Tuesday, April 17, 2007
A Big Welcome to David Trimble
I could not be more delighted at David Trimble joining the Conservatives. It wasn't quite the defection I had anticipated, but it is most welcome. He is one of the few people in today's politics who one can genuinely describe as 'a great man'. I hope David Cameron persuades him to join his front bench team in the Lords as soon as possible and I wouldn't bet against him being Leader of the House of Lords in a future Cameron Cabinet. The good thing is that there are a number of candidates for that position, including obviously Tom Strathclyde, but also Gillian Shephard.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
29 comments:
As I said on ConservativeHome - excellent news for us, but a sad indictment of the state of the UUP.
The UUP was sidelined by Blair and Jonathan Powell. They preferred talking to the hard men on both sides. Now the hospitals and mortuaries of Northern Ireland will be run by men like Adams and McGuinness who did their best to fill them.
At least Adamns & McGuinness are working for peace now. However the "Loyalist" madmen are still out there. Isn't it interesting how people choose to ignore UVF, UDA etc, even though they killed more people (often with RUC help) than the IRA? Double standards?
A great move for a great man. I hope him all the best for this. A man of vision and integrity, who was at least ten years ahead of his time.
He will be a real asset for the Conservatives.
The UUP needs to change, as does the NI Tories. The former needs to lose the flat-earth brigade that sit at the heart of the party, while the latter need to stop being a Middle-England party (NI is not Finchley!). Moderate unionists need a party they can vote for. A party with an Unionist agenda based on basic Tory principles.
He has a nobel peace prize - boy I'd KILL for one of those :)))
Presumably if Lords reform goes ahead as currently planned, there would be nothing to stop Trimble standing for election to the House of Commons as a Conservative and serving in a Cameron Cabinet in some other capacity.
Good point 'anonymous' above. Violence on all sides must be condemened, and all too often observers have taken one side or the other and failed to condemn equally!
Was a little surprised when I first read the rumour in the early hours; however in the sunlight of the day it is confirmed.
Does this mean that there possibly going to be a link-up between the UUP and the Tories? I know they have always been close, but would be interesting if they did!
I admitted in a post on my Blog on Friday that I think I'm turning Tory.
One of the reasons I gave was that I feel the Conservatives have an air of professionalism about them.
Mr Trimble joining the Conservatives can only boost that image.
Why would a former leader who is no longer elected in Northern Ireland not seek to forge a new career? His statement and attitude (he was until today a member of my UUP Constituency Association) show that he seen the NI Tories as the joke they are, and he has no intention of damaging the UUP. I suppose the best example I can think of (although it is not an amazingly accurate one) would be a Canadian Pronincial Premier or cabinet member entering federal politics.
That's quite a coup.
Welcome to the party Lord Trimble!
I feel David Trimble could be an impressive addition to the array of talent that is the new Tory Party.I know the talk in the pub was all about David Trimble,many who had been life long Labour activists were thinking of jumping ship.The local Co-op was agog at the news ,and with the local elections just round the corner many were considering changing their vote.The cry was echoing through the valleys who is Trimble,who is Trimble,ten more years,ten more years.
Daily Referendum said...I think I'm turning Tory.Mr Trimble joining the Conservatives can only boost that image.
If all that was needed to get you onboard was this we would have acted sooner.Perhaps when the next party manifesto is prepared we could scour the country for ex politicians who have been unable to get elected elsewhere and welcome them into the fold,what do you think ?
Mike didn't say:
"What do you think ? ex politicians would have acted sooner. Welcome them into the fold when the next party manifesto is prepared."
Mike, the above statement is me misquoting you.
I said:
"One of the reasons I gave was that I feel the Conservatives have an air of professionalism about them.
Mr Trimble joining the Conservatives can only boost that image."
Please note I said: "one of the reasons"
It was not as you said: "all that was needed"
How bored are you?
Daily Referendum said...Mike didn't say.
Your jumping ship, don't bandy words with me you pathetic turncoat.
David Anthony said...
That's quite a coup.
I've just checked you out,your 25 for Gods sake when this guy was failing you were still at school.Please explain the coup bit,no one but the bloggers here remember the fellow,and those that claim what a coup had to Google him.
Mike,
Pensions, Gold Sales, A&E Wards, Defence Budget, ID Cards, Police Red Tape... I could go on.
Don't worry Mike It's just one bloke with one vote - or is it?
{ Isn't it interesting how people choose to ignore UVF, UDA etc, even though they killed more people (often with RUC help) than the IRA? }
This is simply untrue, the IRA killed far more people than the loyalist terror groups. Anyway the loyalist groups have been soundly rejected by the Unionist electorate at every opportunity, Republicans have enthusiastically embraced murderers at the ballot box.
