Another step to placating Sinn Fein

14 September 2009

Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister QC

“With the Justice Bill due to progress through its First Stage in the Assembly today, it is clear that despite the bluster of last week, the DUP is making the next down payment in its ‘no unionist need apply’ deal with IRA/Sinn Fein on policing and justice.

“Policing and justice is such a seminal issue for Sinn Fein because ending its British control has always been a key republican objective. As their 2005 Manifesto said, “Our strategy is for a new all-Ireland policing and justice system. That cannot be achieved without the transfer of policing and justice powers away from London, into an Executive and Assembly and the all-Ireland institutions.”

“Unionists should not be playing their game, but sadly some will pay any price to cling to office. Today in Stormont not a single whimper of protest will be raised because it is an Assembly in which tens of thousands of Traditional Unionists are disenfranchised. Yet another dimension of its unsustainability.”

NI politics