It is common practice among liberals in the North of Ireland to demand the resignation of DUP ministers following outbursts of homophobia, bigotry,  religious fanaticism and racism.

Now the magic spell has worked and Jim Wells has resigned as health minister. Of course, his resignation has nothing to do with his often expressed bigotry or with the indignation of local activists, but because he was sabotaging the possibility of an electoral pact with the Tories in Westminster. No sooner was Wells gone than Peter Robinson was tearing up any possible guarantee of the right to abortion for woman carrying a fetus destined to die.   Another  DUP assembly member Paul Givan, has led a campaign around a “conscience clause” that would provide a right to discriminate,

The Wells resignation shows up the unreality of a strategy of condemning individuals or petitioning Stormont.  The new DUP Health minister will also be a bigot. If not a religious fanatic, they will be willing to conciliate the fanatics. DUP ministers, including Robinson, regularly demonstrate their racism. The DUP are a sectarian party of the far right, in power because of a settlement that       guarantees their bigotry as a permanent element in government.

Those who want to see democratic rights must begin by understanding that these rights can not be fully expressed in a colony where the basic entitlement is based on religious identity, but only by bringing down Stormont and the sectarian foundations it is constructed upon. 

One question for Sinn Fein, busily demonstrating their liberal credentials by proposing a referendum on gay marriage.

If the DUP are too repulsive for Cameron, why are you in bed with them?