Assembly elections: overviewThe UKUP leader wants to destroy the DUP leader, writes Gerry Moriarty
These elections have started off relatively quietly but last night you could get the sharp smell of political cordite. How best to bill this showdown? The rough rider versus the North Down QC perhaps.
Robert McCartney is engaging in the so far scientifically impossible but apparently politically achievable exercise of multilocation in these Assembly elections in an attempt to destroy Ian Paisley in the twilight of his political career.
And if that means thrusting Martin McGuinness into the first minister's office rather than the DUP leader then so be it, according to the United Kingdom Unionist Party (UKUP) leader. It's as bitter as that. Aged 70 Mr McCartney is just 10 years younger than the DUP leader. Through some odd form of political osmosis he has been invested with the de facto leadership of the various unionist blocs who oppose any dealings with Sinn Féin.
Mr McCartney, the QC who destroyed boxer Barry McGuigan in his legal tussle with Barney Eastwood, is the outgoing Assembly member for North Down, where he is again standing. He is also running in West Tyrone, Fermanagh South Tyrone, South Antrim, North Belfast, and Lagan Valley. He believes he will win in North Down and that his alter egos will be successful in a number of these five other constituencies as well. His plan is that these McCartney doppelgangers after election will resign their seats and other UKUP politicians will then be co-opted to the vacant posts.
If it all transpires as envisaged then it will pose a monumental headache for the next speaker of the Assembly and its standing orders and rules committee. Not that it bothers Mr McCartney. Real-life politicians are standing in eight other constituencies under the UKUP banner as well.
Mr McCartney is standing on the No platform which Dr Paisley monopolised for virtually all of this career. He is the new Dr Paisley in a sense, a role he relishes.
The DUP is dismissive of this challenge but it must cause unease. At this standing the real Mr McCartney in North Down would seem the only UKUP candidate who should be returned. Nonetheless, he expects that this unionist opposition to the DUP will so fragment Dr Paisley's vote that Sinn Féin will emerge as the largest party, entitling Mr McGuinness to the post of first minister. That's good, says Mr McCartney. "If Martin McGuinness turns out to be the first minister that is the end of it; that is, literally implosion," he adds. And he's probably right: were his strategy to unfold as planned the chance of a deal would seem scuppered. Whatever about deputy first minister, unionists would not wear Mr McGuinness as top dog.
The British and Irish governments have warned that the alternative to devolution by March 26th is Plan B, a greater role for Dublin in the affairs of Northern Ireland. Neither does that trouble the UKUP leader. First of all he doesn't believe London would permit "anything like joint authority". And he adds, "I suppose the bottom line would be that many decent people in both communities, not just the unionist community, might consider that being governed by democrats from the Republic and Northern Ireland, even on a subliminal basis, would be equally preferable to being governed by a bunch of fascists".
Dr Paisley says he is prepared for all opposition, from whatever quarter, and that he has dealt with and defeated such challenges throughout his political life. "I am a rough rider," he says in Clint Eastwood mode, preparing to face down the troublesome QC.