What plan does the TUV offer?

Published 11 Mar 2010 09:00 0 Comments

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Dear Sir, - I could almost see the bile seeping from the page as I read the rant from 'Integrity before power' in your newspaper last week.

Like the leader of his beloved TUV, your contributor denounces everyone else for their labours, whether it is on unionist unity, the Presbyterian Mutual or resolving parades, yet from the sidelines offer no plan to resolve these matters.

TUV offered no plan to secure £20m for those who served in the part-time reserve, no plan to secure £400m in compensation for RUC officers who suffered hearing loss in the line of duty, no plan to ensure those who served in the security forces and require personal protection weapons now hold them and no plan to protect PMS savers from losing everything. What have TUV delivered for the Orange Order? What have TUV delivered for the Ulster-Scots movement? What have TUV done for the PMS? The answer is nothing.

So what is the TUV plan? TUV seek to make Sinn Fein the largest party in Northern Ireland, collapse the Assembly and return to Direct Rule. What right thinking unionist wants any of these?

The Assembly is not perfect, but at least unionists can control their own destiny and deliver for their own community. Unionists should not forget what Direct Rule was like, and the £20m given by Direct Rule Ministers to Irish Language broadcasting is a timely reminder that what republicans asked for under direct rule, republicans got. No real unionist wants this.

There is something that just doesn't add up about a so-called unionist who wants to make Sinn Fein the largest party in Northern Ireland, and seeks a return to the system of government that delivered a Sinn Fein agenda. Unionists ought to beware falling for the emotional rhetoric, and question the motivation.

Yours faithfully,

Alan Madill

This letter appeared in Impartial Reporter 11 Mar 10

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