Daily Referendum said...
Pensions, Gold Sales, A&E Wards, Defence Budget, ID Cards, Police Red Tape... I could go on.
and so could I..
Thatcher and her fiddling with our State Pensions you surely remember that ? Norman Lamont and "Black Wednesday",Gummers' eat British Beef,Tebbits' "Get on your bike",Ken sells fags to the poor,police red tape no problem let the lads kick the life out of miners and their starving kids.Save money by no longer supplying free milk to the poor,only allowing the sale of council houses in parts of London if those involved were thought to vote Tory.John Major went to war in Iraq much as Tony has done however he was lucky that it was Bush Snr. at the helm,if only they had sorted it out then who knows, but they didn't did they!
I like you could go on.....
Don't you dare forget what it was like under those despicable people.
Mike,
I won't be voting in the 1997 Election, I'll be voting in the next one.
Hardly surprising, now that he's London-based and constituency-free, and considering his involvement with The Henry Jackson Society (when are the Labour MPs signed up to that going to defect?). But I never understood why he took a peerage. He could have just waited for some aged Knight of the Shires to die, sent his CV to the local Conservative Association, and breezed in, assuming that no one else with a Nobel Peace Prize had applied.
He would then have become Leader of the Conservative Party, and the much-trumpeted, but actually non-existent, Tory Revival might actually be happening in the electorally key areas of Scotland, Wales, the North, the Midlands and the West Country. For that matter, merger with the UUP would also have forced Labour and the Lib Dems to contest seats in Northern Ireland, all of which Trimble has long come close to advocating publicly.
Ah, well, it was not to be. So at looks as if he'd be Leader of the Lords in a Tory Cabinet instead.
Dont u just love it when people always refer back to the past, as if in an an all the earth was created in 1979.
Some of us remember the 1974-1979 Labour government. Inflation at 26%, Healey had to go cap in hand to the IMF to loans, strikes every five minutes.
At least David Trimble worked to stop the politics of hate !
"I wouldn't bet against him being Leader of the House of Lords in a future Cameron Cabinet"
Where's he going to get elected Iain?
;o)
David Trimble is one the most genuine men in politics and a great catch for the Conservatives.
I watched the Cameron local election party political broadcast today, as someone very sceptical of cameron, and I was massively impressed. He really is coming across to ordinary people as the voice of sense in a largely discredited political arena. David Trimble is another example of how the tide has turned to such an extent that the challenge for NuLab is to hold together beyond the next general election.
We are witnessing a sea-change in UK politics that is far greater than that we saw at the end of the last Tory administration. I have recently returned to this country and the level of disgust, total lack of trust and general dismissal of the current government is staggering.
I can only hope that this truly is the death of socialism in this country, god knows its failure is absolute on any measure, and the polls i think underestimate the scale of Labours unpopularity.
In our local elections a well known and popular local figure is going to lose in a spectacular way ONLY because they are standing under the Labour banner. Had they stood as an independent they would have won at a canter, this is the scale of the rejection I am seeing.
David Trimble will be the first of many people attracted to the Tory Party if Cameron can keep the idea of "social responsibility' on track as it is the rejection of 'nanny state' Labour and realisation we need to return to a more traditional society that is winning support across the country rather than the green and rebranding on the Tory image.
Anonymous 10.02AM: I would like to see your research for your claim that the UVF & UDA killed more people than the IRA. The University of Ulster's widely respected CAIN project puts the number killed by republican paramilitary groups at 2055, 1020 by loyalist terrorists and 368 by members of the security forces.
The Provos are thought to have killed 1821 people between 1969 and 2001.
I can't think of anyone who "ignores" loyalist terror. I agree with you however that loyalist terrorists are "still out there" but I suppose that could apply to the entire terrorist community of Northern Ireland, as our prisons have been emptied and numerous terror cases have been left to grow cold quietly in the interests of the Peace Process.
El Tom, he's not going to need to get elected. Everyone knows that there isn't going to be an elected second chamber. 95 Labour MPs who hadn't voted for 80% election voted for 100% election, just to kill off the whole thing.
At most, expect some sort of elected element in an otherwise unaltered House of Lords, with elections very infrequently (say, every 15 years), and with those who win them simply raised to the peerage, so that they will still sit for life.
Poor Michael Shilliday
'he was until today a member of my UUP Constituency Association'
Yes Michael but he has LEFT the UUP and pledged never to campaign for them again.
Post a Comment