[1] Beattie stood for Belfast North in the 1970 general election, but came a distant third, behind the Official Unionist Party (OUP) and Labour candidates.
He seriously damaged his political credibility within hard-line unionism, when, as a member of the three-man UUUC delegation which held talks with the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), he failed to dissociate himself early enough from Bill Craig's suggestion of having Northern Ireland governed by a voluntary coalition between unionists and nationalists.
[1] Beattie's election to the council began what one fellow councillor called "A period of bigoted sectarian confrontations after four years in which Lisburn had a relatively good and moderate reputation".
The most infamous clash was the Beattie-led loyalist protest over the building of a new overflow Catholic housing estate at Poleglass on the edge of West Belfast.
[1] In April 1983, Beattie forced the cancellation of Sunday performances by Circus Hoffman by threatening to disrupt them with open-air prayer meetings outside.
[1] Beattie also objected to library facilities for the predominantly Catholic Twinbrook estate and to planning permission for a health centre in Poleglass.
[2] Writing in Fortnight magazine in 1983, journalist Andy Pollak described Beattie as "one of the last truly unashamed voices of Northern Irish bigotry".