But she didn’t go. Not yet. Despite losing her absolute majority in the General Election, the Tories were still the majority party. None of the other parties was keen to form a coalition to support her, but despite the need for austerity she was able to put together a large enough bribe to gain the support of the DUP, the so-called Democratic Unionist Party, founded and dominated for 37 years by the Rev Ian Paisley. It is a right-wing party, opposed to anything that threatens ‘Protestant’ domination of Ulster or in any way advances the rights of nationalists or human rights generally in Northern Ireland, and according to Wikipedia, it:
“was involved in setting up the paramilitary movements Third Force and Ulster Resistance.
It is right-wing and socially conservative, being anti-abortion and opposing same-sex marriage.”
It’s social policies are dominated by the bigotry of the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster, another Paisley creation, with just 15,000 members, mainly in Northern Ireland. Its continuing opposition to social reforms have meant that there is very much a different law applicable in Northern Ireland to that in the rest of the UK, and make it hard for many of us to understand any real object to different laws relating to the movement of goods – as customs boundary at the Irish Sea.
The people have spoken’ – but not quite clearly enough
So far the ‘support agreement’ between the Tories and the DUP has held, though it appears to have needed some further bribery to get the recent agreement with the EU to enable the talks with them to move on to the next stage, and it seems likely that as talks develop further it may be impossible to keep the DUP on side. And since the coalition between the Tories and Lib-Dems from 2010-2015 led to the near demise of the Lib Dems and has made coalition a poisonous concept in UK politics it seems more than likely we will have a further election well before 2022.
But back in early June, immediately after the election it seemed unlikely that May could hang on, and protesters were out on the streets with the message ‘May Must Go.’ I went to Downing St on the morning after the results and photographed protesters there and outside the temporary media village on College Green.
The following day was a Saturday and there was a May Has To Go Party/Protest #notourgovernment in Parliament Square, celebrating Jeremy Corbyn’s performance in bringing Labour close to victory, despite the opposition to him within his own party. The result showed clearly that he was electable even if not this time, destroying the arguments of his right-wing critics, though some continue to mutter and plot.
At the end of the rally, most of those present marched to Downing St and protested there for a while, before marching off. But there was no plan, and nobody knew where to go, and at Trafalgar Square they simply turned around and marched back to Parliament Square where I left them.
Protests follow Hung Parliament Vote
May has to go rally!
May has to go march!
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
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