He made his mark insofar as I could actually tell you the leader of the UUP off the top of my head for the first time since David Trimble.
For the best.
He set out to achieve a ‘union of people’ and attempted to be the liberal Unionist alternative to the DUP/TUV.
He failed at this by continuing to default back to the regressive positions of political unionism, thereby cementing the decline of the party and unionism as a whole.
Nesbitt was the best leader Unionism had since Ervine, and even then, he was just too progressive and sensible for the electorate. Now it seems that Alliance have filled that gap as the party that sensible unionists vote for.
A critical blow to progressive(ish) Unionism.
>Irreconcilable differences between myself and Party Officers combined with the inability to influence and shape the party going forward means that I can no longer remain the Party Leader.
I assume these “Irreconcilable differences” come down to whether or not the part would or should continue to oppose every aspect of Irish culture by default. For all their talk the UUP have been line astern with the DUP and TUV on most of the big issues in the last 10 years.
Perhaps Doug had a personal desire to move the party forward instead of functioning as Decaff DUP. Were that to be the case he should’ve made statements to that affect sooner.
Wonder who’ll replace him.
OK UUP time to get someone in the seat that will get the party some action. The DUP can’t be that hard to counter rite?
One of the more progressive Unionists, didn’t always agree with him but certainly did on a lot more than the rest.
Sad that others in the party may not have stood with him in terms of more inclusiveness. More of that was needed here.
Devastating blow for murderers everywhere. Now Ireland will likely no longer have any murderers in a leadership position. Sad day for violence.
In all seriousness, he flip flopped, couldn’t commit, his progressivism seemed inauthentic, he was an obvious blowhard trying to conceal it at every waking moment, and to be a nominally progressive Unionist means either subtly or unsubtly living in denial that the UK is a lost cause and that you genuinely don’t care about that. His replacement will likely be worse, but they’re missing the point if they think replacing him at all is a cure in and of itself.
The search for America’s Next Top Model will have more bearing on NI politics than who the next UUP leader is.
This is a tragedy for progressive unionism
Given the wording of the statement you can only assume Doug’s personal wishes to push a more inclusive brand and bridge the divide between those who see themselves as Irish/British got quite a bit of backlash from certain members of the party, not a terrible shock, but still sad to see.
He had plenty of failings as leader, some particularly poor stunts like parachuting in Tim Collins, and that train wreck interview where he tried to defend him, but he always seemed like a good man who’s heart was in the right place, and he did succeed in both increasing the UUP vote share (albeit because the DUP is dying a death) and winning back a Westminster seat, it’s a shame after that the party seems to be throwing him to the side.
Another Unionist leader punished for not being enough of a bigot.
Wonder who they will pick as new leader and what direction they will go
People saying about progressive unionism, I’m from a unionist background (and hate that definition) but I progressed to alliance over DUPlite.
I confess to voting uup once and it was purely based on spite as they were the best chance of pushing dup off a seat.
The upside, we’re probably as far away from an election here as we can be so this would at least give Moderate Unionism a chance to find it’s voice….. If that’s a voice that it wants to find.
Alternatively, this could end up boosting Alliance votes if a UUP replacement becomes is seen as right-wing and less moderate than Doug.
That’s a a shame. Sounds like he had no hope in nudging a bit of progressiveness into unionism.
14 comments
He made his mark insofar as I could actually tell you the leader of the UUP off the top of my head for the first time since David Trimble.
For the best.
He set out to achieve a ‘union of people’ and attempted to be the liberal Unionist alternative to the DUP/TUV.
He failed at this by continuing to default back to the regressive positions of political unionism, thereby cementing the decline of the party and unionism as a whole.
Nesbitt was the best leader Unionism had since Ervine, and even then, he was just too progressive and sensible for the electorate. Now it seems that Alliance have filled that gap as the party that sensible unionists vote for.
A critical blow to progressive(ish) Unionism.
>Irreconcilable differences between myself and Party Officers combined with the inability to influence and shape the party going forward means that I can no longer remain the Party Leader.
I assume these “Irreconcilable differences” come down to whether or not the part would or should continue to oppose every aspect of Irish culture by default. For all their talk the UUP have been line astern with the DUP and TUV on most of the big issues in the last 10 years.
Perhaps Doug had a personal desire to move the party forward instead of functioning as Decaff DUP. Were that to be the case he should’ve made statements to that affect sooner.
Wonder who’ll replace him.
OK UUP time to get someone in the seat that will get the party some action. The DUP can’t be that hard to counter rite?
One of the more progressive Unionists, didn’t always agree with him but certainly did on a lot more than the rest.
Sad that others in the party may not have stood with him in terms of more inclusiveness. More of that was needed here.
Devastating blow for murderers everywhere. Now Ireland will likely no longer have any murderers in a leadership position. Sad day for violence.
In all seriousness, he flip flopped, couldn’t commit, his progressivism seemed inauthentic, he was an obvious blowhard trying to conceal it at every waking moment, and to be a nominally progressive Unionist means either subtly or unsubtly living in denial that the UK is a lost cause and that you genuinely don’t care about that. His replacement will likely be worse, but they’re missing the point if they think replacing him at all is a cure in and of itself.
The search for America’s Next Top Model will have more bearing on NI politics than who the next UUP leader is.
This is a tragedy for progressive unionism
Given the wording of the statement you can only assume Doug’s personal wishes to push a more inclusive brand and bridge the divide between those who see themselves as Irish/British got quite a bit of backlash from certain members of the party, not a terrible shock, but still sad to see.
He had plenty of failings as leader, some particularly poor stunts like parachuting in Tim Collins, and that train wreck interview where he tried to defend him, but he always seemed like a good man who’s heart was in the right place, and he did succeed in both increasing the UUP vote share (albeit because the DUP is dying a death) and winning back a Westminster seat, it’s a shame after that the party seems to be throwing him to the side.
Another Unionist leader punished for not being enough of a bigot.
Wonder who they will pick as new leader and what direction they will go
People saying about progressive unionism, I’m from a unionist background (and hate that definition) but I progressed to alliance over DUPlite.
I confess to voting uup once and it was purely based on spite as they were the best chance of pushing dup off a seat.
The upside, we’re probably as far away from an election here as we can be so this would at least give Moderate Unionism a chance to find it’s voice….. If that’s a voice that it wants to find.
Alternatively, this could end up boosting Alliance votes if a UUP replacement becomes is seen as right-wing and less moderate than Doug.
That’s a a shame. Sounds like he had no hope in nudging a bit of progressiveness into unionism.