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Paisley quits
Finally the inevitable has happened, and the octogenarian First Minster has decided to quit. I just got a text which is very incisive. "If you listen carefully, you'll hear O'Neill, Chichester Clark and Faulkner laughing".
And well they might. O'Neill was insensitive to both his own base and the Catholics he was genuinely trying to each out to. But he had broadly the right idea. Chichester Clark was a good man, who would have been a better Prime Minister than Brooke (who I think was the best of the 6) has he been PM in happier times. But he came to power with uncharacteristic ruthlessness that he couldn't keep up, and events conspired to make his premiership a moderate failure. Faulkner didn't have the trust of the liberals (for repeatedly knifing O'Neill) not the traditionalists (who could only see his liberal actions over local government), and as a result was vulnerable to what happened to him. He wandered into a cul-de-sac where Hume and the NIO persuaded him to back a Nationalist deal. Which, inevitably, failed.
What can one say about Paisley? Karl Rove has returned from hibernation to say "Good bye and stay gone. No man has ever done Unionism more harm than you".
I won’t quarrel.