Wake up call to DUP sleepwalkers

20 February 2010

Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister QC:-

“The declaration by Pat Doherty today in London, at Sinn Fein’s Irish unity junket, that the right to self-determination and Irish independence are outstanding issues “which must be resolved” is a refutation of the Belfast Agreement framework within which Northern Ireland is presently government.  That Agreement, according to its supporters and operators, supposedly settled the constitutional issue on the premise of consent. Yet, here we have one of the parties currently in government on the basis of that Agreement repudiating that central contention and thereby challenging the foundation stone of consent.

“With Doherty going on to decree that The Good Friday Agreement is only an accommodation – not a settlement, and part of a process towards Irish unification, this is a direct challenge to the DUP, as the current custodians and operators of the Belfast Agreement, and their pretence that constitutional certainty within the Union has been secured.

“It is clear from Doherty that for Sinn Fein the Belfast Agreement, like St Andrews and Hillsborough, is a mere staging post to be used and exploited to roll out Irish unity by stealth: the Sinn Fein strategy is clear in these words about how they see and operate all these agreements, “The journey we are on is one in which the lines which divide us in Ireland will be increasingly blurred until we reach a point where they become meaningless.” Hence his gloating about all the cross-border infrastructural and other all-Ireland links which the DUP/Sinn Fein regime at Stormont has produced.                            

“Such Sinn Fein strategy and disingenuous use of the Belfast Agreement structures has long been clear to traditional unionists – indeed, such was once clear to the current lead operatives of the Belfast Agreement, the DUP, but the lure of office has blurred their vision. The utterances of Doherty should be a wake-up call to those sleepwalking into delivering the Sinn Fein agenda, soon to be expanded with a republican veto on policing and justice.”

NI politics