Jim Allister: Unionists on the Policing Board have some questions to answer over the branding and logo saga

Having sent people out to spin the proposed changes to the Police Service of Northern Ireland branding and logo and found that the tissue paper excuses didn’t stand up to any serious challenge, I welcome the fact that the chief constable Simon Byrne has pulled these disgraceful proposals.
By Jim Allister
Published 10th Jun 2020, 13:00 BST
Updated 10th Jun 2020, 13:13 BST
The PSNI formal crest, and a less formal version that it proposed to use, right. The less formal one has lost the words Northern Ireland and the Cross of St Patrick has lost its colour and so is impossible to recognise as suchThe PSNI formal crest, and a less formal version that it proposed to use, right. The less formal one has lost the words Northern Ireland and the Cross of St Patrick has lost its colour and so is impossible to recognise as such
The PSNI formal crest, and a less formal version that it proposed to use, right. The less formal one has lost the words Northern Ireland and the Cross of St Patrick has lost its colour and so is impossible to recognise as such

Interestingly in mid-May, the PSNI wrote to me asking that I consider withdrawing a Freedom of Information request about the dropping of the words Northern Ireland from their Facebook pages.

They claimed that they were unable to deal with the request because of the pandemic. The request remains unanswered.

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Why did they have time to proceed with this botched attempt to bin the words Northern Ireland from their crest but didn’t have time to answer an FOI request asking about the issue? Are they really that keen on transparency?

Letter to the editorLetter to the editor
Letter to the editor

One suspects that some within the Police Service of Northern Ireland knew what the reaction would be all along.

As I said in an earlier press release yesterday, the PSNI excuses for removing the words Northern Ireland were so threadbare to be laughable.

No one was ever going to buy the idea that this was about difficulty getting space for the words Northern Ireland on clothing.

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But big questions remain about the genesis of these proposals. What role, if any, did the director of communications play in them?

And the biggest question of all — just what are the unionists on the Policing Board doing?

Having gone this far it is incumbent on the chief constable to complete the retreat by reversing the social media branding changes.

Jim Allister MLA, Stormont

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Related topics:Simon ByrnePolice Service of Northern IrelandUnionistsNorthern IrelandJim AllisterFacebook