TUV Manifesto Launch
14 May 2009
Read the full manifesto online here
Traditional Unionist Voice has launched its manifesto for next month’s European election.
Speaking at the launch sitting MEP Jim Allister highlighted the key European and domestic issues to be decided in the poll on June 4th.
Mr Allister said:
“While others have ignored European issues – mainly because their record of delivery in relation to Brussels is so poor – the growth of the European super-state and defence of national sovereignty will be a key plank in my campaign for re-election. Voting TUV in this poll is the best way to demonstrate your opposition to the Lisbon Treaty and the haemorrhaging of powers from national parliaments.
“I have a track record of opposing the EU bureaucracy which has cost British business a staggering £107 billion in the last decade alone.
“As far as the European Union is concerned, TUV is clear. The United Kingdom would be better off out.
“Local issues will also figure prominently in this election. It is Ulster’s first opportunity to pass its verdict on terrorist inclusive government. If people are happy with Martin McGuinness as Joint First Minister and are content to turn a blind eye to the murder of Paul Quinn – a crime which Diane Dodds’s election agent said “everybody knows” was carried out by the IRA – they will not be voting TUV. But if people are repelled by the fact that they have three convicted terrorists in their government and repudiate a system which denies people the democratic essentials of an opposition and being able to vote a party out of office then they will be voting Allister 1 on June 4th.
“Rather than terrorists being guaranteed places at the executive table TUV believes that both in deference to the innocent victims of the past and as a protection for the future, for all time there should be a statutory testimony to there being no reward for terrorism. Thus, we propose that it should be provided in primary legislation that no one with a terrorist conviction can ever hold ministerial office. If terrorist groupings do in time transform into exclusively democratic parties, then this would be a decreasing imposition, but, nonetheless a timely reminder of the political price to be paid for terrorism, or reversion thereto.
“While TUV is opposed to terrorists in government we are not opposed to shared government. In the rest of the UK the route to shared government is through voluntary coalition, and so it should be in Northern Ireland. After an election those who can agree form a coalition with a qualified majority to protect minority rights.
“One of the key local issues of recent months has been policing and justice. We believe that policing and justice should never be devolved to Stormont’s terrorist inclusive government. Moreover, policing and justice, upon its devolution, becomes a cross-border issue, falling under the ambit of the North-South Ministerial Council where Unionists are in a permanent minority.
“I would like to highlight one final point. Although the prospect of a stadium at the Maze now appears to be remote, the potential for it to become a shrine to terrorism remains when a so-called “conflict transformation centre” is built there. One of the most shocking aspects of this sop to IRA/Sinn Fein is that Ian Paisley, when First Minister, agreed to its inclusion in the EU Task Force report and Peter Robinson declined to withdraw support when he took over. Indeed, Hans Gert Pottering, President of the European Parliament, reported that on his visit to Belfast in November 2008 OFMDFM lobbied him in support of the project.
“By voting 1 Allister Unionists will send a clear message that they reject this concession to Republicanism.”
Turning to the issue of transfers Jim Allister said:
“It is absolutely vital that two Unionists are returned in this poll. This can be assured by full use of Unionist transfers. TUV is clear. We ask for your first preference vote but encourage our supporters to transfer to all other Unionists in the order of their preference.
“As I have travelled around this Province it has become evident that people do not buy the phoney scaremongering of the vote splitting DUP. They know that they have entered the race against two sitting Unionist MEPs and that they are the vote splitters in this election. Secondly, they are fully aware of the reality that a party cannot make Martin McGuinness joint First Minister and then feign concern about Bairbre de Brún topping the poll. As I said last week, if the DUP were honest their message in this election would be terrorists in government, education in chaos, IRA Army Council intact. What odds. Vote Dodds!”
Please note - the online manifesto is web quality. To obtain a hard copy contact 139 Holywood Road. Belfast or phone 028 90655011.
