Britishness and Northern Irishness
Chapter 6 assesses the basis of British identity held by UUP members. The party adapted to a devolutionary settlement, having been a party often more supportive of direct rule from Westminster during the Troubles than the regional Ulster loyalist DUP. This chapter considers whether the UUP offers a form of Britishness more closely aligned to that found elsewhere in the UK than its unionist rival. The Party has contested elections on the slogan ‘Simply British’. Using the survey data and interviews, the chapter tests the extent of British identification relative to that of Northern Irishness, assessing the rival pulls of UK identity versus regionalism. The chapter also highlights the exclusiveness of identity, in terms of the degree of rejection by UUP members of a sense of Irishness.