On this morning's Good Morning Ulster journalist Fionnuala O'Connor said that Peter Robinson was now tainted by "smear". Of course, as Fionnuala pointed out, it's the very weapon the Robinsons have used for years to devastating political effect. For some parties and dynasties the use of smear is simply another reasonable weapon to be employed from the arsenal but many of the Robinson's devout Christian supporters are deeply uncomfortable with the relativistic attitudes encouraged by modern politics. Those supporters believed the Robinsons were different, a reassuring bulwark of morality in a tide of rising expediency and compromise. Most of those supporters never took the time to think about how the Robinsons had treated fellow Loyalists and Protestants (such as Paul Berry et al) and if they did consider their behaviour to be hardline at times, well that was all okay for the sake of the Union.
Now the Robinson's Christian powerbase has no way of avoiding the simple truth which is that the DUP behaves just like every other modern political party: the Robinsons carefully choreographed a counter attack to the Spotlight investigation; the full story about Iris's suicide attempt is not yet clear (for example why did the ambulance take 8 hours to arrive); how could Peter Robinsons stand and joke at the dispatch box less than 12 hours after the suicide attempt - was he just being professional and diligent as he claimed and, of course, undeclared cash has changed hands.
Have no doubt, what will upset DUP supporters is not the sex - there have been umpteen sex scandals in the party - it's the further revelation that the most powerful dynasty in Loyalism is prepared to stoop to the same depths as the "unbelievers" in all the other parties.
Veterans of Loyalist politics will reflect that the tension between postmodern politics and religious fundamentalism is too great for the DUP to withstand and, if the party is to survive, it must be secularised.
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