ARLENE Forster was forced to make way this week as the DUP leader was unceremoniously given the heave-ho by her party.
It followed what has been a disastrous period for unionism on the island of Ireland in the wake of the DUP dabbling in the dark arts of European brinkmanship.
After hobbling Theresa May’s Brexit deal and trusting Boris Johnson at his word not to deliver a border on the Island, the DUP were the birth maids of an effective re-partition.
The Northern Ireland protocol keeps Northern Ireland under the EU customs regulations, much to the ire of loyalist and Unionists who have taken to the streets in violent clashes with police.
Under the surface there is also deep psychological angst eating at Unionism, the fact that Sinn Fein is seen to be on the path to majority party status.
One day soon the First Minister of Northern Ireland could come from a Republican/Nationalist background.
Likewise the unmistakable uptick in support for a referendum on Irish unity, Scottish Independence very much the imminent threat.
And in Wales rumblings of Yes Cymru making headway, safe to say the comforts of political ascendency hence enjoyed by a certain caste of unionist is crumbling.
Arlene was seen as a moderniser in the DUP sense of the term.
Her role as she saw it was to maintain Unionism political control and cap the rise of competing unionist parties on the one hand and frustrated Sinn Fein will in Stormont.
Within the party Arlene was forced to ride two horses, one of the social conservative, quasi-protestant fundamentalist element.
The other, a younger more militant sect of hardline unionism but more liberal in outlook.
She was ultimately unable to keep both wings on side through the rocky water the DUP has found itself.
The DUP can often be summarised as the party of ‘never, never, never,’ not one for change until that is ruthlessly unseating their party leader when the going get touch
Talking of changes, your friends at Redaction have decided now is the opportune moment to announce to relaunch as Redaction Report.
But don’t worry the progressive politics remains very much at the heart of what we do.
Including, looking at efforts to manoeuvre Keir Starmer to the left, we covered the efforts of the TUSC here.
How the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition are hoping to push Starmer’s Labour left
Elsewhere, we touched upon the effect the first past the post has on stiflingly radical politics.
First-past-the-post voting stifles intellectual diversity in British politics
And in world affairs, we covered the worrying rise of media controls in Cambodia and Malaysia.
Cambodia and Malaysia impose draconian controls on information under shadow of Covid
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