Stormont's "See No Evil, Hear No Evil" modus operandi
18 July 2012
Following claims implicating McGuinness at the Smithwick Tribunal, TUV Leader Jim Allister tabled a Question to the Joint First Ministers asking “…..in light of recent evidence to the Smithwick Tribunal, whether consideration will be given to introducing measures to require Ministers to explain truthfully their past terrorist involvement.”
The cop-out answer, just supplied, is in these terms: “This is not a matter within the legislative competence of the Assembly.”
Commenting Jim Allister said, “It is no surprise that it is of no concern to McGuinness whether ministers tell the truth about their terrorist involvement, but some might have expected the First Minister to care, but patently he does not.
“What an absurd system of government that ministers can daily practice mendacity about their past and no one, least of all their ministerial colleagues, as much as bats an eyelid. It is this corruption of democracy at the heart of government which leaves the present arrangements at Stormont bereft of morality. Truly, what is morally wrong can never be politically right.
“Whatever about the legislative competence of the Assembly, it lies within the power of every minister, if any cared about such issues, to insist on basic honesty as a condition of continuance of the executive. Of course, they care too much about their chauffeur driven limos and the trappings of office to ever take a stand on the side of common decency in government. In consequence the obscenity of unrepentant terrorists in government continues.”
