TUV Leader Commends RUC Refusal to be Bullied
22 March 2012
Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“The decision of those behind moves to change the name of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Athletics Association to withdraw their motion is testament to the fact that members of the RUC are still courageous individuals who refuse to be bullied.
“It is evident that those who supported stripping the last trace of the RUC from the PSNI found that members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary who faced down terrorists are not easily threatened. Those who supported change – as this morning’s News Letter makes clear – were fully intending to push ahead with their plans.
“The RUC served with distinction throughout the terrorist campaign of the Troubles and many of its members sacrificed their lives for Northern Ireland. The stripping of the RUC’s name and badge was an issue which caused huge hurt to the men and women who served in its ranks. This attempt to erase the last remnants of its name from the PSNI’s structures, therefore, understandably provoked anger among many members, some of whom contacted me.
“From what I am told there were a lot of questions from the floor which could not be answered by the proposers of the motion but it is now incumbent upon Assistant Chief Constable Kerr to come clean and tell us something he failed to address in his letter covered in today’s News Letter – where did the threat to the RUCAA’s funding come from?
“In his letter of 6th March he claimed that: “In blunt terms, a perceived unwillingness on the part of the Association to change to the more generic “Police Athletic Association Northern Ireland” may result in a failure to secure the grants on which this Association is financially dependent”.
“Yet no threat seems ever to have existed.
“And while ACC Kerr can write letters to the press he has yet to answer a letter which I sent to him three weeks ago asking him to spell out why he wrote to RUCAA members in such a threating way.
“Others within the PSNI who claimed that a failure to change the name could result in the loss of an RUC memorial window also need to apologise for their blatant attends at emotional blackmail.”
