UUP: Suspensions and Resignations
Not an ideal scene setter for the UUP conference. First, the news that former Upper Bann candidate Harry Hamilton has quit the party. Then news that the veteran Lagan Valley activist John Lund has been suspended for six months for speaking out on the "Nolan" programme. I shall include the disciplinary letter sent to Mr Lund in the extended entry.
Of course this is in line with Tom Elliott's stated position that there should be more discipline within the party. However I gather that at least one UUP member has already resigned in protest against the action being taken against John Lund describing it as "the hounding of a venerable elder of the Party". One source claims that around a dozen activists could follow, perhaps joining the local Conservatives.
What's unclear is the shape of the future relationship between the Tories and the UUP. Tom Elliott is due across in London next week to meet the Conservative vice chair Andrew Feldman. There has been some talk about a "Bavarian" model in which the UUP would be the local "franchise" for the Conservatives, along the lines of the But that would imply the Northern Ireland Conservatives being subsumed into the UUP. By contrast, local Tory activists remain keen on fighting next year's Assembly elections. I'm told that after the Elliott/Feldman meeting we should get some clarity on this score.
Dear Mr Lund
Re: Disciplinary Hearing, 1 December 2010
The Disciplinary Committee of the Party met yesterday at 4pm to consider a complaint against you. The previous correspondence to you and in particular our letter of 18 November 2010 refers.
Having delayed proceedings until 4.30pm, the committee concluded that you were not availing of the opportunity to appear under Rule 3 of the Disciplinary Protocol and accordingly proceeded to determine the complaint against you in your absence.
The findings of the Committee are as follows:-
Your remarks in a ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ interview on the Nolan Show on 23 September 2010 were in breach of Rule 4 of the Disciplinary Standing Order 2 in that
1. specifically your remark that "He has bussed those people up to Belfast and they are now telling the rest of us, the moderates, how to go on" is unacceptably critical of the Leader and further the members of his Constituency, and the allegation that they are telling "the moderates and everyone else how to go on" are an unacceptable public and personal attack on such members, without justification.
2. there is no evidence that the election outcome, and in particular the votes of the majority members were "bound to split the party"
3. there is no evidence that "the progressives will not survive"
4. there is no evidence that "the party has been dragged back to 1969 and Harry West" and in any event such allegations, whether founded or unfounded, constitute an unacceptable public and personal attack on the former Leader.
The Committee considered that these remarks both separately and collectively constituted an act of indiscipline within the terms of Rule 4.
Accordingly the decision of the Committee is to impose an immediate suspension of your membership of the Party for a period of 6 months with effect from the delivery of this
e-mail. A hard copy of this letter will follow.
Your Constituency Chairman and Secretary will be informed forthwith.
The Committee draws your attention to your Right of Appeal to the Party Officers under Rule 10 of Standing Order 2.
Yours sincerely
XXXX
Chair, Disciplinary Committee
cc Party Leader
Party Chairman
Lagan Valley Constituency Chairman
Lagan Valley Constituency Secretary
I'm 
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