Allister answers Spratt
12 January 2008
Statement by Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister:
As someone who is constantly written off as “irrelevant” and on “borrowed time”, I seem to require a remarkable degree of energy and effort by the scriptwriters in DUP Headquarters, as they pour abuse on me through a succession of spokesmen. The latest comes in the name of Jimmy Spratt MLA.
It is always a sign of insecurity when a Party has to keep trumpeting how well it has delivered. Yes, the DUP has delivered:-
* unrepentant terrorists at the heart of government;
* Sinn Fein into the highest offices in the land while its military wing murders Paul Quinn and its evil army Council remains in tact;
* a First Minister who thinks it tasteful and right to joke in Brussels about the Northern Bank robbery and chuckle endlessly with the epitome of the wicked decades of terror to which we were subjected;
* the opportunity for Sinn Fein to bring forward proposals to wreck our education system;
* more north/southery than we ever saw under Direct Rule;
* Sinn Fein ministers actively implementing their all-island agendas;
but in terms of strengthening the Union, who do they think they are kidding?
Mr Spratt limply protests there is no alternative, as Trimble did for years. Then the DUP vigorously disagreed, now they meekly implement the Agreement Trimble initiated.
The alternative, Mr Spratt, is that Northern Ireland, if it is to have devolution, should have it in accordance with the forms and precedents prevailing elsewhere in the UK, which preserve democratic primacy and gives voters the right to vote a party out of office. Alas, the mangled form of devolution, mandatory coalition, which the DUP has permitted is such that Sinn Fein, who don’t even accept the entity of Northern Ireland, are guaranteed a place in its government in perpetuity, with voters unable to remove them. And you call this democracy, Mr Spratt. Well might you describe it as “remarkable”, but not, I’m afraid, with any sense of pride.”
