No pride to be taken from Paisley's legacy
04 March 2008
Statement by Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister:
"I have no doubt that Ian Paisley jumped before he was pushed. It was very significant that when Dublin and Sinn Fein raised the campaign "Paisley Must Stay", not a single DUP figure, apart from Baroness Paisley, publicly agreed. Ian Paisley was hung out to dry by the so called "pragmatists" in the DUP because, frankly, he'd served his purpose, in that he delivered what no other DUP leader could deliver, a DUP/Sinn Fein coalition. Since the Dromore by-election the DUP has been in something of a blind panic and changing the guard was their answer. Of course, it is not the personalties, but the policies which need to change.
No democrat or Unionist could take pride in a legacy which bequeathed to Northern Ireland unrepentant terrorists at the heart of its government and joint rule with a Party which clings to a wicked Army Council and which still has a military wing, murdering as in the case of Paul Quinn. Sadly, this is Ian Paisley's political legacy to Ulster."
