Meet the UK’s Democratic Unionist Party, the Right-Wing Minnows Who Suddenly Have Way Too Much Power

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Meet the UK’s Democratic Unionist Party, the Right-Wing Minnows Who Suddenly Have Way Too Much Power

Last night, Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party struck a massive blow against Theresa May and her Tories in the U.K. general election. May, to her eternal regret, actually called the election in an attempt to solidify her power after inheriting the position of Prime Minister from David Cameron, and instead proceeded to blunder her way through a disastrous campaign. As she stumbled, Corbyn and Labour soared like rocket ships, and when the dust settled last night, Labour had gained 31 seats, and the Tories has lost 12 seats and their majority. The result: A hung parliament. Which means that unless May—who has thus far opted not to resign despite pressure from all corners, including her own—forms a coalition with a different party, she will almost certainly be forced to resign, and Corbyn would then have a chance to form his own government.

After the Tories and Labour, the parties with the most votes are the Scottish National Party (35) and the Liberal Democrats (12), neither of whom would join up with Theresa May. That leaves just one party who could conceivably align with the Tories to help them form a minority government: Northern Ireland’s Democrat Unionist Party.

The DUP, the largest party in Northern Ireland, controls 10 seats in parliament, and would put May and her part above the 326-seat threshold. As you might guess, that puts the DUP in a position of unique power, especially for such a relative minnow in the world of U.K. politics. It’s an alliance both parties need, and that is all but certain to come about.

As the DUP burst onto the scene, let’s investigate who they are, where they came from, and what they might do in the new government.

The DUP: What’s Their Deal?

It will come as no surprise to anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Northern Ireland that the DUP’s history is also the history of the “Troubles,” i.e. the conflict between nationalist Catholics and loyalist Protestants that tore the country apart from the late ‘60s until 1998, when Good Friday Agreement ushered in an era of relative peace. As with many longstanding geopolitical conflicts, the story is complicated, but the heart of the matter is not: Nationalists want a united and independent Ireland, while loyalists want to remain a part of the U.K. The DUP, which can be fairly characterized as a right-wing populist party, represents the interests of the loyalists, and has since its founding in 1971.

But to truly understand the DUP, you have to understand its founder, the late Rev. Ian Paisley.

Who Is Ian Paisley, and Why Was He an Absolute Monster of a Human Being?

You know what? Instead of writing my own summary of Paisley—an evangelical reverend who founded the Free Presbyterian Church, who passed in 2014 at age 88, and who was a supremely bad dude that will go down as one of the main instigators of all the sectarian strife that has engulfed Northern Ireland—let me restrain my worst impulses by giving you a smattering of “neutral” excerpts from his Wikipedia page, some of which are pure evil, and some of which are merely distilled evil:

Paisley promoted a form of Biblical literalism and anti-Catholicism, which he described as “Bible Protestantism”. The website of Paisley’s public relations arm, the European Institute of Protestant Studies, describes the institute’s purpose as to “expound the Bible, expose the Papacy, and to promote, defend and maintain Bible Protestantism in Europe and further afield.”

Ahem:

When Britain’s Princess Margaret and Queen Mother met Pope John XXIII in 1958, Paisley had condemned them for “committing spiritual fornication and adultery with the Antichrist.” When Pope John died in June 1963, Paisley announced to a crowd of followers that “this Romish man of sin is now in Hell!” He organised protests against the lowering of flags on public buildings to mark the Pope’s death.

Are you starting to get the sense that this dude is basically Northern Ireland’s Fred Phelps, and his congregation is the Westboro Baptist Church? Except that he has way more power, and weapons? Well, read on.

Ahem:

Paisley preached against homosexuality, supported laws criminalising it, and picketed various gay rights events. He denounced it as “a crime against God and man and its practice is a terrible step to the total demoralisation of any country”. “Save Ulster from Sodomy” was a campaign launched by Paisley in 1977, in opposition to the Northern Ireland Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, established in 1974. Paisley’s campaign sought to prevent the extension to Northern Ireland of the Sexual Offences Act 1967, which had decriminalised homosexual acts between males over 21 years of age in England and Wales.

