Opinion

Claire Simpson: In any sane universe Jim Wells's Pride placard complaint would have been quietly ignored

The DUP's Jim Wells made a complaint about the placard
The DUP's Jim Wells made a complaint about the placard The DUP's Jim Wells made a complaint about the placard

THIS year will be remembered as a time when the DUP stood up and fought for a common goal, cherished by all.

No not the restoration of Stormont amid severe pressures on health and education services, but a much more important, nay, nobler objective - the right to complain about anti-DUP placards.

Some politicians might find it beneath their dignity, as well as being a waste of time, to complain about a home-made sign. Even British prime minister Theresa May battled a coughing fit, being handed a P45 form, and a letter from a party slogan falling off the wall behind her - all during her own speech at the Tory conference - with some awkward grace.

But grace is rarely a word associated with the north's largest unionist party. A young woman waving a 'F*** the DUP' placard at this year's Belfast Pride march wasn't crude political comment against a party strongly opposed to equal marriage in the north but a "hate crime" no less.

Former health minister and South Down MLA Jim Wells, never shy of expressing his hostility to gay marriage, thought the sign - which was quickly confiscated by Pride organisers - merited a call to the PSNI.

"I told them that it should be investigated under the hate crime legislation," he said.

"There are 300,000 people in Northern Ireland who voted DUP in the last election and they have a right to be respected.

"I believe someone's religious opinion and their political viewpoints have a right to be protected."

Mr Wells is certainly keen to insist on having his own viewpoint heard.

Over the summer, he resigned from the National Trust over its support for gay issues, prompting Alliance leader Naomi Long and at least one of my friends to announce they were going to join it.

In any sane universe, Mr Wells's complaint against the Pride placard would have been duly noted, filed and never referred to again. But not here. The PSNI has now decided to send a file to prosecutors over the banner even though the Metropolitan Police quickly established that a similar sign at London Pride "did not meet the threshold for a criminal offence".

Too right it didn't. Language, as I learned in the first year of my English degree, is a slippery thing. Perhaps Mr Wells objected to the profanity. But the north already has enough flags and emblems which effectively say f*** themmuns.

A reasonable person might conclude that UVF flags flying over a mixed social housing estates - the equivalent of extending a middle finger to anyone opposed to the paramilitary group - could amount to a hate crime. Yet in June, Mr Wells's colleague Emma Little Pengelly adopted a 'move along everyone, nothing to see here' approach by claiming that most people in the areas "didn't want a public fuss" about the flags.

She later said she "offered residents to personally remove them at the time if that's what the shared community wanted but no-one thought that was [the] best option".

Of course no resident wanted to be seen to oppose a criminal and violent group, especially not one which seems to hold such influence.

Not that the apparent reluctance to make a "public fuss" did any good in the end since four Catholic families in mixed Cantrell Close in the south of the city were forced to flee their homes anyway amid threats from the East Belfast UVF.

Strange, isn't it, that we live in a democracy where blunt comments against a political party are deemed potential hate crimes but familiar emblems of hate are widely accepted? Strange also that Pride in Belfast is one of our few annual parades where the marchers actually appear joyful and not intent on marking their territory or exercising some idea of cultural supremacy. The annual march also has the added advantage of making the city appear vaguely welcoming and progressive - a fiction that other marches, with their accompanying tensions and the persistent night-time roar of the PSNI helicopter, quickly expose.

If the Public Prosecution Service has any sense it will dismiss the complaint about the placard as bogus and concentrate on more important matters - its ongoing cases against the murderous Mount Vernon UVF for example.

This embarrassing episode should quietly fade away. But I won't hold my breath. Just as one UVF flag is taken down and three more are put up in its place, this daft row is sure to drag on.