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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
— June – July 2013
T
HE political demise of Ulster Unionist,
Lord Laird, who has lost the party whip
after being stung by the Daily Telegraph/
BBC Panorama in the latest ‘cash for
access’ scandal, may not be as shocking to those
who have observed, and been at the receiving end,
of his political antics over the years. The good
Lord is a public-relations man who has always
been alive to opportunities to improve his own
finances through his vital political work in the
British upper house as these latest revelations
appear to confirm.
Previously, he had been prominent through
his role as chairman of the Ulster Scots Agency
which he vigorously promoted as a counterpunch
to what he perceived as the ‘Fenian’-inspired
Irish-language movement in the North. His
efforts to politicise the language issue did not go
down well with the Scottish language-enthusiasts,
or the Irish ones. He also worked as an advisor
to the Loyalist Commission, an assortment of
unionists and former loyalist paramilitaries
as they sought to challenge the republican and
nationalist narrative during the early years of the
peace process.
His elevation to the House of Lords in
provided him with a unique platform from which
to ply his particular brand of polit-
ically-loaded propaganda which
also happened to coincide with the
interests of some of his clients. In
early , he launched a vitriolic
attack on former Taoiseach, Bertie
Ahern, over the latter’s alleged links
to former trade-union official, Phil
Flynn, then under investigation in
relation to the Northern Bank rob-
bery. Later in the year he abused
his parliamentary privilege when
entering into the controversy surrounding the
newly-established Centre for Public Inquiry, and
in particular this writer, when he accused it of
being an “intelligence gathering operation” for
Sinn Féin.
In a remarkable coincidence, both stories
had been a matter of considerable interest to
the Sunday Independent which then ran lengthy
and “exclusive” extracts from Lord Laird’s “priv-
ileged” speeches. Coincidental too, that Lord
Laird acted as a paid PR consultant to the news-
paper. In , he provoked the ire of the late
Inez McCormack (the first female president of
ICTU) who complained to the UN over Laird’s
“misuse” of parliamentary privilege to attack the
Belfast-based human-rights group, Committee
for the Administration of Justice, which had a
strong record of revealing abuses by the British
security forces in the North.
In , Laird went on to
claim in the Lords that there were
IRA “sleepers” in high places
in the Republic, a claim that also
resonated with the more hysterical
outbursts from the Sindo. During
the same year he found himself in
hot water when it emerged that
while chairman of the Ulster-Scots
agency, Laird had spent in excess
of £ of public money on taxis
between Belfast and Dublin.
His penchant for highlighting, under Lords
privilege, issues that appealed to the muck-raking
tendencies of the Sindo, and the vibrant reciproc-
ity of Ireland’s best-selling Sunday, must have
seemed like a marriage made in heaven at the
time but Lord Laird’s habit of digging ever deeper
holes for himself has prejudiced the relationship
more recently.
There was scarcely a peep out of the
newspaper in March when Laird defended his cli-
ent, US businessman Christopher Knight, against
allegations of child sexual abuse. Knight did not
contest charges in Florida that he had sexually
assaulted a victim, then to years old, in
. Laird described the allegations as a “minor
misdemeanour”, although he later apologised for
his remarks after being rebuked by UUP leader,
Mike Nesbitt. He said the ill-advised comments
arose from his “professional association” with
Knight who was seeking to invest in the Belfast
Giants hockey team.
It will be interesting to note the response
of the Sindo to the televised disclosure that its
favourite peer is accused of seeking £ per
month in exchange for getting questions raised
in the Lords that could be helpful to the authori-
ties in Fiji.
“I’ll deny having said this, but it’s a bribe….the
sort of thing I can say to these guys…you put that
question down now, I thought you were inter-
ested in Fiji, would you like to come down to it,
you know, I believe it’s quite nice… I can whisper
that”, Laird was recorded as saying to undercover
journalists posing as representatives of the Fiji
government.
On this occasion, Nesbitt decided an apology
was not enough and, pending the outcome of a
review by Westminster authorities, asked Laird
to resign the party whip.
frank connolly
news
Lairdie, Lairdie
Resigned Lord Laird’s symbiotic relationsip with the Sindo over the years
promoted some regressive causes
Laird laid bare
I’ll deny
having said
this, but it’s
a bribe….’
“
