Paisley and the May Government

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44932312

This story is probably most interesting to me because it involves Ian Paisley Jr., son of the more famous Paisley who died in 2014. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) founded by Paisley Sr. in 1971 is currently in a coalition with Theresa May's Tories and while I've always followed British politics to some extent, I have as of late been paying a little closer attention.

https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-dup-and-ulsters-christian-witness.html

Paisley's movement has followers in the United States and there are longtime bonds between Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church and American Fundamentalist circles, particularly the Anti- Billy Graham factions centred on Bob Jones University.

Paisley Jr. is in trouble. He's been caught up in a corruption scandal with regard to Sri Lanka and that government's attempts to cover up and whitewash the crimes that took place at the conclusion of its long and brutal civil war against the Tamil minority. Paisley Jr. it would seem was willing to take payments and reward in order to lobby their cause in Westminster.

I am interested in what this will mean for the DUP as the party is currently in a state of disarray. Not all are happy with the current leadership and the trajectory the party has taken under Arlene Foster.

Secondly, a DUP in disarray just adds to the trouble and chaos Whitehall is trying to manage. Between resignations, scandals and the chaos of Brexit, Theresa May's government is struggling to stay ahead of a no confidence vote and a missing DUP vote (while Paisley is suspended) doesn't help the larger government agenda.

And what will happen if May is forced to resign? No one is sure at present. The conservatives may vote in a new leader, a position Boris Johnson is clearly pursuing and yet this kind of brinksmanship carries certain risks. Public polls suggest if May steps down there should be a general election in which case the Tories risk losing power altogether.

The campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader has proven unsuccessful as he remains defiant even as he continues to compromise and move toward the centre.

There's been quite a row over Labour's supposed Anti-Semitism problem, but this is largely a bogus and contrived scandal rooted in an attempt to bring him down and have him replaced by someone safe, in other words someone from the Centre-Right Blair-ite faction of Labour. Speaking out against Zionist Israel and Likud in particular does not make one an Anti-Semite.

In the midst of these trials, scandals and battles, May and other voices within government are aggressively pursuing the Anti-Russia campaign. May hopes this will stir support for the Conservatives and her government and in general there's a push toward a more robust security state which functionally means the loss of even more civil liberties and censorship.

Few believe she will survive the spring of 2019 when Brexit is supposed to go into effect... but will she make it until then? There are many in the British Establishment who absolutely do not want to see Corbyn take power. In fact they're fit to be tied about it and thus they will do all they can to avoid a general election. And yet what would that mean? Boris Johnson heading a Conservative government? Given his warmongering, Trump-like bombast and his delusions of Churchill-ian grandeur this prospect is disturbing to say the least.

Britain is facing some tough times and difficult questions. Let us pray the Christians of the UK are able to navigate these waters with wisdom and speak truth, as pilgrims bearing witness to Christ. The politics of Northern Ireland are always tortured and the witness of the Protestants is polluted at best. It's a shame that many of Biblical positions taken by people within the Free Presbyterian Church and the DUP are literally polluted by their association with The Troubles and the politics of Ulster. The May government reached out in desperation to the DUP in order to hold on to power in the wake of their disastrous snap election in 2017. And yet many a DUP supporter feared that such an alliance would corrupt the testimony of the DUP. It has, but they were already corrupted, they just didn't know it. Arlene Foster it would seem has proven to be a true politician, attending Gaelic sporting events and reaching out to the Sodomite community and yet who would have thought that Ian Paisley's son would potentially bring the whole arrangement down?

It might survive but the DUP will not emerge unscathed and many believe the Conservatives have sealed their doom, maybe for a generation. We've heard that sort of thing before. Politics can flip quickly. They might be back on their feet in 5-10 years (or less) but after Cameron, May and figures like Johnson, their prospects don't look very good at the moment.

Some will ask, why write about this at all? Why should Christians care about this? For someone living in Kentucky or even Manitoba, what difference does it make? It's true, British politics aren't going to have a big impact on your life.

I write about these things because they interest me and because as a Christian I want to understand the world I live in. I have brethren around the world, not just in my own county, state or nation. The Church is all too often poisoned by nationalism and insularity. We should be internationalist in our thinking, not internationalist in the way that socialists tend to think, but internationalist in the trans-national sense. As strangers and pilgrims, we are beyond nations and so in another sense the affairs of all nations interest us and if we are thinking in a unified sense with our brethren, their affairs affect us.