East Londonderry Ulster Unionist M.P., William Ross, speaking
to the London Swinton circle reiterated his opposition to
the Belfast Agreement.
Bro. Ross recalled how three years ago in Northern Ireland
the government told people to vote for peace.
"This misdirection of the facts had permeated huge acres
of newsprint in regard to Northern Ireland, for example, we
are constantly faced with comments such as Northern Ireland
is a society coming out of 30 years of conflict.
"That statement is often the excuse for some vile crime
- anything from a pipe bomb or street assault right up to
murder by a terrorist organisation can be diminished in its
horror by this pious platitude. Even worse, of course, is
the fact that murders, intimidation and mutilation are condescendingly
referred to as terrorist housekeeping."
"So what is the phrase 'coming out of conflict' really
intended to do?", Bro. Ross asked?
"Firstly, it is intended to further the I.R.A.'s claim
that they were and are a noble cause fighting a just war when
in fact they were and are a tiny minority engaged in a sordid
campaign of murder by which it was, and is intended, to dismember
the United Kingdom.
"Secondly, it is intended to equate the deeds of that
murderous organisation with the work of the army and the R.U.C.
and place the I.R.A. in all its manifestations on the same
level of esteem as law-abiding citizens and political movements.
"Another field where misdirection has made great headway
is in regard to the R.U.C.
"The cry is for an acceptable police service. Sadly,
when you listen to what is said by Irish nationalists it all
comes down to having a police service which is acceptable
to nationalists - unionist concerns have become a sort of
'non person' in their understanding of acceptability.
"The fabrication which is to constitute acceptability
includes not only a requirement to ignore the law on recruitment
on merit, it includes demilitarisation - i.e. the removal
of those structures and installations which had to be erected
to thwart the activities of the I.R.A.
"Also normalisation - i.e., defenceless police stations,
unarmed police, and easily recognisable police vehicles and
a greatly diminished number of officers. This last is being
rapidly accomplished as 31 per cent of senior offices will
have retired in a few months."
Bro. Ross said that while this is all going on R.U.C. Chief
Constable, Ronnie Flanagan said that while the Provisional
I.R.A. was presently in a state of cessation of military operations
there really was not a ceasefire.
"This is, of course, what some of the sceptics among
us were berated for saying when the ceasefires were announced
for a careful reading of the I.R.A. statement made clear just
how narrowly defined the statements were!
"Simply put, the I.R.A. stopped attacking the security
forces but continued with all they needed to do to maintain
operational capacity. In other words they could at any time
rotate from armed readiness to full-blown terrorism in days."
Bro. Ross said a great deal of attention had been focused
on the weapons issue and rightly so, for it is a very important
issue.
"But it is not and never was the only one for those
of us who voted against the whole structure.
"So what are my objections to the form of government
now in place in the province given that we are constantly
being told that we now have an accountable and democratic
government in Northern Ireland?
"To me a democratic body is one in which at some point
in its process of decision-making the greater number present
and voting determines what is going to be done. Similarly
to me the accountability of an elected body comes down to
the right of the greater number to hire and fire from executive
authority any of the members of that executive authority and
the right of the electorate to elect whom they will to serve
in the governing body.
"Sadly, in the Northern Ireland Assembly these standards
simply don't apply for the cabinet places have to be shared
between the parties elected. Not only that, once in place
the checks and balances automatically ensure that they simply
can't be fired except at the price of destroying the Assembly.
"That course of action would cause an election, and
given that the balance of parties might not change very much
the same situation would immediately arise.
"Therefore, being fire-proofed against the desire of
a majority in the Assembly each minister, or party with ministers,
can pursue their own policing with impunity. They do so, for
example, Martin McGuinness scrapped school league tables,
and his colleague in health took a decision on maternity care
in Belfast.
"The S.D.L.P. minister for higher education said he
would not be bound by his committee's report on student funding
which had the approval of a majority in the Assembly and Maurice
Morrow of the D.U.P. told the Assembly that while he would
listen to his committee's views he would make the decisions."
Continuing, the U.U.P. M.P. said: "There is now, however,
a slow, and reluctant, dawning among the proponents of the
Agreement as to what they have actually agreed and an increasing
unwillingness to go on with it all. The most recent manifestation
of this appeared this week when a Mr. Meyer, who was engaged
in the South African transition, said that the Belfast Agreement
had failed.
"He is not the only one. Mr. Alex Kane, writing in the
Belfast News Letter, has said that at a meeting of 70 Unionists
in Portadown 55 were opposed to party policy, and in the selection
for Fermanagh-South Tyrone the supporters of the Agreement
had a majority of only nine in a total of 347 delegates. In
December Mr. Kane asked how the mandatory power-sharing of
the Assembly was an improvement upon Direct Rule and concluded
that true democracy is about much more that the absence of
guns.
"The plain fact is that David Trimble was right when
he wrote in the Daily Telegraph last October, 'The simple
truth is that constructive ambiguity has lost its utility.'
"Sadly those who are practised in misleading words have
all forgotten what President Abraham Lincoln said about politicians
fooling the people. His perception was that eventually the
people saw through the deception; and it has happened again
in Northern Ireland.
"The efforts to put pressure on Sinn Fein have not borne
fruit that the law-abiding desire. Whether David Trimble's
efforts to increase pressure will succeed remains to be seen.
One thing is certain, the electorate will soon have their
chance to express their opinion and thereby expose the fallacy
that the result of a referendum is permanently binding on
a free people."
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