Ulster ain't British 'cos the Brits don't want it!

Every night, between midnight and 2am the blog A Pint of Unionist Light produces a post called Elsewhere.

I'm not sure whether this post is auto generated or is a lazy cull of loyal posts that have not been well read, because some of the captures are a bit odd; like a post that claims that states are immortal, so a successful referendum for independence should be rebutted, because the state is more important than popular democracy! I kid you not. Or a post that has obviously gone through the machinations of a translation machine, and doesn't make much sense because of the machines limitations.

However PUL gets his Elsewhere's he does point to some interesting posts, such as this one from Dilettante, who asks whether the Conservatives should go back to their old label of Conservative and Unionists Party.

If I remember rightly, the reason why Unionist was dropped by the Conservative party, was because in the post war years up to the beginning of the troubles in the north of Ireland the term unionism changed its meaning. Rather than being a supporter of the Union of the crowns of England, Scotland and Ireland, an unionist became a supporter of a trades union; Conservative and (Trades) Unionist didn't make sense!

Of course since the beginning of the troubles in the north of Ireland the term unionist almost regained its original meaning, except that it was tainted, it was related to one of the extremes of northern Irish politics which was alien to most people on the mainland and part of the pain and confusion that the Province's politics caused.

With all respect to the likes of O'Neill, to most people on this side of the Irish Sea, the politics of the troubles was a case of Catholic nutters fighting Protestant nutters, neither side was ike us. The likes of the Rev Dr Paisley and his Unionist supporters were Irish trouble makers and very un-British.

The idea of loyalist terrorists was an oxymoron! How can you show loyalty to the crown and a unity with the rest of the UK through acts of deadly violence? There is a kind of insanity in the very concept, which made Northern Irish Unionism foreign to the majority of the British people, rather than making us feel united with them through the Union.

Northern Irish Sectarian Unionism separates Ulster from the rest of UK politics, as much as Republicanism does! The ideal way to counter that would be for voters in Ulster to have the same choice as the people of Scotland and Wales have in elections: Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Nationalist candidates. Given that choice the nationalists would probably win every seat under first past the post.

The truth of the matter is that the Union gave up on the North of Ireland many years ago, the only true choice for Ulster is union with the rest of Ireland or an independent Republic of Northern Ireland, Britain moved on without you and you are not British any more, accept it!

Europhile or Ostrich?

This comment by Stephen Farrington seems to typify the head in the sand attitudes of supporters of European integration to the Irish referendum result:

Redrafting the treaty in the wake of less than 0.1 per cent of Europeans rejecting it would be futile

To dismiss the Irish vote in this way is disingenuous. The truth is that the Irish are the only people of Europe who have been allowed to express an opinion.

Had the rest of Europe been given the same opportunity that the people of Ireland were given, Stephen and other Euro-whores know that a result similar to the Irish one would have occurred in the majority of the 27 nations. Which is precisely why the other 26 have chosen not to hold a referendum.

Ignoring the result in Ireland, a country which has a fairly positive attitude towards the EU, is like Gordon Brown ignoring a bad opinion poll in the Labour heartlands because it only asked the view of a 5000 sample!

The fact is that the majority of the people of Europe, not just the Irish, don't like the way in which the Union is turning into a superstate rather than the economic community that it was established to be.

Rather than dismissing the Irish view, whilst ignoring the views of their own people, the mandarins of the EU might serve the people of Europe better if they took the representative view of the Irish into consideration and concentrated more on building up the European Economic Community and rather less on trying to create the U S of E!

Other Good Posts on the Irish Referendum:
Tim Roll-Pickering
Shiraz Socialist
Alert: Euro-Federalists already planning to subvert Irish Referendum results

EU Treaties must be ratified unanimously. Each country ratifies a Treaty on the assumption that all other countries will do so too. If one country says that it cannot ratify a Treaty as it stands - in Ireland’s case because the Irish people have rejected it - there is no point in the other countries proceeding, and the Irish Government should request them to stop.

Ireland 3 - Wales 0

Not only is Wales deprived of being able to field its own team in the Cricket World Cup and the Olympic Games, as Ireland is, it appears that we are excluded from another world stage by not having our own Defence Forces.

Defence Forces Soccer defeat Italian Army 3-0

Irish Defence Forces 3 - Italian Army 0

In a fantastic victory the Defence Forces soccer team overcame a strong Italian Army team today at Home Farm FC. This historic 3-0 victory means the Defence Forces soccer team qualify for the first time for the World Military Games Finals to be held in India in October 2007.

Ireland led 2-0 at half time with goals from Philip Gorman and Thomas Hughes and another shot hitting the crossbar. The third goal came from Alan Corboy in the second half for the Irish to seal a great victory. The Italians had three shots on goal throughout the match and were surprised to have lost as they were considered the favourites for the European slot for the World Military Games.

This is the first time the Defence Forces soccer team entered the competition and are delighted to qualify for the Councel Internationale du Sport Military (CISM) World Military Games. 127 nations are members of this sporting alliance and compete in a vast array of sports.

Soccer was one of the first sports to be played in CISM competition since its foundation in 1948.