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Lindy McDowell: Exactly who is Ian Jnr’s TUV talk aimed at?

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Tough talk from Ian Paisley Jnr this week as he launched a campaign to shoot to kill rumours that the DUP was going soft. Referring to recent attacks by dissident republicans he says he wants the police to be able to “deploy ruthlessness in tracking down and wiping out these dissident members.

“I believe the community will accept such measures and if dissidents are shot on sight, the community will accept that it is a necessary use of lethal force to prevent dissident republicanism from growing.”

Mr Paisley’s (pictured right) comments came in the wake of an attack in Lisnaskea where, it was later disclosed, Semtex had been used in the grenade type device.

Undoubtedly there are some waverers in the DUP community (who haven’t yet defected to the TUV) who will warm to this sort of posturing.

For that’s all it is. Political posturing. Some of his party members might even suggest that Mr Paisley would be better saving his breath.

And perhaps having a quiet word with his fellow Chuckle Coalition member Martin McGuinness about that Semtex used last weekend.

Maybe Martin could throw some light on how the PIRA’s signature explosive substance ended up in a dissident device.

When P O’Neill was sealing his bunkers was he absolutely certain that he’d manage to recall the non-dissidents’ entire stock of the stuff?

Could a bit have dropped off a lorry en route to that historic watershed in the Northern Ireland peace process? Maybe even, more than a bit

Martin, given his previous management role in the non-dissident IRA, might well be able to throw some light on this mystery.

Of course, Ian may not want to ask.

Relations between the DUP and Sinn Fein have cooled a bit since the days when Ian’s Da was the heftier half of the Chuckle Brothers. But even though the smiling double act of Doc and his deputy has been replaced by a colder front, the DUP know that some of their voters still find it hard to get their heads around the idea of working with Sinn Fein.

That’s what the TUV have been capitalising on. The DUP are savvy enough to see that.

Which may explain Ian Paisley shooting from the lip.

After all, he knows as well as the next politician that security forces are already allowed to use “lethal force” in certain circumstances. (The fact that police officers carry guns is a bit of a giveaway.)

Could it be dissidents — or potential dissidents — from his own party that Mr Paisley is really concerned about?

Tough talk? Or TUV talk?

Belfast Telegraph

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