Sinn Féin and the DUP Need Each Other as Bogey Men to Mobilise Their Vote

Sinn Féin and the DUP Need Each Other as Bogey Men to Mobilise Their Vote - Tóibín

Commenting on the recent political pacts between Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the DUP and the UUP Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD stated:

“Sinn Féin and the DUP have a symbiotic relationship. They need each other as bogey men to mobilise each other’s vote. However, framing every election as a battle between the two simply embeds stalemate and dysfunction into the political system in the north of Ireland”.

“The cost of that stalemate is everywhere. Stormont is shuttered for over 1,000 days. 300,000 people are in poverty. 36,000 people received food parcels last year. There are 11,000 people homeless, suicide rates are far higher in the north than in the south or in Britain, mental health investment in no where near what it should be and now we face a winter with a significant nurses strike. And all the while both Sinn Féin and the DUP draw down millions of pounds in salaries and expenses”.

“In any other walk of life if organisations who were supposed to be in competition with each other signed pacts not to compete with each other it would be called a cartel. The north is being carved up yet again by a political cartel that has to date only brought political dead lock.

What have Sinn Féin MPs done to bring about a United Ireland. In the last year Michelle Gildernew, Michelle O’Neill and Mary Lou Mac Donald both went to London to demand that London legislate directly for the north of Ireland to delete the right to life up until 28 weeks for an unborn child. For 200 years republicans have demanded that London stop legislating for Ireland and here we have Sinn Féin reversing that policy and campaigning and welcoming London Rule.

“Aontú seeks to break that deadlock. We seek a new all-Ireland beginning where the bread and butter concerns of real citizens are not pushed aside by well paid politicians. We seek a New Ireland Forum made up of all civic and political views in Ireland to work together in partnership to tackle the damage of Brexit, build the all-Ireland economy and start to plan for Irish Unity. We seek representation for MPs in the north in the Oireachtas now.”

The Irish political system is radically broken

In Ireland the vast majority of elected representatives put a finger in the air to check which way the political wind is blowing. They have one eye on their leaders – seeking brownie points – and another eye keeping their seat safe. If elected reps shut up and do as they’re told, they are promoted; if they stand up for what they believe in, they are demoted. No wonder we have the political class we have. No wonder one point one billion euro is being buried in a hole under the National Children’s Hospital and that Stormont is in stalemate.

Throughout Ireland, many people are now afraid to say what they feel, many are afraid to respectfully engage on a range of different topics. Many feel there is a new censorship and a new political correctness in Ireland, that opposition to the establishment is being deleted.

Respectful opposition is not the enemy. Respectful opposition is a critical element of a functional democracy. Aontú will have the backbone to stand up, without fear, for you.