Tory Direct
Before David Cameron addresses the Ulster Unionist Conference on Saturday, the Conservatives are putting him up for questioning by Belfast residents, as a local stage in "Cameron Direct". If you want to go along to the 9.30 am event you should e-mail the Conservatives for a ticket on camerondirect@conservativesni.org
If you are a DUP politician, though, perhaps you should look for an e-mail for torydirect. Downtown radio's Eamonn Mallie has got his hands on an internal DUP e-mail telling all party activists to refer to the Conservatives as "Tories", arguing that the label has more of a negative resonance. The e-mail goes on to give some helpful examples such as "Tory boy, Tory toff and Tory sleaze".
Sadly the DUP e-mail did not go on to draw on the historic derivation of the term "Tories" who were outlaws, former Irish Confederate soldiers who gave Cromwell's forces a lot of trouble in the 17th century attacking vulnerable garrisons and supply columns before melting away into the countryside.
Wikipedia says the original Tories were "eventually defeated by evicting all civilians from areas where they operated, selling those who refused to surrender into slavery and finally publishing surrender terms allowing Tories to leave the country to enter military service in France and Spain".
Of course the official DUP line is that the Conservative, sorry Tory, partnership is a "non event". But if they are as concerned as the e-mail appears to indicate maybe they can consider combatting the "new political force" with the old selling into slavery tactic.
Toraidhe, or Torai apparently derives from the Irish word toir meaning pursuit, as the outlaws were "pursued men", which seems a fairly accurate definition of the UUP so far as the merger, sorry partnership, is concerned.
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