Anti-DUP protests are an opportunistic attempt to push anti-Tory agenda The news has been awash with people taking to the streets in protest of the proposed supply and confidence pact […]

The news has been awash with people taking to the streets in protest of the proposed supply and confidence pact between the Conservatives and the Democratic Union Party, but delve a little deeper and the anti-DUP protest movement in England looks like a cynical and opportunistic attempt to push an anti-Tory agenda.

The people are passionate and well intentioned but it seems disingenuous or possibly even exploitative of the suffering of people in Northern Ireland. Protestors are using the mistreatment of women in Northern Ireland as a stick to beat the Tories, but did they care three weeks ago?

Where were the hundreds of protesters when Stormont ignored a High Court ruling that Northern Ireland’s abortion laws were “incompatible with human rights”, when the Supreme Court ruled that Northern Irish women couldn’t access free abortions on the NHS, or when the DUP used their petition of concern to block equal marriage? Certainly not in London.

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DUP’s stranglehold on Stormont

It is great that a spotlight is finally being shone on the DUP’s stranglehold on Stormont over the past 15 years, and the accompanying injustices faced by women and the LGBT community in the province, but many young protesters in metropolitan England are using it as a vehicle to attack the government and push their largely pro-Corbyn agenda.

I’m sure organisers of Saturday’s ‘Women’s march against the DUP’ are genuinely keen to support the women of Northern Ireland in their fight for access to abortion, but in reality the protesters were more focused on scoring cheap political points against an unpopular government than actually addressing the billed agenda of the march – to support the right to access abortion in Northern Ireland.

Of course, all the media attention that is being focused on Northern Ireland and the DUP is a good thing for enhancing the progressive agenda in the region. People who have been protesting the DUP’s backwards policies for years are now buoyed by the support of thousands more people in Great Britain who are marching or tweeting in solidarity.

Many of Saturday’s protesters seemed to be under the misapprehension that the DUP can enforce its own brand of fundamentalist religious social conservatism on the rest of the UK. This is plainly false.

Flash protests can catchy slogans

This can only be positive. But beyond flash protests and catchy slogans – “DUP go away, anti women, anti gay” – how much do these new supporters really know, or care, about what happens across the Irish Sea?

The potential for a DUP-Tory alliance has exposed the ignorance of the English towards devolution in Northern Ireland. One protestor even asked me how the DUP could even enter a pact with the Conservatives when “no one in the UK had voted for them”. She seemed rather sheepish when I pointed out that Northern Ireland is in the United Kingdom.

Many of Saturday’s protesters seemed to be under the misapprehension that the DUP can enforce its own brand of fundamentalist religious social conservatism on the rest of the UK. This is plainly false.

Forgotten cousin

Of course, the party will be able to influence future legislation, should a pact go ahead, but senior members of the Conservative party have specifically stated that there will be no roll-back on LGBT rights and abortion access; in particular Ruth Davidson, as a vocal champion of marriage equality, is not likely to roll over and allow the DUP to undo the hard fought gains for women and the LGBT community.

Northern Ireland has long been the forgotten cousin in the UK and for many years people on ‘the mainland’ have been clueless of the political realities in the country or simply didn’t care. Despite the recent focus on the region I doubt this will change and soon enough the angry protesters will forget about Northern Ireland. After all, out of sight, out of mind.