It seems to have gone by largely unnoticed (at least to this blogger) but it certainly appears that the DUP, brave custodians of the union, are more interested in blackmailing the average pro-union voter into voting DUP than they are in safeguarding Northern Ireland's position in the United Kingdom. Hands up - who's surprised?

Politicians are famous for having no principles, not least in Northern Ireland, but according to an interesting report in the Republic's Irish Independent, the DUP have happily overseen the removal of a key safeguard from the Good Friday Agreement. That safeguard meant that the First Minister would have to come from the majority community. Fair enough. However, following the DUP's supposed "fair deal" we heard so much about, there's a distinct possibility that we could see a Sinn Fein first minister [free registration required] even though votes for nationalist parties are still the minority.

Follow up:

Thanks to the careful negotiation of the DUP team at St. Andrews, the First Minister is now appointed by the largest party, regardless of whether their party is from the majority community or not. In a normal democracy that wouldn't be a problem but, as we all know, Northern Ireland is definitely not normal and describing it as a democracy is questionable.

While it doesn't initially sound like good news for anyone (besides Sinn Fein), if you haven't already worked it out, this is a fantastic tactical move for the DUP. At the last election they campaigned vociferously on the idea that only they could prevent the PR disaster (for unionism) of Sinn Fein becoming the largest party in Northern Ireland. Given the habit of people in Northern Ireland of voting simply to keep the other side out, this was probably a wise move (for the DUP, not for unionism). If the image of Sinn Fein becoming the largest party won them a few votes last time around, imagine how many more they could get by putting out the image of Gerry Adams as First Minister.

Amazingly, while all this has been going on, the DUP have been talking, with a straight face apparently, about the UUP's "capitulation" to republicans. The Ulster Unionists were criticised for allowing terrorists into government and now the DUP want to make one First Minister (and possibly hand them policing and justice too). Bizarre!

The only question is whether unionist voters will punish the DUP for this self-serving move, or will their fear dictate that they fall in line and do exactly what the DUP are trying to force them to: vote predictably in a 'sectarian headcount.' The Unionst electorate are now left with a choice: reward the dirty tactics of dishonesty and manipulation by voting DUP or risk, depending on the extent of any SDLP come-back (now that they've been proved right on policing), Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness as Northern Ireland's chief ambassador and figurehead. All I can say for sure is that if the latter happens, the blame will lie squarely with the DUP, not those who vote against them.

"If at any time the party which is the largest political party of the largest political designation is not the largest political party any nomination to be made at that time under section 16A(4) or 16B(4) shall instead be made by the nominating officer of the largest political party;"
Northern Ireland (Saint Andrews Agreement) Act 2006 Section 16C Paragraph 6