The decision of one of the new super councils to ban the sale of poppies on council premises is “antagonistic and wrong”, according to the Conservatives’ East Belfast Westminster candidate, Neil Wilson. Neil said that a number of the eleven new councils, set to take over from the old twenty six council model at the start of April, had already made divisive decisions, which “raise questions over their likely impact on community relations and threaten to Balkanise Northern Ireland”.
“The new council system offered a chance for the old parties in Northern Ireland to show some cooperation and leadership, for the benefit of the whole community”, Neil observed. “Instead they’ve quickly crawled back into their tribal trenches, making divisive decisions and trying to assert the authority of one or other part of the community, in a particular area. The Mid Ulster District Council has decided to ban poppies and Newry, Mourne & Down has chosen to change the first language on its signage to Irish. Each of the 11 councils will set its own policy on flags, because the politicians at Stormont failed to reach agreement on that issue and the DUP quickly blocked new rules which would have set standing orders for all the new authorities across the province, avoiding lengthy, bad-tempered wrangles.”
“People have a right to be worried about the effects the new set-up will have on community relations. It’s certainly a very ominous sign that one council has started out by barring the sale of poppies from its premises. It’s disrespectful, undermines some great efforts to extend acts of remembrance across the whole community and will prove hugely divisive. Councils should be trying to set out on a positive footing, by attempting to represent everyone under their jurisdiction and by showing that they can be constructive, when it comes to issues of culture and cooperation. Unfortunately, at the moment, they’re proving only that the failed parties in Northern Ireland will always default to tribal, lowest common denominator politics, given the least opportunity.”