At the Conservative History Group fringe meeting David Trimble said he had been in discussions with the Tories in 2001-2 on a parliamentary alliance between the UUP and the Conservatives. He described it as "one of the biggest regrets of my life" that these discussions did not lead anywhere.
Before the meeting I interviewed David Trimble for 18DoughtyStreet for twenty minutes. What a fascinating politician - a transparently nice man who I always thought would have made a very good Tory Cabinet Minister.
27 comments:
Interesting but what benefits would this alliance have brought the Tories?. The UUP was a party on the precipice which it fell off in 2005.
The Tory party has enough nutters in it without adding a few sectarian bigots from Ulster.
Well ? He still can encourage a merger...and he can still become a Tory cabinet minister..what an asset he would be.
Iain, could not agree more, he has always come across as a very decent politician. He should have been a conservative!
How nice was he when we joined arms with Ian Paisley and marched down the Garvaghy Road, in defiance of the RUC, the Army and the British Conservative government?
How nice was he when he marched down the Garvaghy Road with Dr Paisley, in defiance of the British Conservative Government, the RUC and the Army?
An old tutor of mine once met him, and said that he was obsessed with the Ulster workers' blockades of the 70s. This was in the early Nineties. To be fair, perhaps he's mellowed since those days.
Could you have imagined Labours reaction, having to negotiate with a Conservative on Northern Ireland? They barely negotiated when Trimble was UUP leader as it was.
David Trimble would have (will one day make?) made an excillent minister of any portfolio.
You wouldn't think he was a transparently nice man if you'd seen the profile of him broadcast about 6 months ago on the BBC. They had miles of footage of him losing his temper in the most catastrophic way on live TV. And if you read Dean Godson's excellent biography of Trimble you'd be hard put to think of him as 'transparently nice'. Godson calls him, inter alia, a political loner, a political eccentric. He sees him as incapable of forming lasting political relationships.
Ulster Unionist ex-leaders have a habit of realising too late that they ought to have sought to integrate Northern Ireland into the rest of the UK. (Molyneux hilariously described himself as an integrationist on the basis that he brought Enoch Powell into the UUP (a genuine integrationist); but Molyneux did nothing about it when he had the chance.)
The truth is the unionist electorate of NI don't want integration - and hence will be chary of the NI Conservatives. They want a version of home rule.
In the dark days of the IDS/infighting era, was there not talk of him being a compromise candidate to lead the party? Dunno if he would have got away with it.
The UUP (and for that matter the SDLP) are full of well-meaning, decent politicians. I still can't work out why the people of Northern Ireland would rather vote for the extremists either side of them. I guess Ulster is the only place where elections are not won on the centre ground.
I bet Trimble doesn't regret it as much as we do!
I saw him at a bar in Bournmouth today, and he is actually a really decent chap. Shame he was sold down the river the UK government.
Out of curiosity, is a UUP-Tory merger/alliance currently on anyone's agenda?
David Trimble was and still is Irelands answer to Nelson Mandela. What a shame that Gerry Adams did
not back David in his attempt to restore peace in NI. What wasted years.
Never mind that. I want one of those new logo umbrellas, and they aren't for sale!
I'm sorry I had to duck out Iain - but the prospect of a conference pass was just too good an offer to pass up!
Its weird you wonder how that would have gone down at the time, how it would have effected Tory credibility on Northern Ireland. I can imagine Labour using some of the more unsavoury things he had said about Catholics if there were any such things. He definitely had the poise to go across and talk to the general public, probably a better spokesman than many of the ones the Tories had had. He is a good media performer, wonder whether in the end he would have been a great asset.
Iain, what time again does Doughty Street kick off?
Did you hold that opinion of David Trimble when he led the Orangemen to Drumcree Iain ?
Trimble played the hardline card to remove James Molyneaux in 1995.
I just cannot see the Conservatives being very supportive of the Ulster Unionists then and especially not now...........they represent an England whose values Cameron professes to despise
Yes he managed to destroy the electoral prospects of the longest lasting and most successful party in his country in the space of eight years. What a shame he didn't join the tories(!). Meet anyone from Northern Ireland and they will tell you he is a liar and a cheat. What did he ever do with his 365k/30 pieces of silver from the nobel peace prize? No wonder they vote for Paisley, Trimble is a joke.
There was idle talk of Trimble being a post-IDS comprimise candidate, but I cannot find any on-line proof, alas.
If there was/is a merger - and there could still be - at least there would be no more money wasted on rebranding the party name, eh?
...if you'd seen the profile of him broadcast about 6 months ago on the BBC...
Oh, the BBC eh? That well known defender of anyone politically to the right of Lenin. Give me a break.
The sooner the Conservative Party make it their policy to let the Island of Ireland be a one nation state, within the shackles of the EU of course,the better.
You cannot return to the old Conservative and Unionist. party iain.
But 'strapworld' the majority in Ulster are happy to stay in the Union.
It's those ungrateful whining Scots that I'd gladly see gone.
All that godforsaken country has going for it is one reasonably decent tennis player and a healthy craving for benefits, state handouts and drugs.
But 'strapworld' the majority in Ulster are happy to stay in the Union.
You do realise I hope that only 6 of the nine counties of Ulster are in NI. And no, before you ask, ya cant have the rest :)
What did David Trimble say about the way he has managed to destroy the UUP? Incidentally, people who have worked with him do not think he is a nice man, or particularly honourable. Shum mishtake shurely.
David Trimble was and still is Irelands answer to Nelson Mandela.
What, a convicted terrorist?
The UUP are One Nation politicians, with an equal emphasis on the One and on the Nation. Like the electorate throughout the UK, in fact.
If the Tories merged with them, then that would be the end of Eurofederalist and America-Right-Or-Wrong tendencies, the end of hostility to the Welfare State, and the end of social amorality.
But why wait for a merger? It is outrageous that people governed and taxed from Westminster have no option to vote for Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem parliamentary candidates, and that the large Unionist minority (at least - it might be a majority) of Catholics in favour of the Union has no one for whom to vote. It is Labour's fault that either Ian Paisley or Gerry Adams is an MP at all.
I think it was after the 2001 election when Charles Moore suggested he become leader of the Conservatives.
Trimble's problem was that he continued to trust the government even after it was clear that they were more interested in appeasing terrorists than in respecting the law abiding majority in Northern Ireland.
Iain, why do you permit such hate speech as this:
"It's those ungrateful whining Scots that I'd gladly see gone. All that godforsaken country has going for it is one reasonably decent tennis player and a healthy craving for benefits, state handouts and drugs."
on your blog?
There are certainly parts of Scotland that suffer from the afflictions alleged, but there are also plenty of parts of England, Wales and NI that are like that too (but without the tennis player).
It's hurtful and racist, and it's disgraceful that having published this hateful comment that you failed to also publish an earlier comment of mine condemning the idiot who said the above.
Please be more considerate!
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