Jim Allister's TUV Conference speech

13 November 2010

 

We may not have had the year we would have liked, or that your hard work and that of all our candidates deserved, but TUV is here and here to stay, because the cause and the need that brought us into existence haven’t gone away.

 

Some would sooner see us defeated than their IRA/Sinn Fein buddies, but I’ve got news for them, TUV has more durability than the ‘never, never, never’ pretence of some, because at our core is principle, not expediency.

 

Who would rejecters of terrorists in government vote for, if TUV was not here? Who would those who dare to say Stormont isn’t working vote for? Or, those who think an Opposition would help? So far from vote splitters we are vote gatherers for unionism. 

 

So, if the cause of traditional unionism was vanquished the unionist vote would shrink even more. Instead of demonising TUV, DUP and others should be glad we’re here to still get out to vote those they betrayed.

 

I believe a large share of stay-at home unionists voters are not soft liberals but unionists disgusted by the somersaulting antics. Mellow liberals are spoiled for choice, there’s Peter, or Arlene, or Jeffrey, or Basil or David - I can’t believe I’m a Minister - Ford. All shades of fluffy, roll-over unionists are available in abundance, so lurching further into Belfast Agreement politics will not arrest the unionist decline.

 

Many are looking for unionist politicians who won’t roll over, and that’s where TUV comes into its own.

 

But let me say this, Traditional Unionists are neither antediluvian nor averse to pluralism. The only pluralism we’re opposed to is double jobbing and my with what kicking and screaming we’ve dragged the DUP and others into the 21^st century on that one. Yet, despite their promises, Wilson and Campbell still cling, and intend to cling, to both Stormont and Westminster, along with McDonnell and Ritchie and, of course, the parasitic Shinners, gorging on British expenses from a British parliament they won’t even attend.

 

Rather than being the enemies of liberal democracy we are the staunchest defenders of its fundamentals. That’s why we reject mandatory coalition, demand equal citizenship rights and dare to say Stormont must have an Opposition. Shock horror, there are democrats, real democratic unionists, who still actually believe in the fundamentals of democracy – the right to vote parties in and out of government, the right to have an opposition, the right to have parity with other UK voters. The primitives are those who deny such rights, who insist the people must not be allowed to vote a party out of government, because mandatory coalition, no matter how anti-democratic, is the Holy Grail, and you certainly must never be allowed an Opposition. They are the backwoodsmen, clinging to the bad old days of suppressing democratic rights.

 

5^th May will crystallise the issue. Voters in Scotland and Wales will have the right to change their government. Voters in Northern Ireland will not. Why, because of the iniquity of mandatory coalition, which, by law, prohibits voters from voting a party out of government. This is a gross denial of democracy, a shameful affront to our right to equal citizenship and obliterates a fundamental right, taken for granted across the world.

 

In Scotland and Wales voters can punish parties for failure and get a fresh start, but in Northern Ireland you’re saddled with more of the same, because under the Belfast Agreement we’re second class voters denied that most precious and basic of democratic rights, the right to change our government. That is wrong, destructive of democracy and a big contributor to falling voter turn-out. Yet, TUV alone makes this an issue, while all others are happy to put the vested interest of never being out of power before the rights and liberties of the voter. For a little while Alliance was a self-styled quasi-opposition, but then they were bought of with a seat at the trough. Now, totalitarian coalition, without even a facility for Opposition, sets Stormont apart as a blot on the world’s democratic landscape.

 

We’re not North Korea, We’re Northern Ireland. This suppression of basic democratic rights can’t go on. Denying Ulster voters rights taken for granted everywhere else is not just flagrantly wrong; it is a benign form of despotism.

 

Yet, when you dare to make serious points about the obvious deficiencies of the present form of devolution and to demand an Opposition you’re pilloried as a wrecker of Stormont.

 

Let me nail that lie, TUV is not about wrecking Stormont, but getting a better Stormont:

• One that works, instead of the constant deadlock.
• One that allows voters to decide who governs by restoring the right to change your government.
• One that permits an Opposition, with shared government through voluntary, not unworkable compulsory coalition.
• One that eradicates waste, like the millions spent on useless north/south bodies and the Irish language.

