Neil Wilson: Towards a better definition of Unionism

Neil Wilson is the Chairman of Merseyside Conservative Future and grew up in County Down. He argues that the UUP/Conservative pact offers a credible future for Unionism.

The DUP are often keen to claim that they are ‘delivering for Ulster’ but their recent, often vehement, opposition to the recent electoral pact between the Conservatives and the UUP has given their game away.

A charge often levelled at the DUP is that of ‘little Ulsterism’. This is hardly surprising from a party whose former leader told a journalist to ‘get back to England’ when he didn’t like his line of questioning, yet manages to adorn all their literature with the Union Flag as if it is merely a symbol to be seen in a Northern Ireland context.

The worst example of little Ulsterism came in June last year when they decided to back Labour over 42 day detention, helping to prop up a government which has, for the last twelve years, been guilty of the worst type of constitutional vandalism and an erosion of liberties which the vast majority of British people find abhorrent.

Neil Wilson: Ahmadinejad's sabre-rattling aims to realise an Islamist dream

Neil Wilson, Chairman of Merseyside Conservative Future and a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, reflects on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's continued provocations.

There is often a temptation to refer to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as mad. He isn’t mad however; when it comes to Israel, he says what millions of Arabs think – and he knows it.

Over recent weeks, Ahmadinejad has once again referred to Israel in the most unflattering terms. This time he chose to call the Middle East’s model democracy a “dead fish”, a “stinking corpse” and a “false regime” before reiterating his desire that Israel should “be wiped off the face of the world”. He then played up to the petty bigotry of anti-Israeli Europeans, arguing that the destruction of Israel would benefit Europe as we currently bear “the political and economic burden of this false regime”. Really?

Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, outgoing speaker of the Iranian Parliament joined in, saying that Israel’s 60th birthday had been “a black day for humanity, freedom, and human rights”, perhaps before going off to a stoning. All this sabre-rattling, for now at least, has a dual purpose - to unite the Arabic world behind Iran and realise the dream of the early Islamists.

Neil Wilson: Honouring the Covenant is part of our national conscience

Neil Wilson, a Conservative activist in Liverpool, says that whilst the intellectual left have always held the forces in disdain most people do not, and should not.

My Grandmother is 85. When the war broke out in 1939 she filled a series of jobs. Firstly, she filled bombs full of nasty chemicals. They were never used and were buried somewhere near Blackpool, apparently. She then worked as a nurse in Ormskirk, fixing up the wounded, including an uncle of hers who, having been shot on D-Day, woke up to find himself in a hospital in London.

Shortly after the war she married my Grandfather, who had just been released from Changi Jail in Singapore. He was greatly affected by his experiences there and those four years affected his relationships with his family until the day he died.

My Grandmother’s Father, who had fought in the Great War, had trouble sleeping at night, walked a bit funny and was slightly reclusive. It’s unsurprising really – he hid under a pile of bodies whilst the Germans stormed the trench he was in. His father was killed fighting the Boers.

Neil Wilson: Truant youths are as visible as ever

Neil Wilson is a Conservative activist in Liverpool.

The Bow Group's report claiming the Government had lost track of thousands of youths who should be at school came as no surprise to me. Chris Skidmore says some persistent truants have: "fallen so far below the radar that politicians are not aware they exist". They haven't fallen below the radar at all. Uneducated and unemployed youths are as visible as ever, here on Merseyside where the papers have been dominated by talk of gang war for the last 18 months.

Outbursts of drug-related violence are nothing new in Liverpool but the nature of the beast is changing. Two sprawling housing estates, Norris Green and Croxteth, have become the battle ground in a war in which the 'soldiers' are drawn from the ranks of truants and are frighteningly young.

A video on YouTube of vicious looking dogs sinking their teeth into someone reveals that some kids involved are as young as 11. Some of those arrested after gun attacks have been as young as 14. The videos reveal a sinister subculture. Kids pull wheelies along busy roads, stolen cars are spun in circles and guns are paraded, all to a gangster rap soundtrack.