May seals £1b deal with DUP to stay in power
NORTHERN IRELAND’S DUP HAS CAUSED ALARM IN SOME CIRCLES OVER INCENDIARY VIEWS AND VIRULENT PAST
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster witness in London yesterday the signing of a deal between Conservatives and the DUP to support her minority government. May kept her grip on power by reaching the deal in return for a pledge of £1 billion of additional funding to Northern Ireland. “This means the DUP will support the Conservative government on votes on the Queen’s Speech, the budget, and legislation relating to Brexit and national security,” May said in a statement.
Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which struck a deal with the Conservatives yesterday aimed at keeping British Prime Minister Theresa May in power, has caused alarm in some circles over its incendiary views and virulent past.
British Prime Minister Theresa May struck a deal yesterday to prop up her minority government by agreeing to £1 billion (Dh4.6 billion or $1.3 billion) in extra funding for Northern Ireland in return for the support of the province’s biggest Protestant party.
Talks had dragged on for more than two weeks after May lost her majority in parliament on June 8 with a failed gamble on a snap election.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and its 10 lawmakers will now support May’s Conservatives in key votes to keep the government in power, although not as a coalition.
There has been some concern among lawmakers about the deal because of the fragile peace agreement in Northern Ireland.
The self-styled “Christian fundamentalist” party has softened its fiery anti-Catholicism and other harsh stances over the years — it no longer calls for padlocking children’s playgrounds and closing cafés and bars on Sundays.
But the party that in 1977 launched the “Save Ulster (Northern Ireland) from Sodomy” campaign still holds tight to what critics call its puritanical views, particularly on social issues such as abortion and sexual equality.
And its negotiations with May’s government had prompted warnings in the Republic of Ireland of a disrupted balance of power in Belfast that could in turn upset a delicate peace struck after decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles.
Jon Tonge, a professor of history at Liverpool University who has written extensively about the DUP, has said that while the party has become less dogmatic, it certainly cannot be described as pluralist.
So it was a surprise to many political commentators in 2005 when the party agreed to enter a power-sharing arrangement with its bitter enemy Sinn Fein.
Although the Belfast assembly appeared to operate with reasonable cordiality for much of a decade, it collapsed spectacularly in January over DUP leader Arlene Foster’s involvement in a botched scheme.
It is part of who I am and can’t be denied. It informed my teenage years, it informed my political decisions, but at the same time I don’t think we should let the past define what we do in the future.” Arlene Foster (right)| Leader of DUP