 

Our unflinching stand against IRA/Sinn Fein is well known but we are about much more than that.

 

Ours is a positive vision for Stormont. A progressive way forward. A journey to empower the people and release them from the bondage and failure of mandatory coalition.

 

Stormont is broken. We want to fix it.

 

Our vision for Stormont is to turn it from a byword for deadlock, misgovernment and waste into a vibrant Stormont, with government built on a shared programme and a vigorous Opposition to hold it to account. This is the way to a better Northern Ireland.

 

The record of the present Stormont and its DUP/Sinn Fein coalition is one of abject and expensive failure. This failure is no surprise because there is no common cause, no common vision binding together the parties that govern. So misgovernment and hopeless deadlock are inevitable. Guarantee entry to government by right, rather than by merit and don’t be surprised when you inevitably get bad government.

 

Instead we want to see government formed by consensus on policy, where those who can agree what to do about our economy, our education, health, roads and things which matter to our daily lives, get to govern, and those who can’t form the Opposition.

 

Anyone who is a democrat has nothing to fear from us or democracy. If Sinn Fein can agree with sufficient others on a programme for government and together command the requisite majority in the Assembly, then they can attain office by the fair means of voluntary coalition and we’ll be the Opposition. But if Sinn Fein are only democrats so long as they are guaranteed a place in government, from which they can never be evicted by the voters, then they are not democrats at all! That is the defining issue for finding a durable Stormont and one that works and in May it will be by voting TUV that real and hopeful change can be sought. Vote for those who have presided over the deadlock, failure and dysfunctionalism of the present Stormont and you’ll get more of the same.

 

And, my, what failure they have delivered! Little wonder Stormont’s own public attitude survey, which they concealed for months and then sneaked out on ‘Axe Wednesday’, found that only 20% of voters think Stormont has delivered. The great majority agree with our verdict of failure. 75% say Stormont is a failure, the rest work there!

 

The scale of that failure is staggering. Education Ruaned, unemployment up 160% since they came to office, health service waiting lists again out of control, policing and justice traded for nothing on parades, a stadium abandoned only to then see the IRA shrine later conceded, millions wasted on an aborted RPA reform and a response to the deepest economic crisis in living memory which is long on whinge and blaming everyone else, but short on acknowledging their own pitiful negotiating and utter bankruptcy in terms of coming up with a coherent, workable response to manage the pain and protect the front line.

With recession biting deep, delivery by government is more important than ever. While the Tory/Lib Dem coalition is prescribing tough medicine, the local DUP/Sinn Fein can’t even agree a budgetary response, far less come up with an employment strategy to project jobs. The only place immune from cuts seems to be Stormont itself where millions are still squandered on useless north/south bodies, lavish expenses and pointless translation into the Irish Language! We’ve seen £400m wasted on north/southery, but not a finger raised to cull these sacred cows of the Stormont establishment.

Yet the First Minister, who presides over this rampant waste, and who himself is on something approaching £121,000 per annum decrees that the wages of public sector workers on just £21,000 per annum should be frozen.

Returning to the waste of Stormont, £500,000 subsidy for cheap food for MLAs, £25,000 for their bottled water and hundreds of thousands wasted on needless translation into Irish, as part of the DUP sanctioned strategy to placate Sinn Fein.

In our view a meaningful employment strategy for Northern Ireland is far more necessary than a language strategy. Lasting jobs, not jobs for the boys, is our goal.

One obvious political lesson of the economic crisis is the utter foolishness and fiscal lunacy of Irish unification. The present economic storm is a reminder of the relative safety of being part of one of the biggest world economies, the UK, rather than being a famished appendage of a hopelessly bankrupt Republic. Yet, part of the folly of the present Belfast Agreement arrangements, under which we are governed, is that everything is being orientated and tilted towards an all-Ireland agenda, be it tourism, energy, commerce, investment or infrastructure. This north/southery is the road to the shared failure and misery of the Republic, whereas, TUV wants to see our economy and growth refocused on building our east/west links with our far more stable neighbours in the rest of the UK. Yes, we are unapologetically unionist in our economics as well as our politics.

