Ideology
Ideologically, the UK Unionist Party was an integrationist party which, unlike most Northern Irish unionist parties, believed that Northern Ireland should be governed from London with no regional home rule government and parliament. The UKUP was outspoken in its opposition to the Republic of Ireland possessing any participative role in the governance of Northern Ireland.
It was also highly critical of the British Labour government of Tony Blair for allowing Sinn Féin to participate in the Northern Irish government prior to the IRA fully disarming. The party also opposed the re-organising of policing in Northern Ireland, which saw the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) being replaced by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Read more about this topic: UK Unionist Party
Famous quotes containing the word ideology:
“Every sign is subject to the criteria of ideological evaluation.... The domain of ideology coincides with the domain of signs. They equate with one another. Wherever a sign is present, ideology is present, too. Everything ideological possesses semiotic value.”
—V.N. (Valintin Nikolaevic)
“Xenophobia looks like becoming the mass ideology of the 20th-century fin-de-siècle. What holds humanity together today is the denial of what the human race has in common.”
—Eric J. Hobsbawm (b. 1917)