New act in Cirque Stormont
26 February 2010
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:
“I suppose we should never expect too much from a man who described himself as “the back end of a pantomine horse”, but the desperation of David Ford to be promoted above his station is laughable. He pretends a principled stand of holding back till he sees a Shared Strategy in place, but then settles for the reported existence of a document which he hasn’t even seen.
“His biggest claim to fame to date is as ‘leader’ of an Opposition which doesn’t exist, but suddenly, when the option of being a puppet within the Excecutive is proferred, opposition doesn’t matter. Puppet or pantomine horse poor David can’t resist a role, any role in Cirque Stormont., even if its only till 2012 – if he survives the 2011 elections! But just to get keeping the seat warn for Gerry Kelly will be an honour for salivating Alliance.
“Though the notion of Alliance as a serious Opposition was a joke in itself, the admission of Alliance to the Executive will remove the last fickle semblance of normal political and democratic credibility from this Stormont. This consequence of the Sinn Fein/DUP Hillsborough deal, in extinguishing the presence of a token Opposition, will not concern the practitioners of mandatory coalition, but it does highlight how that tyrannical system tramples on the fundamental building blocks of democracy – the right to vote a party out of government and the right to have an Opposition.”
