Progressive Unionist Party (Paperback)

High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) is a small loyalist political party from Northern Ireland. It was formed from the Independent Unionist Group operating in the Shankill area of Belfast becoming the PUP in 1979. Linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), it is the left-wing party of unionism in Northern Ireland, with its main support base in the loyalist working-class communities of Belfast. The party has had a degree of electoral success. In 1994 PUP leader Hugh Smyth became Lord Mayor of Belfast, and in the 1996 elections to the Northern Ireland Forum they secured two seats, with Smyth and David Ervine both being elected. The PUP supported the Belfast Agreement and in the 1998 election to the Northern Ireland Assembly they also won two seats, with representatives Billy Hutchinson and David Ervine elected from the Belfast North and East constituencies respectively, though they proceeded to lose one in the 2003 election, leaving Ervine as their sole Assembly representative.