Allister Blasts Stormont on Policing and Justice
02 March 2012
Below is Mr Allister’s speech from the debate this morning on policing and justice:
“It has been almost two years since policing and justice powers were devolved. To some, that might seem like several political lifetimes, because, of course, there were those in this House who told us that aeons would have to pass before policing and justice powers were devolved. Then, one cold day in Hillsborough, Sinn Féin put their backs against the wall and threatened them that there would be no more Assembly and no more chauffeur-driven cars unless they caved in. They caved in spectacularly, as the snowmen and all melted away, and, once more, Sinn Féin got its way in this House and got the powers that were going to be so many political lifetimes away suddenly devolved in that sordid deal that was Hillsborough.
“We were promised, of course, that there would be a momentous amount of money to help things, and that £800 million was coming our way. Where is it? I probed in the Budget debates last year, but the Finance Minister could not tell me where the £800 million was. Last night, I sat in a meeting of 200 people who were fighting to save their police station in the village of Broughshane because of cuts. Where is the £800 million that was going to save policing and justice and do all things marvellously well in that regard? That is another part of the con that attended all that.
“How has it worked out? It has worked out so well that, at one point, the First Minister threatened to resign over the actions of the Justice Minister, who, surreptitiously, was going to destroy the symbols and the name of the Prison Service and had to be called to book by the First Minister.
“Now he wants to reappoint him, because, of course, this is a post for which no unionist need apply.
“That is pure and simple and, again, is part of another deal with Sinn Féin and the DUP. It is not part of any negotiations in any real sense between parties in the House but part of a negotiation between Sinn Féin and the DUP in which, again, the compliant beneficiary will be the Alliance Party. Of course, it is going through the motions as best it can of pretending that it is not really saying that it will take the Department. Who does it think that it is kidding, Mr Speaker? Everyone knows that David Ford is itching to be reconfirmed as Justice Minister, whatever the party might pretend about having to be persuaded because it is not very happy that Dr Farry is being made a sacrificial lamb. It says that it may not take the post and that its very important central council will have to meet and decide and that everything is very much up in the air. Nonsense, Mr Speaker; everyone knows that the Alliance Party is guaranteed to take it.
Mr Elliott: I thank the Member for giving way. He makes an issue of the Alliance Party taking or not taking the Justice Ministry. If the Alliance Party were not to take it and it were offered to the honourable Member for North Antrim, would he be interested?
Mr Allister: There is as much chance of that as there was for the snowmen at Hillsborough.
“We were told today by Mr Humphrey, I think, that this appointment is a great Belfast Agreement-busting device. Who does he think he is kidding? He is an implementer, as all on those Benches are, of the last jot and tittle of the Belfast Agreement. The tripartite stool still exists. The mandatory coalition, the joint First Ministers, the executive North/South bodies, the very essence of the Belfast Agreement.
“All the things that the DUP once eschewed and said that it could never, never, never accept are the very things that it implements day and daily. As a prop to the implementing of them it had to agree the transfer of policing and justice at Sinn Féin’s behest, and it agreed it to continue to prop up the very essence and substance of the Belfast Agreement. Anyone who thinks about it can see right through the transparent nonsense that has been talked by many in the House about policing and justice and can see that, again, we are headed down a road that underwrites that which Sinn Féin demands. What Sinn Féin wants, it gets, and it got it in the House on policing and justice.
“Some say that I got it wrong. Certainly not; I got it right on the powers of policing and justice, and that is why the DUP belatedly had to run scurrying to get changes made in the 2009 Act because it was asleep at the wheel and could not see and could not read what was in the 2002 Act and the 2004 Act and had to get it changed because I drew its attention to it, and that is why some of the powers that are now going back for review were taken out in the 2006 Act. It may well be reviewed back in.”
