1st Anniversary of formation of TUV
09 December 2008
Speaking at a dinner last night in Templepatrick, coinciding the first anniversary of Traditional Unionist Voice, Jim Allister MEP said in just one short year TUV had sent shockwaves through the political establishment and given hope to tens of thousands of Unionists who felt betrayed by the spectacle and failure of DUP/Sinn Fein government.
In the course of his remarks Mr Allister said:-
“As a new political party we have punched well above our weight in the last year. At Dromore we may not have won the seat, but in reality we won the election, toppling one Paisley within days and another in months. We have put the frighteners on “the biggest party in the country”, most recently by forcing a hasty retreat from transfer at 14. Increasingly obfuscation has become their refuge. They blinked on Sinn Fein’s demand for policing and justice, but ever since have been kicking up dust to try and cover their tracks, pretending no date is decided, when even the Prime Minister is speaking of months.
All the while the Sinn Fein agenda is moving forward, with the Maze shrine being peddled by OFMDFM for European funding and a Language Strategy evolving to give increased support to Irish – let me say the cover of a few more pound for Ulster Scots will fool no one. Yes, Ulster Scots culture, more than language, needs more support, but not as the cover for largesse towards the Irish Language.
A present log-jam in OFMDFM, which I am watching with interest, is the preposterous proposal to give £10m of PEACE III funding to ex-prisoners’ groups, £7m of it to Provo prisoners. Will the First Minister blink on that one too? I hope not!
6 months today the votes will be counted in the European Election. Then, I believe, we will see that far from receding opposition to the DUP/Sinn Fein regime is growing. No thinking person will be fooled by the DUP’s pretence of concern over their partner, Sinn Fein, topping the poll. You can’t hoist IRA/Sinn Fein to the top of the government poll and then pretend concern about them topping the Euro poll. Unionist voters will see such hypocrisy for what it is and know that for a principled stand at home and abroad you vote TUV and that the man who thrashed Sinn Fein in 2004 is the one to do it again.”
