St Andrews excuses don't add up
16 January 2008
Further statement by Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister on events flowing from FOI disclosure:
"The claim by Ian Paisley Junior that he raised his projects only on the margins of St Andrews and DUP indications that Junior was on a "solo run", raise the intriguing question of why, if this is so, a Prime Minister, consumed with more pressing matters, would so expeditiously respond "positively", on the very day the St Andrews Conference climaxed, to matters in respect of which the decision properly lay with local departments? It surely stretches credulity to dismiss a nexus between Junior's requests and what was going on at that time at St Andrews?
The urgency and positive nature of the PM's response suggests it was in his interests to respond as he did, as if such a response was conditional on, or in expectation of, obtaining reciprocal positivity from those he was negotiating with. In short, what did Ian Junior promise and deliver him in return, and on whose behalf?
A second major outstanding question is whether he was doing all this behind his father's back. Is that what we are expected to believe, particularly since one of the undertakings sought from the PM was for government to engage with his father on the future of St Patrick's Barracks?
It seems to me, therefore, that we need much more clarity from both Ian Junior and his father."
