There's nothing to celebrate about terrorists in government
02 December 2009
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister QC marking 10 years since the commencement of Belfast Agreement devolution:
“Ten years ago today unrepentant terrorists first entered government, as Northern Ireland was lumbered with Belfast Agreement devolution. The representatives of terror were elevated to ministerial office and the cries of protest from the Democratic Unionist Party were deafening.
“Some time later Peter Robinson moved a motion of no confidence against the Minister of Education, Martin McGuinness, in which he stated:
“I call on all Unionists here to reject Sinn Féin/IRA representatives in the Government. We have endured 30 years of violence and terror. If the Assembly sends out the message that violence pays, we shall be heading for the abyss. If this motion fails, the message from the Assembly will be that democracy has died in Northern Ireland and that violence is rewarded with ministerial positions.”
“Ten years later Peter Robinson partners the very same McGuinness in the joint office of the First Ministers. It is now Peter Robinson who protects and sustains the rewarding of violence with ministerial positions. Democracy has indeed been abased with the fundamental right to vote a party out of office removed, because of the toxic perversion that is mandatory coalition. Who would have thought that it would have been the DUP that would have embraced and enabled such a death blow to democracy. Empowering terrorists in government is a sad legacy for a party built on denouncing the weakness of others and eschewing the very Agreement they now operate. Without the DUP the Belfast Agreement would be dead.
“However, while Peter has been able to swallow his principles for the sake of high office many Unionists have refused to follow his lead. This was dramatically demonstrated in the European elections last June.
“A repeat performance by TUV in an Assembly poll will consign the Belfast Agreement to a Sadducees grave never to rise again”.
