Belfast Agreement devolution floundering - Allister
04 August 2008
Speaking to the Central Council of Traditional Unionist Voice, TUV Leader, Jim Allister MEP said Belfast Agreement devolution was unravelling and floundering day by day. “Why”, he asked, “because it is built on the sand of republican veto”.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
“With the dysfunctionalism of OFMDFM having spread to the whole Executive, which has not been able to meet since mid June, government is grinding to a halt. Planning and education are two of the most obvious casualties, with the parties deadlocked over PPS 14 and the future shape of education. If this was happening under Direct Rule, with Ministers off on holiday and no prospect of decisions for weeks, there would be an outcry.
The Executive hasn’t made a single decision in weeks because Sinn Fein is refusing to let it meet until it gets concessions on its key demands. And get those concessions it will, because this absurd system is built on mutual vetoes and cannot work without such concessions. Hence, the DUP, in time, will fudge and budge, because it dare not admit it got it fundamentally wrong in ever letting unreconstructed terrorists anywhere near executive office, never mind giving them the trump card of veto. Remember, for IRA/Sinn Fein, this is just another phase of its unyielding struggle, in which it plays the long game and banks the concessions which “the peace process” inevitably produces if it is to last.
Sinn Fein aren’t in Stormont to bring good government to Northern Ireland – a state they don’t even believe in – they are there to extract maximum advance for their continuing long-term strategy. Ending British policing and British justice on any part of the island of Ireland is a critical part of that strategy. Hence their focus on obtaining the devolution of policing and justice. Hence, too, the folly of any unionist contemplating assisting them, particularly when under this warped arrangement it necessitates giving McGuinness, of all convicted terrorists, key powers over the Judiciary.
So, whether viewed from the strategic perspective or the more mundane of delivering for citizens, this government is a lamentable failure and so far removed from the hyped promise of devolution as to be the very antithesis of good government.”
