Hain Reveals Tactics Used to Tame the DUP Lion
23 January 2012
Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Press reports of the contents of Peter Hain’s memoirs provide a telling insight into just how the Blair Government went about taming the DUP lion.
“Mr Hain makes it obvious that he identified a series of weak links in the party. According to Hain the ego of Ian Paisley senior was fed by way of flattery while Ian Paisley Jur’s hunger for power was also indulged. Additionally, a key part of Hain’s plan to persuade the DUP to accept mandatory coalition with the IRA’s political wing was a threat to stop paying MLAs unless they agreed to operate the Belfast Agreement – something which Hain claims Peter Robinson told him was causing consternation within the DUP Assembly group and the party’s officials and support staff.
“Any impartial observer will hardly regard what the former Secretary of State has to say as a glowing list of compelling reasons for public representatives to cut a deal for the good of the electorate! St Andrews had a great deal to do with saving MLA’s wages and nothing to do with saving the Union”.
