Talk:Oliver Napier

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article must adhere to the policy on biographies of living persons. Controversial material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted or if there are other concerns relative to this policy, report it on the living persons biographies noticeboard.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the project's quality scale. [FAQ]
	This article is supported by the Politics and government work group.

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Belfast, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to the City of Belfast, Northern Ireland on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the assessment scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.)
Article Grading: The article has been rated for quality and/or importance but has no comments yet. If appropriate, please review the article and then leave comments here to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article and what work it will need.
WikiProject Belfast tasks: Here are some open WikiProject Belfast tasks: Places: Landmarks: Parks and gardens: Events: People: Edward Harland, Newton Emerson, Max Clendinning, Robert MacDonnell, Sophie Hoopman, Paul Charles (novelist), Paula Clamp, Joseph Tomelty, Jim Malley, Alison Campbell, Shauna Gunn, Gayle Williamson, Lucy Evangelista, Catherine Jean Milligan, Henry Lavery, Francis Maginn, Charles Michael Lavery QC, Colin Cooper (academic), H Douglas Keith, William Whitla, Zane Radcliffe Newspapers: Streets: Rivers: Organisations: Our Lady and St Patrick's College, Belfast Boy's Model School History: Buildings: Major topics: Edit or discuss this list.

	Ireland Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Ireland, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Ireland on Wikipedia. For more information, or to get involved, visit the project page.
Stub	This article has been rated as Stub-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the priority scale.

[edit] Is he a Unionist?

He is in the Category "Catholic Unionists" but he is a member of Alliance, which isn't a unionist party. He he personally described himself as a unionist? NotMuchToSay 20:33, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

"Unionist" with a big "U" and with a small "u" can be used to mean different things, especially in relation to Alliance. However the difference can appear too fine to the point it gets messy so "pro union/Union" (can't remember which case) often gets used instead of small-u unionist to mean "person/party that prefers the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland but does not identify as part of the 'Unionist community'". Alliance's position on the Union has traditionally been supportive, but couched in terms of economics and the like, rather than appeals to "Ulster's culture". Certainly the party regards it as possible to support the Union without declaring for one community over another.

From recollection Napier is regarded as pro Union - some coverage of the 1995 North Down by-election that I've seen describes as such. Nick Whyte's site describes one incident when Bob McCartney (the UK Unionist candidate) declared that if elected he would take the Labour whip in the Commons and at the Alliance press conference responding to this Napier played the "green scare" card, pointing to Labour's historic support for a United Ireland (although by 1995 the party had moved away from this) rather than perhaps a "red scare" by pointing to Labour's poor record on the economy (the seat is the most affluent in the province). Certainly this indicates support for the Union, even though it demonstrates the difficulty of being "pro Union" but not "Unionist" - really only a Unionist party can pitch for votes by attacking another party's credentials on the Union. Timrollpickering 22:49, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 06:13, 8 September 2007 (UTC)