Peer slams Woodward over his role in polls
AN Ulster Unionist peer has attacked the Secretary of State over his role in opinion poll findings, which were cited to put pressure on the UUP to support the policing and justice transfer.
Lord Maginnis was speaking after he established that Shaun Woodward had commissioned a 16,000 poll conducted on March 5 and 6 that included what critics have described as leading questions.
In one of the questions in the poll, respondents were invited to agree or disagree with the following statement: 'I believe we should transfer policing and justice powers to Stormont so that the Executive can get on with the job of improving life for everyone in Northern Ireland.'
The survey found that 82 per cent agreed.
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass said: "Who could answer 'no' to this? But what a cynically loaded question."
Lord Maginnis had asked a parliamentary question to establish which Northern Ireland Office (NIO) minister had sanctioned and determined the requirements of the NIO opinion poll.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon, answering for the government, explained that Mr Woodward had done.
Lord Maginnis also asked which minister or official in the NIO devised the wording of questions used in the opinion poll conducted during the week beginning March 1, in the run up to the policing and transfer vote which the UUP opposed.
Again the answer was Mr Woodward.
The poll cost 16,215, the government told another Ulster Unionist peer, Lord Laird, who had asked about costs.
Speaking after the pair received their parliamentary answers, Lord Maginnis said that the money had been "cynically wasted".
"The government has now admitted that Shaun Woodward's hands were all over that opinion poll and that the poll and questions within it were crafted by him," he said.
Lord Maginnis said Mr Woodward had been "prepared to plumb the depths" in order "to pressurise the UUP away from our principled stand on the issue".
The Ulster Unionists refused to back the transfer because they said they had been excluded from the Hillsborough negotiations that led to the deal.
They also said that they were not prepared to transfer more critical powers to a "dysfunctional" executive that was unable to agree on how to implement its existing powers.
Lord Maginnis added: "Where an opinion poll is clearly designed to ensure that the maximum number of people answered 'yes', the result is entirely worthless and lacks objectivity.
"It was a lazy and arrogant option. Rather than involving the 'middle ground' of Northern Ireland politics Shaun Woodward's political strategy and financial threats were intended to bully and bribe.
"That was a worthless ploy."
Lord Maginnis said he was "more convinced than ever that the Ulster Unionist Party took the right decision to oppose devolution whilst the Executive remains unable to sort out problems for which it already has responsibility".
In response to Lord Maginnis, an NIO spokesperson said: "The extent to which there is confidence in the devolution of policing and justice is an issue that had been raised.
"It is perfectly legitimate for the Government to seek an objective assessment through a poll."
The spokesperson did not, however, address Lord Maginnis's criticism that the poll lacked such objectivity through the use of leading questions.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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