TUV goes on election offensive

Speaking to a packed house at the annual fundraising dinner of Ballymena TUV in Ross Park Hotel, the TUV Leader and local parliamentary candidate, said electing an MP is “a serious business”.

Addressing members of the party faithful, he said: “It is not something to be based on sentiment but in finding the best person to do the job. Absenteeism and double and triple jobbing has robbed Unionists of constant and effective representation in Westminster. An MP who hasn’t turned up for 82% of the votes in this parliament is not doing his job. And we’re not talking here about incidental issues.

“Ian Paisley has been absent for some of the seminal votes in this parliament: when it came on the vote on a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty: absent; the votes on abortion: absent; the vote on the blasphemy laws: absent; the vote on allowing more regional casinos: absent; the vote on free speech amendments to the ‘homophobic hatred’ offence: absent.

“North Antrim cannot go on being voiceless in Parliament,” said Mr Allister.

“And, even when Ian Paisley was present, like on November 21, 2006, there were some strange silences.

“That was the date of infamy when the House of Commons approved the legislation which allows Martin McGuinness to become First Minister. Ian Paisley was there, he spoke but uttered not one word against the change in the law which could gift Sinn Fein the top office in this land. Why? Tabled not one amendment to knock out that change? Why? Nor, might I say, did a single DUP MP speak out on this vital issue. Why? Because they were in cahoots over this nefarious change, believing it was a ‘clever device’ to duress the Unionist electorate into voting DUP. It was as conniving and disreputable as that and when the Clause (Clause 8 of St Andrews Bill), which made the change, was voted on in the Lords DUP peers voted for it.

“The last time Ian Paisley was elected to Westminster – emphasis on the last time – he stood on a manifesto which not only promised faithful representation in parliament, but made solemn pledges about the future governance of our Province.

“His manifesto said this: ‘Inclusive, mandatory coalition government which includes Sinn Fein under d’Hondt or any other system is out of the question’.No ifs, no buts, a crystal clear pledge to the people of Ulster.

“Yet, just two short years later what did Ian Paisley deliver to Ulster – inclusive, mandatory coalition government with Sinn Fein under d’Hondt!

“That failed terrorist-inclusive government is Ian Paisley’s abiding and shameful legacy – a legacy in spite of this empty boast on 12th July 2006, ‘No unionist who is a unionist will go into partnership with IRA/Sinn Fein. They are not fit to be in partnership with decent people. They are not fit to be in the government of Northern Ireland and it will be over our dead bodies if they ever get there’.

“Now, to Ian Paisley. ‘The Bogside butcher’, as the DUP once referred to McGuinness, is not only fit for government and a man of his word, but Ian Paisley pines in the News Letter for his good old chuckle days with Marty.

“I believe in North Antrim we will relight the flame of traditional unionism with which this constituency has long been associated. We’re not here to trample down the rights of any citizen, but we are here to re-inject truth and consistency into politics. Sinn Fein has no more right to be guaranteed a place in government than TUV has: no party should be in government as of right. Yet, that is the undemocratic iniquity of the present Belfast Agreement devolution, designed precisely to guarantee the representatives of murderers a place in the government of the Province where their IRA did the murdering. Hence, the wicked device of mandatory coalition which robs voters – all voters – of the fundamental right to vote a party out of government and even have an Opposition.

“Voluntary, not mandatory, coalition is the only democratic and acceptable route to shared government. If Sinn Fein can persuade others to share power with them and together command the necessary Assembly majority, then, unpalatable as it would be to me, they are entitled to govern and we’ll be the Opposition; but if they can’t find partners, then, they the only place for them is in opposition. If Sinn Fein are only democrats so long as they are in government, then they are not democrats at all. That reality needs to be faced,” said Mr Allister.

“I still wait for any politician anywhere to be able to justify mandatory coalition and deconstruct the unanswerable argument for voluntary coalition as the only democratic route into government.

“In this election I will be the only candidate opposed to terrorists in government and the undemocratic system of mandatory coalition which put them there. Just as every day at Stormont, the DUP will be united with Sinn Fein in this election in defending and sustaining terrorists in government. Whichever Ian Paisley stands, that will be their primary platform, for that, tragically – after all the years of empty DUP bluster and IRA terror - is the Paisley legacy,” Mr Allister said.