Everything Ulster - Election 2005

NO, this is nothing to do with the questionable campaign slogan employed by the Ulster Unionists. This is something much more disturbing. Liam Kennedy, the Queen's University professor standing in West Belfast calling on the paramilitaries to go away had a severe blow dealt to his campaign today... from an advertising agency!

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Liam Kennedy had a poster designed for his campaign featuring a photograph of a punishment beating beneath the words "Human Rights 2005". To the right was a list of paramilitary organisations (IRA, UDA, INLA, UVF, Real IRA, LVF) all crossed out with a big red X, and beneath this list was the simple statement "Vote Liam Kennedy".

The advertising agency, JC Decaux, has refused to display the poster, which Kennedy had decided to use on billboards in 2 locations in the constituency (the Falls/Springfield Road junction and the Shankill Road). According to a spokesman, the posters were "inappropriate and could cause offence". Kennedy has accused the company of 'political censorship' and pointed out that 53,000 leaflets baring the same imagery had been delivered by the Royal Mail at the weekend with no problems.

The question Kennedy rightly asks is who would this offend? The people most likely to be offended are the paramilitaries themselves, and frankly, fuck them! This is a downright disgrace; paramilitaries are not only affecting their own communities, which have been downtrodden and strangled by these paracites for decades, but their influence obviously reaches into the business world too. So where does this all stop? Who really runs this country? The truth might not sit comfortably with some who prefer to ignore them.

This is why the DUP and Sinn Fein can't be allowed to triumph on Thursday. This is why people need to vote for parties who clearly renounce sectarianism in their actions as well as their words.

Everything Ulster sincerely wishes Liam Kennedy all the best in on election day, this Thursday, 5th May, and asks any readers in the West Belfast constituency to seriously consider a vote for someone who really stands for human rights and doesn't just abuse the principle to score poltical points.

This story was reported in the Observer (page 2), by Henry McDonald, on 1st May 2005. No link to the story is available at the time of publishing (as far as I can tell).