MEP resigns
02 April 2007
Statement by Jim Allister MEP on 27/03/07:
“It is with immense sadness that I must resign from the DUP.
To continue as the DUP’s MEP it would be my obligation to accept the Party Executive policy decision to usher Sinn Fein into government in a few short weeks. This, in conscience, I cannot do. Thus, I must resign from the DUP.
Sinn Fein, in my view, is not fit for government, nor can it be in a few weeks.
I have fought a protracted battle within the party over recent months against a premature DUP/Sinn Fein Government. I now have to accept that this battle is lost.
The import of the Executive resolution and yesterday’s spectacle is clear. Sadly, no more delivery is required from Sinn Fein; it is enough if they do not resile from the commitments already made. Since the present commitments are, at best, equivocal and permit outrageous utterances such as those of Ms Gildernew after the lawful arrest and charging of persons with attempted murder, and since Sinn Fein is now to be admitted to government while its IRA Army Council still exists, I believe the much vaunted “delivery to our satisfaction” has been so diluted as to have become meaningless. Just as the ill-gotten gains, so robustly mentioned in that New Year’s message, have become the forgotten gains.
For me the abolition of the Army Council was always a litmus test of the sincerity of Sinn Fein/IRA’s professed transition to involvement exclusively in peaceful and democratic processes. The Army Council is the apex of the military structures of the republican movement. The DUP has long pledged that the military structures must go (it has been one of its “Seven Principles” for years and was reiterated in the manifesto for the March 2007 election.) Now, it seems, the Army Council can stay. Then, I can’t.
If Sinn Fein/IRA is indeed truly and irreversibly committed to exclusively peaceful means, then it does not need, nor should it want or have, an Army Council. I just cannot comprehend how the DUP can contemplate government, particularly where it will be “joined at the hip” in the office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, with an organisation which clings to an illegal Army Council of an illegal army. It seems to me that, sadly, the lure of office has clouded the Party’s judgement.
Personal interest and advancement might dictate that I too should ignore these issues. In conscience I cannot do so. I did not return to politics to help ease Sinn Fein into government and, thus, I cannot be a party to the present manoeuvrings and their inevitable outcome.
I thank all those within the party who supported me, particularly in recent months, and very much regret that things have turned out as they have.”
