If You Ask Me
by Newton Emerson

Could Paul Berry go down in history as the man who modernised the DUP? At Belfast High Court last week the troubled Tandragee assembly member raised some questions that his party badly needs to answer.

Mr Berry’s solicitors, Madden and Finucane, obtained an injunction against any disciplinary action which doesn’t comply with the DUP’s internal rules and procedures. This is an ingenious defence – because the DUP isn’t big on internal rules and procedures. It has never held a leadership election, it has no official mechanism to adopt policy, no formal relationship between centre and constituency and no real hierarchy of any kind beyond Doctor Paisley at the top and everyone else at the bottom.

It seems to have a problem appointing party officers as well, at least according to Rhonda Paisley, who has just taken the DUP to court for sex discrimination after failing to land a job.

Until now this lack of rules has given the party an advantage over the Ulster Unionists – because, of course, the UUP has far too many rules, most of them dating back to an earlier political age. If the time comes to expel Jeffrey Donaldson, for example, it certainly won’t take Dr Paisley five years and 12 special conventions to reach a decision – but only if Dr Paisley is still around.

The DUP leader has recently returned to robust health and, having never had a drink or a smoke in his life, he could easily live for another 20 years - but even the big man isn’t immortal.

What will hold the party together after he has gone if it has no internal structures? Already the membership is thought to be clearly divided into Robinson and Dodds factions, and MEP Jim Allister may fancy his chances as well. But speculation about the DUP’s next leader misses the point.

The question isn’t who will it be, but how on earth will the party decide? Will it be a show of hands, a back-room deal - or a punch-up on the Newtownards Road? I can’t say – and neither can anyone else, including Mr Dodds, Mr Robinson and Mr Allister. Few organisations, let alone a political organisation, can survive that sort of uncertainty intact.

If the DUP is to outlast Ian Paisley then it needs the rules, procedures and structures to operate without Ian Paisley – and how ironic if it is Madden and Finucane, partners at law, who finally lay down some laws inside our largest unionist party.

If You Ask Me Archive