Civil war in North Down

THE leafy glades of North Down have turned into a bloody political battleground of local politics. The tranquil avenues of Cultra and Helen’s Bay (not to mention Bangor West) have reverberated with a veritable shouting match.

First we had Lady Sylvia’s “Tory? Not !” statements, followed quickly by the Sunday Life’s revelation that Ulster Unionist Councillor Diane Peacock hadn’t been attending council meetings too often. Then came the decision of the UUP association chairman in North Down, Mark Brook, to quit his party for the DUP.

Some might have seen North Down as potentially a target for the Conservatives in the forthcoming Westminster election. With it’s higher than average property values, lower than average unemployment rates and sheer numbers of Mercedes Benz and BMW’s on the roads, it could be transplanted directly from middle England.

But with the political civil war in full flow it was a wise move by Conservative leader David Cameron to avoid Cultra and its environs when he visited Northern Ireland earlier in the week. Portadown and Ballymena must have seemed a safer bet.