Allister answers Robinson
22 September 2007
Statement by Jim Allister MEP:
“I note Peter Robinson has dusted down another David Trimble speech to proclaim how strong the Belfast Agreement has made the Union etc and that all, who refuse to see it - like himself until his St Andrews road conversion – are “flat-earthers”! There is nothing “flat-earth” in holding to democratic standards which identify Sinn Fein as unfit for government, mandatory coalition as an absurdity and cherry-picking on the rule of law as unacceptable.
As for Peter Robinson’s call for me to resign from Europe, I am happy to judge it by the standard of his own past words. When I resigned from the DUP, it was Peter Robinson who said it would be hypocritical for them to expect me to fight a by-election since the DUP had taken in Jeffrey Donaldson, Peter Weir and Arlene Foster on the basis that their resignations from the UUP did not require by-elections.
Moreover, it is not me who has abandoned my mandate to embrace what was supposedly “out of the question”, namely IRA/Sinn Fein in government. It is not Jim Allister who has somersaulted.”
