With the Conservatives falling short of a majority in the June 8 UK general elections, a Northern Ireland party emerged kingmaker. The Democratic Union Party, extended its support to the Tories, thus enabling Theresa May to form a government. Who are the DUP?
Pro-Union
The party was started in 1971 by Rev Ian Paisley, a fundamentalist Protestant preacher. He founded the party to oppose what he saw as the increasingly liberal approach of the Ulster Unionists, the party of the political establishment since the state was founded in 1921, according to the BBC. The party is Pro-union and Pro-Brexit.
For the last two days, hundreds of people have taken to the streets all over Britain to oppose the Tory-DUP alliance. Why are people protesting?
‘Don’t redefine marriage’
Because of the DUP’s views over LGBT rights, abortion and climate change. In 2016, the DUP vetoed a legislation to make same-sex marriages legal in Northern Ireland. The party has come a long way since its founding but still remains deeply conservative. The DUP is also anti-abortion. Abortion is illegal in Northern ireland, except in specific medical cases, the BBC adds.
Creationism at schools?
The party has not mentioned anything about climate change in their manifesto and once appointed a climate change denier as environmental minister. And DUP’s Chair of the Education Committee is a member of the Caleb Foundation that believes the earth is just 10,000 years old. A DUP Assembly member even endorsed an event promoting creationism to be “taught in every school”.