‘UK’ elementof COC 2013 airbrushed

The Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader said Sinn Féin were responsible for the ‘United Kingdom” element of the title being ditched in the Executive’s Programme for Government 2011-2015.

Speaking during a debate on the programme Mr Allister said: “You could take many subjects, but let me take the issue of upcoming events.

“We were all glad to hear that in 2013, the city of Londonderry is to be the United Kingdom City of Culture. Yet, in this document, that fact is sanitised out. It is now just the City of Culture.

“I am sorry: its correct title is the United Kingdom City of Culture. Why do we have a Government that cannot even use the proper title? Of course, it is because there are those in this Government who veto and who will not allow the proper title to be used, and then there are those who toady and go along with it. That is why, in the Programme for Government, it is the City of Culture instead of its proper title.”

He also accused Sinn Féin of trying to “recapture” the Maze prison by building an £18m conflict resolution centre on the site.

“It is to enable people, such as the Member for Foyle Mr Raymond McCartney, to boast, a week or two ago, in respect of the project, that the listed and retained buildings, including an H Block, the prison hospital, the visitors’ and administration blocks, will be open to the public and that there will be the opportunity for the many stories of the jail to be told,” said Mr Allister.

“Then there are those who try to tell their constituents that building the conflict transformation centre has nothing to do with pleasing Sinn Féin, nothing to do with recapturing and retaining the prison buildings at the Maze, and that they will be totally separate.

“They will not be so separate that Mr McCartney does not anticipate using them to tell the IRA’s story of the Troubles, and what a distortion that will be,” he said.

Mr Allister asked why the centre was due to be built “where there are IRA citadel buildings that will taint its every dimension?”

“If we need one, why is it not on a greenfield site? It is simple, of course: Sinn Féin will not allow it to be anywhere else, and what Sinn Féin wants, Sinn Féin gets,” he claimed.