TUV answers Secretary of State
13 January 2010
Responding to the Secretary of State's call to Unionists to support quick devolution of policing and justice, TUV Leader Jim Allister QC said:-
"Let me very clearly tell the Secretary of State, on behalf of the growing number of Unionists who support TUV, that we utterly reject any transfer at any time of justice powers to a terrorist-inclusive Executive. We do not hide behind shibboleths of 'community confidence', nor is devolving policing and justice a matter of money or timing.
"Sadly, the DUP, petrified of an election, is preparing to put party before country by surrendering to Sinn Fein's key "Brits Out" demand over policing and justice. In their last parliamentary manifesto they made it's strategic importance to the republican movement very clear: “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.”
"No Unionist should be delivering the Sinn Fein agenda. Period! Tragically, the DUP, with a Provo gun to its head, is readying to roll-over. Shame on them! Rudderless, the DUP is taking the Province onto the rocks of empowering IRA/Sinn Fein on the most vital issue of all - control of policing and justice - by gifting it to an Executive, through which every key justice issue will have to pass, on which IRA/Sinn Fein will hold a power of absolute veto."
