Arlene Foster announces resignation as DUP leader and NI first minister

[muriel_volestrangler]

Arlene Foster has announced her resignation as leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and as NI first minister after an internal revolt.

Mrs Foster said she would step down as DUP leader on 28 May and as first minister at the end of June.

It comes as she was facing a revolt among her party's representatives.

More than 20 DUP Northern Ireland Assembly members and four MPs had signed a letter voicing no-confidence in the leadership.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-56910045

As well as the Brexit disaster, they appear to think she showed a sliver of LGBT compassion, and the DUP can't have that:

Mrs Foster’s decision to abstain in a vote on gay conversion therapy last week appears to have further agitated sections of the party’s fundamentalist grassroots.

On Tuesday morning, the Belfast News Letter reported that several DUP constituency associations had written letters expressing concern at Mrs Foster’s abstention on a motion that called for a ban on gay conversion therapy but did not incorporate a specific mention of protections for religious practices.

The majority of her party Assembly colleagues voted against the motion, having failed to amend it to include reference to religious protections.

Mrs Foster was among only five party members, including fellow Stormont Executive ministers Peter Weir and Diane Dodds, who abstained.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/politics/arlene-fosters-future-as-dup-leader-brexit-and-vote-on-gay-conversion-therapy-among-critics-issues-40364450.html

[T_i_B]

1. They'll probably choose somebody even loonier to replace her

Somebody like Edwin Poots.

[Emrys]

2. A brief Twitter thread about current replacement frontrunner Edwin Poots

from LBC reporter Matthew Thompson:

So Edwin Poots, darling of the traditionalists, is favourite to be the next DUP leader.

For those who don’t know him, a short introduction to the man, in his own words

(THREAD)

On the age of the Earth: “My view on the earth is that it's a young earth. My view is 4000 BC.”

Poots on the Big Bang: “You’re telling me that cosmic balls of dust gathered and there was an explosion?

“We’ve had lots of explosions in Northern Ireland and I’ve never seen anything come out of that that was good”

Poots on gay civil partnerships:

“Basically its unnatural in the first instance, and it’s abominable in the second instance.”

Poots on adoption:

“The natural order - whether one believes in God in evolution - is for a man and a woman to have a child and therefore that has made my views on adoption very clear and on raising children very clear, that it should be a man and a woman that raises a child.”

Poots on Arlene Foster being made DUP leader in 2016:

“Her most important job has been, and will remain, that of a wife, mother and daughter.”

The point to be made, with no value judgement of my own, is that he is of the hardest of hardline traditionalists.

The evangelical base of the DUP incarnate.

The direction in which he took the party would be fairly clear.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1387674064320401409.html

The Irish News profiled a week in Poots' life in October 2020:

Link to tweet

It's been an eventful week for Edwin Poots. Let's look back at some of the DUP MLA's exploits that made the news over the last seven days (THREAD)

Things started with Mr Poots expressing "grave reservations" about several of the north's latest coronavirus restrictions, claiming the DUP were essentially outnumbered by other parties in the powersharing coalition that agreed the measures

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/10/16/news/ediwn-poots-says-dup-ministers-opposed-new-covid-19-restrictions-2101268/

This prompted the first of a few @ianknoxcartoon works featuring Mr Poots, this one showing him with other DUP colleagues who had spoke out about lockdown measures

Next came the agriculture minister's claim that when it came to Covid-19 infection rates, the difference between nationalist and unionist areas "is around six to one”

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/10/17/news/edwin-poots-accused-of-bid-to-sectarianise-coronavirus-crisis-2101999/

Mr Poots then went on to claim his remarks were not sectarian because "most Sinn Féin leaders don't attend the Catholic Church on a regular basis"

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/10/20/news/edwin-poots-claims-covid-remarks-not-sectarian-because-most-sinn-fe-in-leaders-aren-t-regular-mass-goers--2103724/

Ian Knox's cartoon referenced reports of possible tension between Mr Poots and his party leader Arlene Foster

In a separate issue this week, Mr Poots described as "deplorable" the media asking questions about his son facing a driving charge before appearing in court

https://www.irishnews.com/paywall/tsb/irishnews/irishnews/irishnews//news/northernirelandnews/2020/10/20/news/edwin-poots-says-deplorable-that-irish-news-could-query-son-s-driving-charge-before-court-case-2103641/content.html

Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride stepped in to the row over Covid infection rates in nationalist and unionist areas... and said there was "no such evidence" to back Mr Poots' claims

https://www.irishnews.com/paywall/tsb/irishnews/irishnews/irishnews//news/northernirelandnews/2020/10/21/news/north-s-top-doctor-rebuffs-poots-s-covid-religion-claim-2105473/content.html

.@ianknoxcartoon continued to probe the relationship between Mr Poots and Mrs Foster...

...and perhaps because (or in spite of) @ianknoxcartoon, Mrs Foster did finally address her MLA's claims (END THREAD)

https://www.irishnews.com/paywall/tsb/irishnews/irishnews/irishnews//news/northernirelandnews/2020/10/22/news/arlene-foster-breaks-silence-on-edwin-poots-s-covid-claims-but-opponents-greet-clarification-with-scepticism-2106282/content.html

[LeftishBrit]

3. Just ...ZOICKS!

He sounds worse than Ian Paisley; and on a par with the worst elements of the American Christian Right.

Not what we need when the NI situation is already ultra-delicate.

[T_i_B]

4. Yes, it's Edwin Poots

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-57121825

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. I suppose the slightly good news is he won't be NI First Minister too

but whoever gets that job has to keep the fundamentalist happy ...

[LeftishBrit]

6. Ugh