Opinion

Allison Morris: DUP happy to play footsie with the UDA

Allison Morris
Allison Morris Allison Morris

When Arlene Foster referred to Irish language speakers as feeding a 'crocodile', she was in full election mode, appealing to the unionist hardline she believes will once again return the DUP as the largest party.

With Martin McGuinness now out of the picture politically, the DUP need a new scare tactic and painting the equality agenda as the enemy of unionism seems as good a replacement for the Bogside republican as any.

By putting a clean pair of hands in the form of Michelle O'Neill in a leadership role Sinn Féin have made it harder for unionism to constantly refer to the IRA's past when sham fighting with their former coalition partners.

And sham fighting it is, for while we are most certainly looking at a protracted period of negotiations, it also seems inevitable that the DUP and Sinn Féin will be have to once again form a government, with the alternative being some form of direct rule.

The past relationship between Sinn Féin and the IRA has fuelled many a unionist speech over the years.

So that makes all the more puzzling the very public love in between the DUP and members of the UDA.

Unionism has always flirted in the shadows with loyalist paramilitaries, but at no time in our recent history has that relationship been so transparently obvious as it is now.

When Paul Givan showed up at a Shankill Road community office the day after the BBC Spotlight programme referred to the building as 'UDA headquarters' he was sending out a very clear message.

There are people within loyalism who have genuinely worked hard and sought to transform their areas, delivering ceasefires would have been impossible without genuine and progressive leadership.

This positive transformation work cannot be dismissed but must also been taken in the context of what that organisation has now become, which is a series of locally controlled fiefdoms.

The federal UDA middle-management and Inner Council leadership appears split three ways between those who hanker after the 'good old days' when crime was an acceptable side-earner, those who genuinely are working towards positive transformation and then those who combine the two and have made a career out of milking the peace process for every penny they can get their hands on.

They see the relationship with the DUP as a cash cow to be lobbied in order to secure funding, some of which goes towards genuine community work and some that goes to keep the 'big men' in fancy suits and holiday homes on the Costa Blanca.

The DUP have been only too happy to play footsie with the UDA.

They recognise the value in having an established community base to tap into, with access to 'volunteers' who will erect posters, distribute leaflets and cajole the community to come out and vote DUP.

The UDA, in return, don't seem to have any free political thought of their own and instead have thrown their full weight behind the DUP.

In other words they will leave the politics to the DUP, and the DUP will leave the 'community work' to the UDA.

This relationship stands in stark contrast to the DUP stance against what Ian Paisley described as 'Sinn Féin/IRA'.

Many traditional DUP voters, those who voted for the party of 'law and order', must raise eyebrows at this DUP-UDA marriage of convenience.

Similarly many grassroots loyalists are equally appalled at being portrayed as the DUP's lapdogs.

Communities that were left abandoned by politics for many years, who were used by both big house unionism and the British state and then casually kicked to the side by both when they were no longer of any use.

Communities with poor housing, high unemployment, poor educational achievement, you would think would be appalled at the financial waste and squander associated with the modern DUP.

A handful of men moving their way into well paid positions on the board and steering group of any quango and funding racket going, is hardly compensation for decades of political neglect and absentee leadership.

The Social Investment Fund shone a light on the cosy relationships, some loyalists were shocked to find out the apparent favouritism being displayed towards UDA-linked groups by the DUP and the money being paid to some while others struggle to make ends meet

Is this relationship really going to encourage paramilitaries leave the stage?

Loyalist extremists are still active in many areas forcing people from their homes, extorting business and just this week it was revealed sending a bullet in the post to the SDLP's Nichola Mallon for daring to ask questions about funding allocation.

While this practice of funding paramilitary linked groups continues there is no chance of those organisations disbanding for why would they?

Like the hungry crocodile, feed it and it will keep coming back for more.