There must be no dodgy deal on parading as fig leaf for sell-out on policing & justice
01 January 2010
TUV Leader Jim Allister has warned against a New Year agreement to transfer policing and justice on the basis of a dodgy deal on parading. Recalling the DUP’s expansive shopping list, including saving the Full time Reserve, he said it would soon lie crunched up and abandoned in the waste paper bin, along with the DUP’s last parliamentary manifesto pledge that mandatory coalition was “out of the question”.
In a statement Mr Allister said:-
“I approach the New Year with no confidence that the DUP will withstand the mounting London/Dublin pressure to gift Sinn Fein their strategic demand of ending British control of policing and justice. Placing policing and justice within the meddling reach of IRA/Sinn Fein, through their power of Executive veto, would be a scandalous sell-out.
“No doubt some fig leaf will be deployed to cover their climb down, with the claim of a dodgy deal on parading proclaimed as a Unionist victory. Bringing parading within the control of the dysfunctional office of the Joint First Ministers is no Unionist victory; rather it in fact empowers republicanism, with McGuinness given equal powers to pull the strings of puppet appointees. OFMDFM is the last place on which any rational person, looking for workable arrangements, would bestow parading powers.
“Sinn Fein’s purpose and goal is plain: the ending of British control of policing and justice; it is central to their ‘Brits Out’ strategy, which is why it is such a seminal issue for them. Unionists who seek not to thwart but facilitate that goal are utterly misguided.
“No Unionist, therefore, should be assisting the transfer of such powers to an Executive in which IRA/Sinn Fein holds the vital power of veto. Do we want the same mayhem as there is in education, with McGuinness and Kelly able to meddle in every key justice decision – remembering all Justice legislation, all key expenditure and every cross-cutting and controversial issue will have to go through the Executive. The puppet minister will be a mere bit player.
“For TUV devolving policing and justice powers is not a question of money or timing, it is something which on principle should never happen so long as there are terrorists in government.”