Now for the political career! First, here’s how the dude made his name:

Paisley first hit headlines in 1956 when Maura Lyons, a 15-year-old Belfast Catholic doubting her faith, sought his help and was smuggled illegally to Scotland by members of his Free Presbyterian Church. Paisley publicly played a tape of her religious conversion but refused to help with the search for her, saying he would rather go to prison than return her to her Catholic family. Lyons eventually returned both to her family and Catholicism.

Ahem:

In 1956, Paisley was one of the founders of Ulster Protestant Action (UPA). Its initial purpose was to organise the defence of Protestant areas against anticipated Irish Republican Army (IRA) activity. It carried out vigilante patrols, made street barricades, and drew up lists of IRA suspects in both Belfast and in rural areas….As Paisley came to dominate UPA, he received his first convictions for public order offences. In June 1959, Paisley addressed a UPA rally in the mainly-Protestant Shankill district of Belfast. During the speech he shouted out the addresses of some Catholic-owned homes and businesses in the area. These homes and businesses were then attacked by the crowd; windows were smashed, shops were looted and “Taigs out” painted on the doors.

Oh, remember how the Tories accused Corbyn of being a terrorist sympathizer because of what he said about the IRA in the ‘80s? Consider that they’re about to form a coalition with the party started by this man:

In 1964, a peaceful civil rights campaign began in Northern Ireland. The civil rights movement sought to end discrimination against Catholics and those of Catholic background by the Protestant and unionist government of Northern Ireland. Paisley instigated and led loyalist opposition to the civil rights movement over the next few years…In April 1966, Paisley and his associate Noel Doherty founded the Ulster Constitution Defence Committee (UCDC) and its paramilitary wing, the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV). Although the IRA was inactive, loyalists such as Paisley warned that it was about to be revived and launch another campaign against Northern Ireland. At the same time, a loyalist paramilitary group calling itself the “Ulster Volunteer Force” (UVF) emerged in the Shankill area of Belfast, led by Gusty Spence…Paisley publicly thanked the UVF for taking part in a march on 7 April. In May and June, the UVF petrol bombed a number of Catholic homes, schools and businesses. It also shot dead two Catholic civilians as they walked home. These are sometimes seen as the first deaths of the Troubles.

And that was just the first of three “paramilitary” groups Paisley would form!! The horror show just continues:

In March-April 1969, the Ulster Protestant Volunteers (UPV) bombed water and electricity installations in Northern Ireland, leaving much of Belfast without power and water. Paisley and the UPV blamed the bombings on the dormant IRA and elements of the civil rights movement. Paisley’s Protestant Telegraph called them “the first act of sabotage perpetrated by the IRA since the murderous campaign of 1956”, warning that it was “an ominous indication of what lies ahead for Ulster”. Many people believed these claims of IRA responsibility.

And that doesn’t even take us out of the 1960s. I could go on all day, but it would quickly get repetitive since even evil can be banal, so I’ll just mention one more in a list of atrocities Paisley committed that are tantamount to terrorism. In 1973, the Sunningdale Agreement allowed for power-sharing between nationalists and loyalists in Northern Irish government, and looked like the first step toward peace. Paisley’s opposition to anything that looked remotely like peace, or treating Catholics like human beings, was so virulent that it led to a general strike. On the third day, loyalists set off car bombs in Dublin and Monaghan that killed 33, and the deal fell apart.

The rest of his life follows the same pattern—campaigning against peace, instigating open violence and terror against Catholics, forming paramilitary militias, etc. etc. His reputation got so bad that in 1981, he had his visa revoked by the U.S. ahead of a fundraising trip. Meanwhile, he made a nuisance of himself at the UK and European parliaments, grandstanding during speeches by Margaret Thatcher and others, and often being forcibly kicked out for his troubles.

