TUV Manifesto launch
11 April 2011
Click here to download the 2011 TUV Manifesto
Speaking at launch of TUV manifesto Party Leader Jim Allister said:-
“TUV is in this election to make a difference. We can’t go on as we are at Stormont, with serial failure, mammoth waste and trampling on basic democratic rights by denying even an Opposition and the ballot box opportunity to vote parties out of government.
“The outgoing Stormont has been a huge disappointment, but there should be no surprise there because if you don’t have to agree on anything before you go into government, then disagreement when you’re there is inevitable. Hence the gridlock on education, the impasse on local government reform and a budgetary response which was shambolic and ineffective in tackling the massive rise of 150% in unemployment under DUP/Sinn Fein rule. Add to the mix the utter absence of ministerial accountability – such as we saw over the water crisis – and the failure of the last four years should surprise nobody.
“Then there is the shameful waste of taxpayers money. £60m to the GAA and £30m more to football than they asked for, but there isn’t enough money to open the cancer unit in Londonderry. £400m poured down the drain of useless North/South bodies while DETI has run out of money for future capital investment, though £21m can be found for the Provo project at the Maze. Potholes can’t be fixed, but Murphy can pour £700m into the Dublin/Donegal motorway. And, all this by a bloated Assembly of 108 MLAs – when half would be adequate – 15 chauffeur-driven ministers, a White House sized staff for the Joint First Ministers, and in case they’d have to put their hand too deep into their own pocket a £500,000 subsidy pa for the MLAs canteen!
“With all other parties anxious to carry on where they’ve left off, promising merely more of the same at Stormont, TUV is the real alternative in this election. We say enough is enough. Now, not in four or more years, is the time for radical shake-up. Now is the time for an opposition. Now is the time to throw off the shackles of failed mandatory coalition and have those who can agree what to do about education, the economy and health, in government and those who can’t – whoever they might be – form an Opposition. Unless and until these fundamentals of democracy are re-established Stormont will never work.
“While some other parties nod towards change, none of them are in the least sincere because each of them are pledged to return to operate the very system they know is flawed beyond repair, because the lure of power – any power - in perpetuity is irresistible. It is rather by voting TUV that the voters can compel change. We will be the catalyst for change in the next Stormont. The bigger the TUV team the quicker democratic change will come. And, whether official or otherwise, when TUV arrives in Stormont the DUP/Sinn Fein cabal will face the voice of Opposition. So, they’d better get used to it.
“Stormont needs the shake-up that only TUV can give it.”
Click here to download the 2011 TUV Manifesto
