A hard-line unionist opposed to sharing power with republicans today appealed to voters to help him bring down Northern Ireland’s coalition government.
Former Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) member Jim Allister who now leads the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) told delegates at his new party’s first conference they must take on the DUP to defend the Union.
He said he agreed Catholics had a right to have access to places in government, but he paraphrased an infamous unionist slogan to declare: “I wouldn’t have a Provo about the place.”
The MEP was elected to the European Parliament on a DUP ticket but left the party after it entered government with Sinn Fein.
Now Mr Allister said he was ready to fight his former party in next year’s European poll and boasted that, despite his fledgling group’s lack of electoral strength, his early challenge was already influencing DUP policy.
“Without us, things would be much worse, because the very least TUV has done is keep those who are set on the nefarious Belfast Agreement road, looking over their shoulder and perpetually touching the brakes,” he said.
He highlighted the deadlock between Sinn Fein and the DUP and said the failure to hold Executive meetings for more than four months showed the power-sharing government was not working.
“What a shambles,” he said. “Think of what we were promised... stable, caring, efficient government by those we were told were now committed to good government in Northern Ireland, and if they turned out not to be, then there was the much vaunted default mechanism to get them out.
“How different the reality has been,” he said.
Sinn Fein wants policing and justice powers devolved from Westminster in line with the 2006 St Andrews deal, but the DUP insists it is not obliged to move until it believes the conditions are right.
With republicans also demanding DUP movement on issues including education reform and the promotion of the Irish language, Sinn Fein has blocked cabinet meetings since June.
Jim Allister said TUV pressure on the DUP had stalled the creation of a museum at the Maze prison, which he claimed would become a shrine, and had robbed Sinn Fein’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness of gaining influence over policing and justice.
“But we exist to do much more than that, we exist to see this hideous monstrosity of Belfast Agreement devolution ditched and destroyed beyond repair,” he said.
PA