Yet at the heart of government, exercising full veto on everything, we have an economically illiterate party, Sinn Fein, whose solution for our economic gloom is to strap ourselves to the fastest sinking economy in Europe, the Republic of Ireland, where things are so bad it has driven Brian Cowan to drink. Mind you drunk he made as much sense as some of the things you hear from the Jokes on the Hill.

Have you ever heard Mitchell McLaughlin discussing the finer points of fiscal management? No, neither have I because he never understands the question. Or, Edwin Poots sharing with the world his jurisprudential musings on judicial reviews; until he’s cut short by a High Court Judge warning of contempt of court.

*Then there are those who aspire to talk Irish who can’t even manage English. Have you ever heard the erudite Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Paul Maskey? He can emasculate the English language quicker than Arlene Foster can say ESB!

Poor Arlene minded to approve Sweeney’s Causeway project before the ground went from under her and then lashing TUV as scaremongering over her approval of the ESB’s takeover of NIE before Peter pulled the rug from under her by writing to Dublin to protest. It’s a long time since Peter protested in Dublin. These days, as he shamefully was on Remembrance Day, he’s more likely to be standing shoulder to shoulder with The First Minister of Terror, the Bogside Butcher to help him receive the accolade of messiah of peace. How have the mighty fallen, but in that shameful incident we have a telling snapshot of how far Nua DUP has departed from principle and probity. Let their declension be a constant spur to steadfastness.

Speaking of vigilance, we’ve had an object lesson in this country in the folly of thinking terrorism can be bought off. Many of us long warned that an inevitable consequence of rewarding the terror of the IRA would be fresh terrorism, as other like-minded terrorists worked out that violence pays. Having seen it pay so handsomely for Martin McGuinness and Sinn Fein no one should be surprised that others, or the same people under a new guise, then start trading in the same destructive currency.

In the past year we’ve seen an alarming increase in IRA activity – the precise flag of convenience is irrelevant, the purpose, methodology and murderous result are the same. It’s the Provo template. The difference being that thanks to the steps taken to placate Sinn Fein, our security has been denuded, our police diminished and in consequence we have never been more vulnerable to paying a heavy price from an upsurge in republican terrorist activity.

Make no mistake, Adams, McGuinness and co could put a stop to much of this reversion to terrorism, if they wanted, but for all their carefully choreographed, weasel words about ‘conflict junkies’ to which they gave the habit, some arms length muscle suits Sinn Fein just fine. There is no better way to keep the concession pump flowing than to have it constantly primed by the threat of more terror. Hence, all the rhetoric about being part of a peace process, not a settlement, because process requires successive staging posts and sweeteners, of which Hillsborough will not be the last.

I warn strongly against the next staging post on Sinn Fein’s agenda, that of tax-raising powers being transferred from London to Belfast. It is because fiscal unity is central to national sovereignty that breaching it forms part of the republican agenda; it is a potent tie that binds us to the UK and I trust no unionist will be so foolish as to fall for the ploy of increasing Stormont’s powers by cutting the critical guy rope of fiscal parity.

Constitutional significance apart, it would be a step of utter economic folly, because its direct corollary is that as a region you then must raise enough to fully pay your own way. Gone would be the annual subvention and in would come a crippling taxation burden. Only in the Marxist wonderland of Sinn Fein does such make sense. For Ulster taxpayers, as opposed to the layabouts that Sinn Fein care about, it would be a nightmare.

When you look back at Hillsborough, there was only one winner and it wasn’t unionism. Despite all the false talk about clever devices it turns out, as we warned, that policing and justice was traded for nothing on parading. HMG wiped their eye on the financial negotiations and Sinn Fein wiped their feet on them on parading, marching on to their next staging post. And, what of the Contemptible Snowmen? Gone, as ignominiously as they came!

As we look forward to next year and electoral successes in the twin election for Stormont and local government, TUV can reflect on the depth and breadth of our influence even in advance of such successes.

With the DUP long accused of looking over its shoulder at TUV, it is clear that even from outside Stormont we have exercised influence by keeping the brakes on the pace of concessions to Sinn Fein.

These are facts:

• The original legislation on policing and justice was set to put even more dangerous power into McGuinness’ hands by giving the Joint First Ministers powers to recommend who should be our senior judges and the right to appoint 9 members to the Policing Board. When the Executive Review Committee at Stormont came to examine these arrangements, under Jeffrey Donaldson’s chairmanship, not a single DUP objection was raised. It was only after TUV exposed these issues that the DUP woke up and insisted on legislative change. Without TUV pressure it never would have happened.
• In pursuit of accommodating Sinn Fein’s agenda the DUP delivered a paper to Sinn Fein offering to surrender selection at 11 for transfer at 14: the DUP wrote “14 could become the key decision point for the future….We would be flexible about the instrument for matching pupils at 14. 14 however would be promoted and supported as the key decision point…” It was only when TUV exposed this climb-down that the DUP back-peddled like fury. Again, TUV held the DUP in check and forced it to hold the line on academic selection at 11.
• The TUV contribution to exposing that the DUP/Sinn Fein parading proposals contained no advancement for Unionism contributed significantly to their timely demise.
• Arlene Foster welcomed the take-over of NIE by the Republic’s state owned ESB, TUV protested, suddenly Peter Robinson joined in the condemnation!
• TUV put the public focus on the iniquity of double-jobbing, now DUP and others are being  forced to end it.

 

 

Able to do this from the outside, with clout on the inside TUV MLAs can do much to derail the Sinn Fein concession train. Voters on 5^th May will have the opportunity to add to that anti-Sinn Fein, pro-democracy clout by voting TUV.

 

Now, every trick will be tried to try and keep the voice of conscience and traditional unionism out of Stormont, and no more so than in the deception about stopping McGuinness becoming First Minister. For an audacious con this takes some beating. The DUP consciously and deliberately permitted the law to be changed to allow Sinn Fein to be First Minister, for the sole purpose of creating that specter as a means to duress unionists into voting DUP. Their fingerprints are all over the legislative change and their refusal to try and stop it in parliament confirms their complicity.

 

TUV believes IRA/Sinn Fein is unfit to hold ANY government office, not just the office of First Minister. So, when those who put Sinn Fein into government seek to seduce votes by talking up the threat of a Sinn Fein First Minister, ask them these simple questions:

 

•         Why did the DUP put Sinn Fein into government in the first place?

•         Why did the DUP not even try to stop the change which allows Sinn Fein to hold the position of First Minister?

•         Will the DUP serve under a Sinn Fein First Minister or will they pledge to work with fellow unionists in refusing and so force change?

 

Voting for TUV means YOU are taking the strongest stand possible against IRA/Sinn Fein. Voting for those who put Sinn Fein into government will keep them there. That will be the real choice.

 

So as we look forward to next year there are many challenges, many lies to be countered, many deceptions to be slain, many wrongs to be righted, but armed with the truth and integrity of our position and unshackled by the legionary failures of Stormont, we are the fresh and real alternative. Those with the vision and courage to demand the equal citizenship rights which are rightfully ours and which the Belfast Agreement system of government has emasculated.

 

We are the natural home not just for those sickened by terrorists in government, but for those despairing of the failures of Stormont and for those who recognise that the only way to effect change, real change, is to vote for those untarnished by those failures.

 

Ours is a message of hope, of belief in the restoration of true democratic values, theirs is a recipe for the despair and failure of which we’ve had too much already. The sectarian checkmate of mutual vetoes is no substitute for the progressive opportunities of voluntary coalition.

 

Voting for those who’ve given us the present mess at Stormont will guarantee more of the same. Voting TUV in sufficient strength will guarantee change for the better. We are the catalyst for change, others offer only four more years of deadlock, failure and waste.  Let’s move out of the bad old days of Stormont failure.

 

So, unbowed and unflinching we go forward determined to look this generation and the next in the eye with the message that who ever else might buckle and bend the rules of democracy for the sake of office, there is a party of conscience and conviction that offers a better way forward, not back. Let us press on towards the mark of a better tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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