Social attitudes within the DUP beginning to drift towards social liberalism?

Now this is interesting. Eamonn McCann picks out some telling indicators from Lucid Talks conference poll at the DUP meet up at the weekend:

In relation to more earthly issues, the attitudes were markedly more progressive than the DUP is generally given credit for.

One in eight believed that, ‘Abortion should be available to any woman who chooses it after being counselled on alternatives’ – the exact position of Alliance for Choice and other pro-choice campaigners.

Almost two out of three (64%) believed that, ‘Abortion should be available for rape, or incest, victims who choose it after counselling.’ So, only one in three embraced the position of organisations such as Precious Life.

I suspect that a poll of elected reps would not return quite such a liberal response. Like Sinn Fein, the social mores of the top table are not shared in the same proportions by party activists, and likely even less so by society at large.

Mick Fealty

Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty