these matters as a Catholic priest. It’s a woman’s body, and she should be in charge of it. Not the DUP or the priests. The people of East Belfast should do us all a favor and vote for Niaomi Long. Ms Long is the incumbent MP in the area and is standing against the DUP candidate in the crucial East Belfast constituency. But the DUP in Belfast have been gunning for her for some time. This is the only constituency where electoral defeat may cause the DUP to think again. The people of East Belfast can save us all from the DUP’s fundamentalist hogwash. They make NI look backward in the eyes of the world. The British Conservatives or Labour should not touch the DUP, and their fellow travelers in the Orange Order, with a 30 foot barge pole. If they do they are wide open to accusations of homophobia, anti-Catholic sectarianism, anti-immigrant sentiment etc. The DUP have more in common with the BNP, they are simply not fit for purpose. Many of the DUP leadership are members of the Orange Order, an organization that bans it’s members from marrying Catholics and bans it’s members from even attending a Catholic church. This includes but is not limited to Nelson McCausland, Nigel Dodds, and Gregory Campbell.

A look at their voting patterns should give the British people a further insight into the workings of the DUP. For example, on the gay marriage vote in the northern Irish assembly, not one DUP MLA voted in favor of gay marriage, NOT ONE. The DUP had even lined up a petition of concern should the vote go against them. This is a unique assembly mechanism that means the DUP would have successfully blocked the bill even if it had been passed by a democratic vote. They are fighting gay marriage by any means necessary. The supposedly more moderate UUP entered into an electoral pact with the DUP for this Westminster election, and indeed only one of UUP MLA voted in favour of the bill. In fact, of the 51 DUP / UUP MLA’s, fully 98% voted against the gay marriage bill.

All the while the DUP have been working to bring forward their own anti LGBT conscience clause legislation, which will allow religious fundamentalists to discriminate against the LGBT community. And i’m sure it won’t be long before such legislation could be used liberally against other minorities.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams at Gay Pride event.

On the other side of the fence, Sinn Fein proposed the gay marriage bill and have long been at the forefront of support for the LGBT community throughout Ireland. The SDLP also supported it, so we can hardly blame the SDLP or Sinn Fein for it’s defeat. Nearly 80% of Alliance MLA’s also supported the bill, two did not. One independent unionist, and two NI21 MLA’s (Basil McCrea + John McAllister) also voted in favour of the bill. Despite this the northern Ireland gay marriage bill was narrowly defeated by the fundamentalist and evangelical DUP.

No pact should be countenanced between British main stream political parties and the DUP. British democracy does not need any political party or associated organization that is anti-women’s rights, anti-gay rights, anti-Catholic or anti-immigrant.

Our DUP friends would do well to remember the old Belfast adage, “Jesus Saves, but Georgie Best scored the rebound.”