Political ‘big beast’ moves in on stakeholders, not voters

He has waited a long time for it and now at last he has gained the prize. When Michael McDowell became leader of the PDs, there was more than a frisson doing the rounds of the political chattering classes.

Politicians of various shapes and sizes come and go, but there can be no denying that McDowell is the archetypical heavyweight, the proverbial political ‘big beast’.

These are now an endangered species in the ...