The days of concessions to Sinn Fein are back - Allister
18 November 2008
TUV Leader Jim Allister MEP responds to new DUP/Sinn Fein deal
"So far from being over, the days of drip, drip concessions to Sinn Fein are back.
Presented with the choice of facing down Sinn Fein and its bully boy tactics, or taking the opportunity to get rid of mandatory coalition, the DUP, for the sake of office, has chosen David Trimble's well trod path of a new tranche of concessions to IRA/Sinn Fein. It was Sinn Fein that had the shopping list and it is Sinn Fein's boxes which are being ticked today.
Weren't we told at St Andrews all issues were settled to unionist satisfaction, and if they weren't, then, we had an insurmountable veto. Such was the spirit of bravado that Peter Robinson competed with Nigel Dodds to say how many political lifetimes would pass before policing and justice would be devolved. Now, we're talking months, not eons, and the guarantee of no Sinn Finn Minister runs out in 2012!
No doubt, obfuscation, fudge and disinformation will cloud the full extent of the secret deal with IRA/Sinn Fein, but some features are demonstrably clear.
OFMDFM will not be stripped of all its policing and justice powers, as promised by Nigel Dodds as a pre-requisite to any movement. McGuinness as Joint First Minister will still get to appoint 9 members of the Policing Board (think of it, the embodiment of the IRA's murderous campaign against the police hand-picking who will sit on the Policing Board.), he will get to jointly hand-pick the Judicial Appointments Commission who will then appoint the judges, and, as already evident, he gets to jointly appoint the Attorney General, who ultimately will decide which prosecutions proceed and which don't.
It is clear that a short timescale is in view for delivery of Sinn Fein's policing and justice demands and that the naming of the prospective Attorney General was a down payment demanded from the DUP. Perhaps Mr Larkin did his chances no harm by having objected to the oath administered, swearing allegiance to the Queen, when he and I took silk!
We can be certain that this is not a stand alone deal on policing and justice. I have little doubt but that it encompasses the Irish Language, the Maze Shrine and education. The detail will eventually emerge, but in consequence of today we will have more of the Irish Language foisted on us. The distinction between a formal Irish Language Act and the progressive delivery of an Irish Language Strategy will be more in form than substance. We will now see further greening of our culture through Irish Language promotion under a strategy designed for that purpose. Taking refuge in trumpeting the formal absence of an ILA will not conceal the reality of cultural advance for republicanism which will unfold under this strategy. Sadly, the DUP has sold out on Irish Language promotion.
We will also now have the Maze Shrine. Before he left office Ian Paisley agreed with McGuinness to propose, as part of the EU task force, a "conflict resolution centre" in Northern Ireland. Clearly, it will be at the Maze. When Peter Robinson came to office I urged him to reverse support for this project, he refused to do so, just like the 2 DUP DOE Ministers, which we have had, refused to delist the ugly Maze buildings to allow their demolition. So, it is clear, the DUP is prepared to permit the Maze Shrine.
As for education, I now fully expect a sell-out on academic selection at 11. A fudge which allows some form of selection at 14, but, critically delivers what amounts to comprehensive education till then, if not beyond, is now on the cards. The grammar schools as we know them will go, I fear.
All of which is what happens when you treat with forces such as IRA/Sinn Fein, who now return to government armed with new concessions and having put manners on those who threatened them with "serious consequences". Yes, there have been serious consequences for the last 6 months of Sinn Fein bullying, it's the guarantee that sooner rather than later they will return for more, when they next need to gorge on DUP concessions."