It won’t shock you to know that when peace finally passed, with the Good Friday Agreement, Paisley and his DUP were on the front lines protesting against it, right to the bitter end.

Paisley supposedly “softened” in his later years, and even served as Northern Ireland’s First Minister in a power-sharing government with Sinn Fein, the country’s foremost nationalist party. But that “softening” came only at the end of a long political career in which he opposed peace and instigated violence at every step of the way, and cannot begin to mitigate the damage he wrought.

Is Today’s DUP a Paisley Relic?

Not completely, no. Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, has already said that she won’t pursue a so-called “hard border” with the Republic of Ireland, mostly for economic reasons, and she also wants a slow and measured exit from the EU—despite the fact that the DUP were the only Northern Irish party campaigning on behalf of “Leave.” Additionally, there’s talk that the DUP could use its new influence to scuttle some of the more retrograde conservative plans, like means-testing winter fuel payments and halting a raise on pensions. In that sense, they could wrench some very Labour-like gains from the heart of the Tory minority government. (Which shows how strange and fluid UK politics can be—the “right-wing populists” can also wear the hats of a progressive.)

And as with many things in this world, the political situation has been spun on its head in recent years, to the point that the DUP even counts among its supporters some conservative Catholics. As such, the dogmatic Protestant language has diminished over time, especially under the leadership of Peter Robinson, who took over party leadership in 2008 from Paisley. In 2015, deputy leader Nigel Dodds even said that despite opposition to same-sex marriage, the party was opposed to discrimination based on sexual orientation. How you reconcile those two statements is beyond me, but it does represent a kind of bizarre progress, especially from the Paisley days.

All that said, this is still an Ulster Loyalist party—incidentally, Corbyn’s pro-IRA language from the ‘80s almost guarantees the DUP will ally with May and the Tories—and they are still pro-life and anti-same sex marriage. Also, they count among their ranks several creationists and climate change deniers. Along with an idiotic, expensive energy deal promoted by Foster, the DUP has not acquitted itself well lately, and in fact nearly lost their long-held majority in the Northern Ireland assembly to Sinn Fein in March.

Despite these tensions within the party, though, a decade of relative moderation—not to mention nearly 20 years of peace—makes it unlikely that there will be an unraveling of the Good Friday agreement, or a return to sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.

What Happens Now?

There’s some irony in the fact that while the DUP, and unionism in general, finds itself in a precarious position within Northern Ireland, they have a chance to exercise real power in the U.K. because of circumstances that boil down to pure luck. It could be an awkward alliance—how will the Tories reconcile their recent push toward “compassionate conservatism” with a group who virulently opposes same-sex marriage?

The other big question is, who has the real negotiating power here? The DUP could hold May hostage on certain policy plans, and it’s true that without them, May is history, but this also works the other way—if the DUP fails, they could be staring at a Prime Minister in Jeremy Corbyn who is sympathetic to the IRA and Sinn Fein.

After Brexit passed, Sinn Fein immediately called for a referendum in Northern Ireland to decide whether they should leave the U.K. and join the Republic of Ireland—the DUP’s worst nightmare—and considering Jeremy Corbyn’s permissive stance on the idea of a new Scottish referendum, it’s doubtful he would oppose the process in Northern Ireland. And now that the Catholic population has crept up to nearly even with the Protestant population, there’s nothing saying that such a referendum wouldn’t pass.

Considering those facts, perhaps Theresa May actually has a bit of the upper hand herself. In the end, though, it’s clear that they desperately need each other—May wants to keep her job, the DUP wants to keep Corbyn from power. A deal will almost certainly be struck, but it remains to seen who will hold the lion’s share of power, or what the far-reaching effects of a newly empowered DUP might be. But it looks, from the outside, like a disaster in the making.

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