Opinion

Tom Kelly: Edwin Poots best placed to take the DUP backwards

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

DUP leadership frontrunner Edwin Poots believes planet Earth was created 6,000 years ago
DUP leadership frontrunner Edwin Poots believes planet Earth was created 6,000 years ago DUP leadership frontrunner Edwin Poots believes planet Earth was created 6,000 years ago

One of my favourite all time movies is ‘Inherit the Wind’. It is based on the Scopes 'Monkey' Trial.

The trial centred on a teacher brought to court for teaching Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in violation of the then state law. It is a masterpiece in discourse.

At one point the defence lawyer Henry Drummond addresses the court saying: “Then you may try to foist your own religion upon the minds of man. Because fanaticism and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, your Honour, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward. Backward, through the glorious ages of that sixteenth century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind”.

In Northern Ireland fanaticism, ignorance and bigotry does not have to travel far to feed. It is at the root of our divisions and conflict. There is no monopoly on its spread. Ideological and intolerant zealots whether religious or secular are equally unpalatable.

Whilst writing this column I have noticed a mental health champion who happens to the the wife of a DUP MP is being trolled for her compassionate and compelling opposition to so called gay conversion therapy. Apparently her caring insight ‘unsettled’ some DUP grassroots members. More likely it unsettled those who feared her MP husband (who has a record of liberalism - a loose term admittedly in the DUP) aspiring to the leadership position of that party.

A few days earlier, Arlene Foster and only five of her party colleagues abstained on a vote to ban gay conversion therapy. The rest of the DUP assembly members voted against. The whole concept of gay conversion therapy is an anathema to any rational person. To the unenlightened it is not.

The DUP proposed amendment on protections for religious pastoral care was a red herring. There are no restrictions placed on prayer. What cannot be allowed is for gay conversion therapy to be practised under the guise of pastoral care. You can no more pray away an individual’s sexuality than the colour of their eyes.

The first minister Arlene Foster, who last week announced her resignation, was reported as saying the DUP wasn’t the party she joined. If this is true it’s a startling revelation.

The DUP in its 50 year history only had a brief - very brief - flirtation with the world as it is. That was under Peter Robinson. The notion that the DUP was a force of enlightenment in 2003 is a nonsense. It was still led by the same Save Ulster from Sodomy champion, the late Rev Ian Paisley. A man who used his pulpit for campaigning on moral issues as much as any political platform he ever stood on.

Remember too in 2012 that DUP supporting fundamentalists also succeeded in having a creationist narrative placed at the newly reopened Giant’s Causeway. A narrative crudely but succinctly decried by scientist Professor Brian Cox as “pure s***”.

Now the DUP's praetorian old guard is regrouping. The lack of voter appeal for a mix of politics and prayer seems lost on those DUP representatives who signed a letter expressing no confidence in Mrs Foster’s leadership. They want the party to return to basic Christian and traditional values.

This is not a winning electoral strategy. But it does show where DUP public representatives feel comfortable on the political spectrum. Their trajectory is now backwards with flags flying and Lambegs beating. Backwards to the glorious past in search of an Orange Nirvana which doesn't exist.

The current frontrunner to succeed Arlene Foster is Edwin Poots. A man who is DUP to the core. He is certainly best placed to take the DUP backwards to its fundamentalist roots. Poots thinks planet Earth is around 6,000 years old. Which is okay to believe just like it’s okay to believe that dinosaurs missed the departure time for Noah’s Ark!

As Ted Hastings would say, “Mother of God.”