Unionist family

I would like to offer my views and opinion on where we as a Unionist family need to go, following the announcement by Peter Robinson in a TV interview after the Euro election. That he and the DUP are going to reconnect with the grass roots, this is welcome however it’s long overdue.

The DUP need to set about a series of well publicized public meetings, with the views and opinions of the Unionist electorate taken onboard and a commitment that the views expressed will be seriously considered and if they are found to be rationale made policy, after all the people are the party.

It really is a frustration when we take the time to contact the DUP, and we don’t even warrant a reply. I have taken the time to send several E-mails to yourself Nigel and Gregory Campbell on various subjects including the national stadium and on the feelings of the Unionist electorate in the run up to the European elections. It is the failure to reply to communications that is putting a distance between the electorate and the elected representative. The DUP seem to have forgotten that it is we the electorate that put the MP’s and MLA’s where they are and we are here to be listened too and heard not sidelined and regarded as election fodder to be trotted out every time there is an election!

I am well aware that any public meeting is likely to be a bumpy affair, however that is the price the DUP will have to pay if the DUP wish to continue to be the main party in Northern Ireland, the DUP need to assuage the Unionist electorate’s disaffection.

We want a modern united Unionist family not a dysfunctional fractured Unionist rabble. We despise the internecine squabbling of the Unionist parties. Sure other Unionist parties have opposing views however we do not want them aired on the anti Unionist media. Keep the message positive and the parties of the seventies will wither on the political vine. If the parties of the seventies could only muster nearly seventy thousand votes in a national election they will not do well in a parliamentary or assembly election, bearing in mind most of their vote was a protest at the expenses scandal. A positive message will get a greater Unionist vote out at elections.

One of the main points that played out at the Euro elections was the disquiet around the Robinson's expenses and the other MP’s and MLA’s expenses, be they justified or not. Many ordinary Unionist voters are talking of never voting DUP again. This spans not only the less well of on the Shankill but the better off and employed Unionist voters.

The defence made by Peter Robinson on TV concerning his expenses has been a vote loser, also his arrogant manor and his less than convincing explanation was also a contributing factor in a less than satisfactory turn out at the election. Iris Robinson’s image is also alienating a sizeable proportion of Unionist and DUP voters along with the recent media performances of Jeffery Donaldson and Gregory Campbell,

Perception is everything today, to that end, the DUP are being seen as arrogant, greedy and self-serving. Outside of their constituencies the Robinson's are particularly seen as arrogant, greedy and self-serving and other DUP MP's and MLA's are being included along with them. Jeffery’s Donaldson and Gregory Campbell’s patronizing performances on TV and phone in radio shows are again coming over as arrogant, and there is no sign of contrition by any DUP MP or MLA on the expenses scandal.

Talk to any working class voter on the Shankill or anywhere for that matter, and the DUP are seen as contradictory. Saying that you voted for change in the expense system, yet you are seen to benefitting substantially form that system, something is ringing hollow.

The Robinsons claimed £30K for food over four years, Peter Robinson then claiming that it was only £70 per week. Does he not know how badly that played with the Unionist DUP voter? Peter Robinson needs to remember the Unionist people don’t like to be played as fools. The fact that Peter Robinson had the arrogance to go on TV and defend this position is seen as condescending and arrogant by DUP and other Unionist voters.

Many of those who are expressing resentment are getting the less than or just a few pounds more than the £70 Peter Robinson quoted to keep a household a week, and he was on TV defending spending that amount on eating out in London! He is reopening accusations of old styled Unionism.

There is also anger over MP’s and MLA’s, double and triple jobbing, nepotism, and an increasingly distant, arrogant and condescending DUP leadership. Stormont is increasingly seen as talking shop and is not working for the Unionist population. The perception is that the best speakers and workers at Stormont are nationalists, as whenever you see Stormont on TV there are very few DUP MLA’s there why is this?

The Unionist electorate’s perception of the DUP leadership is that they are now so far removed from us the electorate that they have forgotten what we the great unwashed think, look and smell like.

It appears that many DUP MP’s and MLA’s have forgotten that most of their voters are unemployed or on the minimum wage and even the lucky voters on a salary over the national wage like me, find it outrages that our MP’s are clearing hundreds of thousands of pounds in expenses and its perpetuating the impression that MP’s are only in it for themselves and for what they can get out of the system.

What is needed is a firm commitment to stop the expenses gravy train, the double jobbing and the nepotism, not at some arbitrary date in the future but a commitment to stop the run away gravy train now.

We want the DUP to make politics work for the majority Unionist population and if that benefits the rest of the population then so be it. We need to get away from the single sum game of; if we win they must lose.

We want the DUP to come out and state that while they are a Unionist party they will work for everyone, and that a full working relationship will be conducted with nationalism and republicanism.

We are demanding a stop to the rubbishing of other Unionists parties. Win us over on your policies not on negative electioneering. Dispense with the smash Sinn Fein mantra, as we know you are working with them on a daily basis, and anyhow no one believes it. Forget about the bogey man at the border, he is bankrupt and doesn’t want us now or ever. The cold facts are that the Irish republic could never afford us and with their economy in free fall and their credit ratting being down graded, they will never be able to afford us, ever. Now there is a positive message for Unionists and a cold hard fact that Sinn Fein and the SDLP can’t counter.

We want the best candidate for the job not the nepotism that appears to be rife in the DUP.

I fear if the DUP don’t address the points above then the DUP can expect more stay at home Unionists at elections and this will only advantage the SDLP and Sinn Fein.

A David Cameron, Conservative type make over and real action is required not the Peter, Jeffery and Gregory old style Unionist patronizing show. Keep up the old style Unionist patronizing show and the DUP will be last years MP’s and MLA’s. Unionist voters won’t stand for patronizing Unionist politicians anymore.