A disasterous protest vote

Is this the end for the moderate viewpoint in Northern Ireland? It would appear to be so. The UUP's vote has collapsed. They now have only one seat left in Westminster. The SDLP have taken a hit from Sinn Fein. Now the two extreme parties from both communities are in the ascendency.

Was this an endorsement of the DUP and Sinn Fein's position, however, or was it a protest vote in either community? In other words, did people vote for the DUP as the anti-Sinn Fein party or did they genuinely believe in what the DUP are doing and vice-versa? I believe it was a protest vote.

The UUP were always the strongest party of the Union in the North. They were also relative moderates compared to Ian Paisley and the Democratic Unionist Party as were the SDLP in the Nationalist community. Ian Paisley has been the face of extreme Unionism and leader of the DUP for thirty years. Why should he suddenly become so popular now? It is not what he has done recently- he has not changed in all his time in politics. What has changed is the Good Friday agreement and the "appeasement" of Sinn Fein in Loyalist minds. Paisley's message of the Catholic threat to the Ulster Protestant way of life now rings true where in the past he has been easy to dismiss as the unacceptable face of Loyalism and a crack on the extreme right of reason never mind Unionism. For many Protestants in the North, the IRA and Sinn Fein have got all the gains out of Good Friday, whether its prisoner early release (which Loyalists have also been granted) or delays in decommisioning (all the protests have been from the Unionist side about IRA decommisioning; there has been little or no mention about Loyalist extremists handing in their weapons). This has emboldened the Reverand to push for more. The demand that the IRA provide a photo of their decommisioning- something which Paisley must have known the IRA would never agree to- was as much for political gain as it was for proving that decommisioning was taking place.

Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, his strategy seems to have worked. By playing on the supposed threat on the Protestant way of life from Nationalists his party has become the dominant representative of Protestants in the province. His message has also become a self-fulfilling prophecy. By raising passions as he has, the Republican community has looked at the two parties on offer and, even after the Northern Bank Raid and the Robert MacCartney controversy has chosen the more extreme of the two; the "best" defender of Republicanism, Sinn Fein.

Like in Hamlet, it has been appearance rather than reality which has mattered in this election and now things look grim for the North. A few days ago I heard a commentator say that Election 2005 in the North was about finding a negotiating team for both communities. I hope they do end up around a table but I highly doubt it. It could be a long time before we see devolved government in Stormont again.

Benedict XVI: Conservative or Right Winger

So to some surprise Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected Pope Tuesday. It was not thought he had enough votes in the Conclave to claim a 2/3s majority but he got in on the fourth (or possibly fifth) vote. The fear that seems to be present in many quarters of his church now, especially in the developed world, is that Benedict will be a radical conservative pope and thus alienate even more a flock that has drifted away from the Catholic Church in alarming numbers over recent years. This is based primarily on Benedict's writings and speeches during his time as Pope John Paul II's "enforcer" over the last quarter century. He has suggested that because Christ took the male form it proves man's intrinsic superiority to women. He has also suggested that homosexuality is morally abhorrent and at a mass recently he spoke out against rampant liberalism and the dangers of changing to suit "fads" in the modern world.

This attitude alarms many people but I am not one of them. What else should a Pope be? He is, after all, the defender of the Catholic faith on Earth. The Church has not accepted homosexuality for 2,000 years. Why should it accept it now? Women priests have not been permitted for 2,000 years. Why should they be allowed now? One need only look at the Church of England to see what can happen to a church that seeks to change itself in order to attract a new generation. Religion should not feel the need to change to suit the people. If somebody doesn't like the idea of mass being in Latin or drowned in incense then that's not the church's problem (that's one thing about George Bush- I may hate him but I know exactly what he stands for). Hamlet doesn't change because solliloquys and brooding young men go out of fashion. Why should the church be any different?

Of course the Pope is a Conservative, as he should be. A liberal Pope runs the risk of the Church changing where change is unneccessary. Yes some changes should be made. The official stance on contraceptives and specifically condoms, for example, is not just outdated but plain irresponsible. Apart from the obvious risk of contracting STDs, surely it is as big a sin to bring a child into this world when the parents are incapable of raising that child officiently as it is to prevent conception in the first place. This, however, would not be changing just for change's sake. This would be common sense as much as anything else. It is not as if sex out of wedlock is a modern issue after all. In general though, the Pope should maintain the status quo and I believe Benedict to be able to do this effectively.

At the end of the day though, what the death of John Paul and succession of Benedict has thought me is that whoever is the Pope has little effect on my everyday life. If I'm about to have sex I'm not going to think of a guy 800 miles away who says it's a sin to use a condom and I'm not going to tell a gay friend that I think he is evil. Perhaps that is why I believe the Pope should always be a Conservative. It's reassuring to know what my church stands for and that it won't be forever changing what it stands for but it will make little difference to me whether I live up to certain aspects of its teachings or not.

Welcome

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