Allister answers Robinson
15 March 2008
Statement by Traditional Unionist MEP Jim Allister:
So, Peter Robinson thinks I’ve a paper bag over my head. Interesting! Our First Minister in waiting seems a little confused. It’s not me who has a penchant for strange headgear, but the balaclava brigade who are now his partners in government. When Peter is joint First Minister he can explore with Marty the finer details of headgear. Marty is probably quite a connoisseur on coiffure.
It might be more fitting to ask Marty about the numerous people who exited this scene of time with a black bag or hood over their head, courtesy of IRA/Sinn Fein. Mr Robinson used to be interested in these matters, as in a speech he made in the Assembly on 8 May 2001. Now, of course, in his own parallel universe where wrong is right and right is wrong, nothing stirs him except those who dare to stand where he once stood.
With a rashness, possessed of a certain boomerang potential, Mr Robinson invites comparison between utterances in the 1980s and today in 2008. I don’t think he’s the man to go there.
But, here too, he is confused. I think he’ll find I compared Belfast Agreement rule to Dublin Rule. Indeed within the material I produced in 1998, he’ll find an analysis of the Belfast Agreement, which he is now implementing, entitled “10 Steps on the Road to Dublin Rule”. It contained this paragraph, which Mr Robinson then agreed with:-
“The thrust and purpose of the Agreement could not be clearer. It is not an end in itself. It unfolds a programme of rolling all-Ireland integration. The logic and intent of the Agreement is shown by the fact that the only and ultimate political outcome which Dublin and London commit themselves to legislating for is an all-Ireland Republic. (pages 27/28).”
The 1998 Agreement still stands in this and virtually every other aspect. What has changed is that Mr Robinson and the DUP are now enthusiastically implementing it.
As for ‘Direct Rule’, I’d gladly prefer democratic devolution. But what we’ve got is a rigged and undemocratic arrangement of joint government with unrepentant terrorists in which you can never vote a party out of government, nor have an effective opposition.”
