OPINION: 'Devolution of policing and justice an obscenity'
JIM ALLISTER responds to First Minister Peter Robinson on the transfer of policing and justice powers to Stormont - and accuses his former party colleagues of rolling over to republican demands.
IN the wake of the European election there was much talk from the DUP about "reconnecting" with the electorate. Peter Robinson's angry rant at the TUV over policing and justice illustrates that the DUP have learned nothing.
Indeed, he repeats his outrageous insult to one third of unionists by equating their democratic use of the ballot box to terrorists' use of the bomb and the bullet. This demonstrates just how divorced from reality the man who partners an IRA commander in government is.
As for his claim that I wish to see Sinn Fein become the largest party in the Assembly, this is an outrageous lie. My overriding goal is to get Sinn Fein out of government. And as TUV leader I, naturally, want to see Traditional Unionist Voice become the largest party.
Mr Robinson can attempt to blackmail unionists into voting for a party they do not support all he wants. That didn't work in the European elections. It won't work in the future.
Likening the present Executive, where Sinn Fein/IRA hold sway, to the Stormont established in the 1920s is laughable. Germany has a government today - just as it had in the 1930s - but thankfully there is no parallel with its Nazi era. Likewise, in reverse, there are no parallels between the era of unionist government in Ulster and the present era of terrorists in government!
Devolving policing and justice, far from being a unionist ideal, is a key republican objective. This was made clear in the 2005 Sinn Fein/IRA manifesto which stated: "Our strategy is for a new all-Ireland policing and justice system. That cannot be achieved without transfer of policing and justice powers away from London, into an Executive and Assembly and the all-Ireland institutions."
Peter Robinson claims it is untrue to say that devolving policing and justice will automatically make it a North/South issue. Perhaps, then, he would care to explain why the Assembly Committee charged with investigating the issue published a report in January 09 which said further consideration would be given to (a) "having appropriate measures in place to address issues such as all-Ireland policing arrangements" and (b) the question of a Justice Sector of the North South Ministerial Council. It clearly will fall under the aegis of the North/South Ministerial Council, where Unionists are a permanent minority.
Mr Robinson hails the fact that unionists will have a veto over who holds the justice ministry. The truth is that Sinn Fein/IRA hold an equal veto – just as they do in relation to everything in Stormont. Mr Robinson and his partner McGuinness have concocted an interim deal which will ensure the post will in the short term go to a patsy minister, but what happens in 2012? One of the options, provided now in statute, is that it then devolves to the Joint First Ministers! So much for ringfencing us from Sinn Fein control.
Peter Robinson lists changes which the DUP negotiated to the legislation underpinning policing and justice. The reality is that these changes were only made because of TUV pressure. While Mr Robinson accuses me of changing my tune from when I was in the DUP, the reality could not be further from the truth.
In December 2006 – while still a member of the DUP – I publically highlighted the fact that if policing and justice was devolved McGuinness would have a role in the appointment of senior members of the judiciary. Similarly, I well remember raising at a DUP party officers' meeting the utter unacceptability of any such powers being vested in the Office of the Joint First Ministers. The response was that Ian Paisley laughed and told me not to worry as he would be First Minister and well able to take care of these matters. I do not recall Mr Robinson dissenting from the general complacent acquiescence which greeted this appalling response.
Such compliant indifference to these matters continued when the Executive Review Committee came to consider policing and justice – a committee which Jeffrey Donaldson chaired. The minutes demonstrate that over many meetings not a squeak of protest was raised at such powers residing in OFMDFM.
It was only when, in the summer of 2008, the TUV got the public focus on these issues that the DUP woke up and got exercised about these matters. Then, and only then, did some legislative change occur.
And what of Peter Robinson's claim that the DUP never talked about it being "political lifetimes" before the powers could come to Stormont?
Again he is mistaken. In October 2006 (as quoted on the BBC website) Nigel Dodds said: "As far as we are concerned, there will be no devolution of policing and justice for a very long time. I have no evidence whatsoever to suggest that that is likely to happen within a political lifetime."
The reality is that on this issue, as on so many others, the DUP, as the price of clinging to office, rolled over to Sinn Fein/IRA demands.
Who, in their right mind - looking at the utter failure of this dysfunctional Executive to deliver even on the bread and butter issues - would think it right to hand such sensitive powers to an Executive where, as has already happened, IRA/Sinn Fein can hold government to ransom? Sinn Fein is the party which supported the murder of policemen and judges - devolving policing and justice powers to an Executive in which it holds sway and veto is an obscenity and further surrender to republican demands.
Better to be a wrecker of the IRA/Sinn Fein agenda than a facilitator!
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
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