When "Getting it Right" went all wrong!
19 September 2008
Extract from a speech by TUV Leader Jim Allister MEP in Lisburn
“The time has come for the DUP to face realities. They got it wrong.
They told us Sinn Fein was so transformed as to be committed to the good government of Northern Ireland and was fit to be part of that government. How wrong they were!
They told us they had the whip hand, they had vetoes on everything and they’d be “putting manners” on republicans. How wrong they were!
Now, we find the same recalcitrant IRA/Sinn Fein has itself such a veto that it can paralyse government and re-run its familiar trick of demanding ever more concessions for staying within the political process.
If any rational person ever thought mandatory coalition could ever work with unrepentant terrorists, then the last three months of paralysis should have been an eye-opener.
Its time to face the facts. Mandatory coalition has failed and will always fail, because it defies both democracy and the agreed platform necessary for any government to work. Sinn Fein by their every action has demonstrated themselves utterly unfit for government and should be shown the door.
It’s all very well for Peter Robinson to threaten and bluster, but with Sinn Fein arrogantly calling his bluff, will he deliver? He has enthusiastically tried mandatory coalition, it failed. He foolishly gave Sinn Fein the benefit of a very big doubt, they let him down. Now, is the time to boldly end this Belfast Agreement devolution sham and with other Unionists resolve that never again will IRA/Sinn Fein abuse government office and that only through voluntary coalition will any party ever enter government again. That would indeed be “getting it right”.
