Just desserts- why it's hard to feel sympathy for Iris Robinson

Northern Irish MP Iris Robinson is due to stand down as an MP for the constituency of Strangford within the next few days, after details of her affair with a 19 year old boy and subsequent suicide attempt two years ago were leaked to the press. While it certainly wasn’t an entire suprise, given that the Tiger Woods story last month erupted in the same sort of manner- first the non-controversial story, in this case the resignation as opposed to Tiger’s car crash, before the big details begin to rush out of the cracks in the subject’s logic. Yet, unlike the plight of Mr Woods, it’s a lot harder to sympathize with Mrs Robinson, due to the massive effects it could have not only on her Northern Ireland, but on the UK as a whole.
Let me get one thing straight- I am not a big fan of Iris Robinson. Far from it. This was the MP who, fuelled by the hypothesis that ‘if God says it’s bad, then it must be’ launched a number of vehement attacks on the homosexual community, referring to homosexuality as an ‘abomination’ that made her feel ‘sick and nauseous’, and going on to describe it as a ‘viler act than sexually abusing innocent children’. How can a person sleep at night when they know that while many of innocent children have no means of preventing what happens to them, and yet it is worse than the simple choice of many, whether it is hard-wired into their brains or not, to love someone from the same sex? Not suprisingly, gay groups went up in arms, petitions were sent to the Prime Minister to reprimand her for her comments, and she was indeed nearly prosecuted. The one thing preventing all of these things from happening? Her husband Peter Robinson was leader of the party the pair belonged to, the DUP, and, sharing soe of the beliefs of his twisted wife, had no intention of sacking her.
It grew worse. The pair were among the highest claimers of expenses in the whole of Parliament, never mind NI, with over half a million pounds being paide into their bank accounts each year from Parliament, in addition to £150,000 paid to four other members of their family. In other words, a Robinson dynasty, to keep the family in clover for life and their sons and daughters elected after them to continue their hate speech.
And then, finally, the affair itself with 19 year old Kirk McCambley, who she went on to pay £50,000 for in order for McCambley to open a restaurant, sourced from two property developers, but not declared in parliament, thus making the whole business deal extremely controversial for all parties involved, especially for Mr McCambley, who had no idea of the plan, it is believed, and was manipulated into recieving the money, most of which was subsequently paid back to the two property developers after the affair broke down and some time after Mrs Robinson confessed the affair to her husband, then tried to commit suicide.
The whole story, a convoluted tale of shady dealings and romances, will not only have a negative effect on all parties involved, but on the whole of Northern Ireland. Peter Robinson’s tenure as First Minister is getting shaky, the vultures are gathering overhead. Should the other parties in NI, most notably Sinn Fein, campaign for the removal of Mr Robinson, and other members of his DUP go against him, not only could there be a crisis of power there, but given the violent history of the country, even worse.
And all due to the actions of a single woman, a single man and a single extramarital affair. I must say, Mrs Robinson, there’s something in the Bible about that, isn’t there? Up there, by the bit marked ‘Homosexuality’…
Source:http://www.tumblr.com