Varney explodes Devolution blarney
18 December 2007
Statement by Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister:
"The outcome of the Varney Review - when contrasted with the hype and exaggerated claims from Stormont that accompanied its establishment - is a huge disappointment. Just like the promised mega financial package, it has turned out to be a damp squib.
I'm not surprised, because such was the desperation of local politicans to get into office that they had no bargaining power with Whitehall. Brown and Blair had their measure, namely that they were so bursting for power that they could be fobbed off with anything, and so they were. The pretence that lower corporation tax would be attained and that a massive financial package would be extracted from the Treasury, now stand exposed as part of a con perfected on the Northern Ireland electorate."
