The DUP are certainly willing for politics, the question is "will Sinn Fein/IRA come up to the mark of purely peaceful and democratic means ?

There is not much evidence that they will ever really change so the true democrats must move on without them.

Darrell,

Are you stating with a striaght face that the DUP are purely peaceful?

If you can explain with total honesty Ian Paisely's role in Ulster Resistence or Willie McCrae joining Billy Wright on a platform in Portadown then you win the argument.

I wait with baited breath.

Snapper - "are" is present tense.

UR and Wright? past tense .....

Darrell just won the argument by default.

Davros - what are you smokin son? Any left?

Must say Davros, best bit of air brushing I have ever witnessed. Where did you learn to think like that?

Deal with the point snapper :)

Darrell claims the DUP ARE peaceful - and you start on about the past.

Davros - just so I know for future reference, where is the line drawn to forget about past deeds?

Also - can I take it that you accept that the DUP cocked up in the past but have demonstrated recently their good intentions? If so can you explain?

where is the line drawn to forget about past deeds?

it's usually indicated by grammar :)

Are is present tense.
Were is past tense.

The DUP were, and still are, a parcel of Scallies IMO, but that's still no excuse for sloppy debating.

You could , for example, have made things a little difficult for Darrell if you had asked him when they changed to being a purely peaceful and democratic party from being a party associated with Ulster Resistance and Billy Wright.

I picked up the Irish Independent on saturday by mistake, thinkingit was our normal Independent (i bought about 8 papers for election coverage).

An article by some bloke called Connor Cruise O brien - Jeez what planet is he on? Apparently the tories and libs can unite numbers to defeat Labour in the new Commons!?!!?
Is he considered an astute political commentator in Ireand?

If you can explain with total honesty Ian Paisely's role in Ulster Resistence or Willie McCrae joining Billy Wright on a platform in Portadown then you win the argument.

For a start this is truely a couple of very old chestnuts and I am delighted that you have to go that far back to try to find some rubbish about the DUP. Most people cannot even remember that far back into Sinn Fein IRA history as there is some much murder and mayhem to consider.

For the record as I recall Rev McCrea went on the platform with Billy Wright to highlight the the fact that the UVF in Belfast (as part of their support for the Belfast agreement and peace process) had threatened his life and Rev McCrea simply highlighted the scandal that this so called peace process entailed driving people out of Northern Ireland.

Ulster Resistance was a passive organisation organisation who have never been involved in murder or bank robberies and they are history now since the determination of the unionist people defeated the provos et al.

The Siin Fein/IRA are still active and murdering people (mostly nationalists) at every opportunity and until they are completely disbanded with weapons and explosives destroyed in an open and verifiable manner and Sinn Fein undergo a suitable period for de-contamination, there is no possibility of democrats going into a government with them.

No self respecting democrat would allow this bunch of hoods to be in government and neither will the DUP

Darrell, where are all the UR guns?

Darrell, I guessed you might get into apologising for McCrea.

Hundreds of people get threatened or even actually killed by the UVF. Why didn't McCrea get on a stand with them ? Anyone could go to any part of Belfast dominated by the UVF or UDA and find ethnic minorities or Catholics being intimidated by pro-agreement loyalist paramilitaries. Why did McCrea ignore those and instead choose to highlight the plight of an active multiple murderer ?

Davros, regarding past and present, I haven't seen any evidence that the DUP have given up their past associations with violent people. An example of evidence would be the admission that the Wright/McCrea thing was a serious mistake. Or saying loudly that the actions of loyalists in the past were unacceptable even as a response to the IRA. I'd like to hear the leadership utter some sort of specific statement showing their indication that loyalist violence for whatever reason is wrong.

I don't expect to get it though. Ruth Patterson invited PUP and UDA-linked politicians to her High Sheriff party a year or so back, and at the same time refused to invite Sinn Fein because of their links to terrorism. You can't get away from the fact that in their minds, unionist politicians understand loyalists in a completely different way from how they understand republicans.

Meanwhile, back at the topic for discussion...

Anyone met Hain, maybe on walkabout? Dunno much about him, apart from what I read over the past few days about his mercurial political beliefs and habit of kite-flying.