Councillor Christopher Stalford

Below is the text of a speech delivered at the monthly meeting of Queens DUP Association:

The DUP is a devolutionist party. We believe in devolution and we have consistently down through our party history advocated a devolved assembly at Stormont, administering British rule, making decisions affecting the every-day lives of the people of this part of the United Kingdom. We believe firmly that local politicians know better than any direct rule fly-by-nights what’s best for our community.

Indeed while Sinn Fein/IRA were declaring 1972 their year of victory in their attempt to bomb Ulster into a United Ireland, and whilst leading Ulster Unionists spent much of the 1980’s advocating a discredited integrationist approach, it was the DUP that advocated a devolved settlement here. Of course many people will see the extreme irony of Sinn Fein, many of whose members were convicted of terrorist offences aimed at ending British rule in Northern Ireland standing on a position advocating an immediate return to a Stormont assembly. That reality shows just how failed the Provisional IRA’s terrorist campaign is, was and remains. They have failed to deliver their cherished United Ireland.

The DUP has been a consistent voice for devolution. But we must remember why we do not have devolution in Northern Ireland at the present time. Stormont is suspended and devolution is not functioning for one reason and one reason alone – the failure of the Provisional IRA and its political wing Sinn Fein, to live up to the democratic standards expected from every other party in Northern Ireland.

It is their failure to meet those standards that has led to the political impasse that we are facing now and until such times as they meet those requirements there will not be devolution – it is that simple.

In the past others, notably David Trimble took Sinn Fein at their word and look where it got us: stop-start, up-down devolution that was hostage to the whims of P. O’Neill and his colleagues on the IRA Army Council. We will not be going back there.

As my party colleague Ian Paisley Junior said recently support for the police and the rule of law will not be treated by our party as some sort of a quid pro quo: it is a basic and fundamental requirement. The people of Northern Ireland will not tolerate a situation where we have a party in the government of Northern Ireland, enacting laws on behalf of the people of Northern Ireland, while at the same time refusing to support the men and women who will be charged with the implementation of those laws in the PSNI. I welcome the fact that the SDLP has endorsed policing and while we almost certainly don’t agree over everything, particularly the issue of 50-50 recruitment, their democratic credentials are in no doubt whatsoever.

The adverse effects of direct rule are there for all to see: Jim Allister has rightly defined the governments approach as rule by spite in a transparently shameless attempt to force Unionists against their will to accept devolution on unacceptable terms. We will not succumb to such black-mail and remain wedded to our manifesto commitments. Sinn Fein/IRA knows what the conditions and requirements are for a return to devolution – the party’s recently published six-point plan makes that abundantly clear.

It is up to themselves alone to meet them.