Cameron victory would be bad news for Northern Ireland

Posted on Wednesday, May 05, 2010 at 09:03 PM

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A victory for David Cameron and the Conservative Party would be bad news indeed for Northern Ireland in the British election on Thursday.

A close election will result in a hung parliament and Cameron has already sold his soul to the Ulster Unionist Party by appearing with them in Belfast on Tuesday and promising to have them as part of his administration.

The reality after the election could well be that Cameron comes close to a majority but needs the Ulster Unionists to eke out a victory.

That means a Tory government would be in hock to the Ulster Unionists, a very bad scenario, given that the Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey, (pictured with Cameron), has already opposed many aspects of the Good Friday Agreement, most recently the devolution of policing.

Unionist leaders have already met in secret conclave with Tory leaders to discuss how they want power after the election to flow to them.

Those meetings were held in secret but later leaked to the media.

Given that the foundation stone of the peace process has been the British Labor government insistence on treating both sides equally, a victory for Cameron may well upset the delicate balance in the process which has succeeded in ending Europe's longest war.

So I will be rooting for a Labor victory on Thursday. Tony Blair and his successor Gordon Brown have proven fair and able guardians of the Irish peace process.

I fear Cameron will play the old Orange Card as soon as he can as many Tory governments have before.

That can only be a recipe for misery

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CitizenWhy | May 05, 2010, 08:36 PM EDT

Tory and Orange always make a pair. But this time their conniving could hasten devolution as soon as they are thrown out. Or at least split the Ulster Rump in two, with four counties fully devolved and the orter two condemned to rot.

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