Will liberalism be the death of us?
For the political pundits the increase in votes for the Alliance Party was the big headline from the recent council election and yes, the tally of 16 additional AP councilors is indeed an achievement with the party now looking to eclipse the moribund UUP and nipping at the heels of Eastwood’s SDLP and whilst Naomi Long was given a lot of coverage, dare we say it, massive coverage by UTV & BBC we take a look at the agenda if the Party and its potentially lethal politics.
Its all nicey nice on the doorstep with Naomi and her political mandarins, after all they’re “cross community” & are progressive and based upon the equalitarian principle, ideas sloganised by other parties and candidates and where other candidates may have perceived to be of an orange or green variety, this couldn’t be the case with these “Bangor liberals”?
However when we look at the political track record of the APNI at local council level we see a working, or at least a voting relationship with the SDLP & Sinn Fein, that Jim Rodgers of E. Belfast UUP mentioned this in his election litre was enough to have the party whip withdrawn, as telling such uncomfortable truths didn’t prove a vote winner in “the East”.
It is factual to suggest that many liberal unionists, disallusioned by the failure of unionism to restore the Stormont institutions along with the morass of local politics decided to vote AP in seeking an alternative, but in affect they were returning candidates who in terms of council business could be depended upon to add weight to the SF/SDLP voting bloc. Many loyalists, who simply didn’t vote or weak unionists who voted for AP seemed to have forgotten that the votes of sitting Alliance councilors were pivotal in removing the Union Flag from city hall, provoking street level violence which seem community tensions and young, impressionable people being locked away.
In my opinion Unionism should have been exposing the Alliance/Republican agenda as a precident, its spokesmen should have used every opportunity to hammer this message home to its complacent electorate as opposed to one DUP councilor actually congratulating Long on her electoral successes, he should have been enquiring as to how the Party would be utilising its increased mandidate against the loyalist community.
In the heady days after the flag’s removal to the delight of republicans everywhere, the Alliance Party was described as “Sinn Fein lite” which I believe to be an apt and accurate description, but with the end of the protests and the absence of the flag political life in the capital returned to bland normality with the AP’s carpet bagging politicos working hand in glove with the pan-nationalist front in implementing policies and council spending in everywhere but loyalist areas with little or no out cry from either Unionist Party, silence is golden, but in this instance its treason!
This election is now history, but we are in real danger of our communities becoming not only ignored and marginalised, but of becoming part of history too as the Alliance Party are not only the political puppets of our traditional enemies but are convinced and confirmed multiculturalists who are not only happy to flood working class loyalist area with foreigners, but tap into this as a source of electoral support.
You know what to do!
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