Programme for Government Adopts Provo Agenda on UK City of Culture
09 January 2012
Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“In a recent statement, carried on the website of Londonderry Sinn Fein, Junior Minister in the Office of the Co-First Ministers Martina Anderson stated the following:
"Everyone who is proud of the Irishness of our City, while at the same time respecting the cultural diversity within it, needs to cooperate to ensure that it is portrayed throughout the world as the City of Irish Cultural and historical significance that it is.
"If successful in their objections the small minority opposed to this bid will be self-defeating as without a strong Irish Cultural flavour to the events they will only succeed in allowing our historic Irish City to be portrayed throughout the world as a 'City of U.K. Culture' devoid of Irishness . The only way to neutralise the U.K. prefix - which I doubt if anyone outside of here will take any notice of - is to take ownership of the project by making sure that the events that will make an impact on the world stage are those reflecting the reality that this is an 'Irish City of Culture' regardless of working titles or tags.”
“Sinn Fein/IRA’s agenda for Londonderry’s year as UK City of Culture is clear. They want to strip any semblance of Britishness from the events.
“Republicans drove the bulk of the Unionist population out of the city side of Londonderry by a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation. Now convicted terrorist and Junior Minister Anderson is intent on denying the minority population of Londonderry the right to have their culture and heritage marked in a year which should see them presented with an opportunity to reaffirm the city’s historic connections with the rest of the United Kingdom.
“Sad to say, the Stormont Executive is following the Sinn Fein agenda to “neutralise the U.K. prefix”. While the Draft Programme for Government mentions the City of Culture a number of times, significantly, it never refers to Londonderry as 'the UK City of Culture'.
“On foot of this I tabled a question to co-First Ministers Robinson and McGuinness asking, "given the terminology used in the draft Programme for Government, whether it is Executive policy to delete reference to the United Kingdom in referring to Londonderry being the UK City of Culture." While OFMdFM claimed that “No such policy has been determined by the Executive”, patently this is the adopted practice, otherwise a formal document such as the 'Programme for Government' would undoubtedly deploy the proper title, 'UK City of Culture'.
“Now that a Junior Minister in OFMdFM has come out with such an overtly sectarian and divisive statement any doubt which one might have had about the matter has been removed.
"Shame on those Unionists who meekly rolled over, accepting the lingo of Sinn Fein/IRA and going along with their agenda to “neutralise the U.K. prefix”.
Note to editors:
Anderson’s statement is online here.
Mr Allister’s question and the answer received were as follows:
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister, given the terminology used in the draft Programme for Government, whether it is Executive policy to delete the reference to the United Kingdom in referring to Londonderry being the UK City of Culture 2013; and, if so, why this is the case.
No such policy has been determined by the Executive.
