PUP ANNUAL CONFERENCE:THE FAILURE of the DUP and Sinn Féin to help run a properly functioning Northern Executive is playing into the hands of the extreme wing of unionism and dissident republicanism, according to Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) leader Dawn Purvis.
The only people benefiting from the current political instability were the likes of MEP Jim Allister, who leads the Traditional Unionist Voice political party which opposes sharing power with Sinn Féin, and Michael McKevitt, the former Real IRA leader, in prison on terrorism charges, she said on Saturday.
"For the last year both the DUP and Sinn Féin have worked really hard. They have worked really hard to make unionist and republican dissidents relevant," Ms Purvis told the annual conference of the PUP in the Stormont Hotel in east Belfast.
The DUP and Sinn Féin were working their socks off "making Jim Allister on the one hand and Mickey McKevitt . . . on the other" the next popular political choices, she added.
"Follow it through to its logical conclusion. First we had the UUP and the SDLP, Trimble and Mallon, then the DUP and Sinn Féin, Paisley and McGuinness and now Robinson and McGuinness. If the DUP and Sinn Féin can't get it together are we facing round three, Allister and McKevitt?" Ms Purvis asked. She urged the DUP and Sinn Féin to end the political impasse.
The PUP leader said there were those in the DUP that "don't want a Catholic about the place", those whom former PUP leader, the late David Ervine said were "culturally incapable of ever sharing power with Sinn Féin". She added that there were also those in Sinn Féin who "don't want a Brit or a British symbol about the place".
Ms Purvis said the issues that were causing the deadlock - devolving policing and justice, an Irish language Act, a replacement for the Eleven Plus transfer test and the future of the Maze prison site - could and should be resolved. "There is a way to reach agreement on these issues if the political will is there on both sides. Set a date for devolution, compromise on the other issues and stop giving the dissidents a leg up," she said.
Ms Purvis, in her speech did not refer to the UVF which is linked to the party, and which is still armed; instead focusing on political matters. The PUP broke new ground this year by inviting former PSNI assistant chief constable Peter Sheridan, now head of Co-operation Ireland, to address the conference.
It was new ground too for Mr Sheridan in that he was delivering the Billy McCaughey memorial lecture, a former RUC officer and UVF member who was imprisoned for murder and who later embraced the peace process without repudiating his violent past.
Mr Sheridan avoided speaking explicitly about the issue of UVF disarmament, although he referred to how there can be no place for violence in any society. He said that he steered away from commenting directly about decommissioning because he did not want it to become the sole focus of his appearance at the conference.
"I have made it absolutely clear that people don't need illegal weapons," he said.
