FOR those outside the DUP, the situation facing party elders in regard to Ruth Patterson's future is reasonably clear cut - she has become a liability and should be jettisoned before bringing any more shame on the party. Regardless of any legal process, the outspoken councillor has admitted using language which she herself subsequently deemed "completely incompatible" with DUP policy and not what is expected of an elected representative. We can only surmise that Ms Patterson was on a 'yellow card', having already defied the leadership's call not to take part in flag protests earlier this year and making remarks about the chief constable that did not reflect the DUP's position. Whether she receives the red card appears to a matter of much internal debate.
If, as Peter Robinson has suggested on a number of occasions, the DUP is serious about attracting voters from the 'other side' then the party can not be seen to be associated with what ordinary Catholics would regard as extremism. Yet the DUP faces a dilemma - expel someone whose opinions chime with many loyalists and it risks further alienating a section of its traditional constituency that already feels under-represented. Early indications suggest that despite the condemnation of the Facebook comments, the DUP is not going to take decisive action or perhaps the party is biding its time and waiting for an opportunity to cut Ms Patterson loose with the minimum of fuss. Expulsions from the DUP in recent times are not without precedent and nobody knows this more than the leader, who saw his wife and former Strangford MP Iris Robinson swiftly removed when her affair with teenager Kirk McCambley became public in 2010. The reason or reasons for Mrs Robinson's expulsion were never made clear but given that she has never admitted or been charged, nevermind convicted of any wrongdoing, we can only assume she was thrown out on moral grounds. To buy more time, the party may await the outcome of the legal process but ultimately when it comes to Ruth Patterson's future they are damned if they keep her on board and damned if they don't.