Allister Answers DUP on Policing and Justice
10 August 2009
Poor Peter! Mr Robinson, as the price of clinging to office last November, rolled over to Sinn Fein’s demands and agreed to early devolution of policing and justice. Now, as the time approaches for him to deliver on his shameful bargain with the Shinners, the Joint First Minister lashes out in fury at anyone who dares to question the wisdom of devolving such powers to an Executive and Assembly in which IRA/Sinn Fein – the party which still justifies of the murder of policemen and judges and still retains its Army Council – holds sway. Once the removal of the Army Council was a pre-condition, but that has long since been forgotten.
Whatever the venom of Mr Angry as he seeks to vilify me and TUV, the facts tell their own story.
1. Ending British control of policing and justice has long been a key republican objective. The 2005 manifesto of Mr Robinson’s coalition partner, Sinn Fein, put it like this: “Our strategy is for a new all-Ireland policing and justice system. That cannot be achieved without transfer of policing and justice powers away from London, into an Executive and Assembly and the all-Ireland institutions.”
2. Immediately policing and justice is devolved it indeed comes within the ambit of the all-Ireland institutions as a subject for the North/South Ministerial Council, in which Unionists are a permanent minority.
3. Under the Robinson/McGuinness deal no Unionist need apply for the post of Justice Minister, because they have agreed that a non-Unionist stooge will get the office. I for one do not accept that Unionists should be excluded from the Justice Ministry. Yet, Mr Robinson pretends such emasculated devolution is a Unionist victory!
4. This particular shabby deal only limps through to 2012, when again Sinn Fein will have the opportunity to extract new concessions, not least because one of the options provided in the legislation is that policing and justice functions could then pass to the Joint First Ministers! So much for ringfencing us from Sinn Fein control.
5. All cross-cutting issues from the Justice Department must go to the Executive where IRA/Sinn Fein holds a veto.
6. When you consider the shambles of government this dysfunctional Executive has produced, why would anyone want them given control over the sensitive and vital issue of justice? This is an Executive which can’t even deliver on bread and butter issues and which Sinn Fein can hold to ransom at any time, as it has already done. It is no place to decide the crucial issues of policing and justice.
7. The cost of policing and justice cannot be forecast. One turbulent summer or major inquiries could quadruple the cost and cripple expenditure on hospitals and schools, as money is diverted out of the fixed block budget.
Finally, reflect on this: if Sinn Fein is unfit to hold the Justice Ministry – and they are – then, how are they fit to control the education of our children? They are not and should not be in government at all, but those who put them there now want to placate them further by meeting their strategic demand of devolving policing and justice out of British control. And, that to an Assembly and Executive in which the party which supported the murder of policemen and judges, Sinn Fein, holds sway.
Mr Robinson brands me a wrecker. Better to be a wrecker of the IRA/Sinn Fein agenda than a facilitator!
