Party Officers, delegates, guests

Last year when I stood here in front of you I said our priorities in the words of David Ervine were country, party, self – in that order.  I said the country was sorted.  The political process had culminated in a workable relationship between the main parties.  The chuckle brothers offered us the prospect of a better future but what we needed to see was a maturing of their relationship, we needed to see them tackle the difficult issues, the devolution of policing and justice, academic selection, disagree, fall-out and make up.  I said at that time and I quote “The country is crying out to be governed as we have been neglected for so long.  People have high expectations of what our Assembly can deliver.  They are expecting benefits from locally elected politicians.  I fear their expectations may not be matched.” I had hoped to be proven wrong – sadly I was not!

'Rome burned while Nero fiddled' is how I would sum up the state of our political process. While our community is struggling with rising food prices, oil, gas and electricity prices going through the roof and in the grip of what has been termed the credit crunch - the DUP and SF are fiddling about, over issues that whilst difficult to resolve, they will not put food on the table or oil in the tank.

For the last year both the DUP and Sinn Fein have worked really hard.  They have worked really hard to make unionist and republican dissidents relevant.  The Chief Constable is right when he strays into politics because politics and conflict here are inextricably linked.  When police officers are being targeted and the impasse in the political process is a part of the cause, then Sir Hugh Orde is fully justified in any commentary or criticisms he makes of our politicians.  He is expressing the frustration of the vast majority of the people in Northern Ireland – and their message is clear - get on with it!

So what is eating the DUP and Sinn Fein…

Let’s start with the DUP.  The St Andrew’s Agreement was their comfort blanket – the smokescreen to get them into government with Sinn Fein.  This they did very willingly last year – they agreed to share power with Sinn Fein.  Let me say that again, in case any of the DUP didn’t get it – they agreed to share power with Sinn Fein.  And they formed an Executive with Sinn Fein – no mention of an army council and no sign of them taking the Education portfolio.  The Smash Sinn Fein! Campaign of the 1980s (Paisley with the sledge hammer photo) could be described as one of the most successful strategies ever thought of to make your political opponent the second largest party in the country.

So now the DUP are in the Executive and we all thought they would get on with the job of government with Sinn Fein.  Not so.  We haven’t had an Executive meeting since June because Sinn Fein are refusing to sign the papers to allow the meeting to go ahead.  So what’s eating Sinn Fein…well they thought they had an agreement with the DUP that would see the devolution of policing and justice by this year or at least a date for that to happen and proposals for an Irish Language Act.  They also wanted to press ahead with the development of the Maze site which was agreed by the panel that included the DUP.  Then there is the issue of education.  We want to see the end of academic selection – a system that unfairly disadvantages children from working class communities.  The Minister comes up with a compromise and the DUP refuse to discuss it.  The proposals to end academic selection can’t even get on the Executive table.  I will touch on the issue of education later.  But for now, here are the difficult issues to resolve and it seems we are no nearer resolution.  Why?

Well in my mind there are a number of interlinked reasons.  There are those in the DUP that ‘don’t want a Catholic about the place’, those who David Ervine said were culturally incapable of ever sharing power with Sinn Fein, the same people that continue to believe they can smash Sinn Fein, that they can get one over on Sinn Fein by preventing the devolution of policing and justice, by refusing to allow the development of the Irish Language, by blocking a Sinn Fein Minister from bringing proposals on education to the Executive table and by refusing to progress the development of the Maze site which by the way they, the DUP, agreed to.

There are those in Sinn Fein who don’t want a Brit or a British symbol about the place.  They are Good Friday Agreement deniers.  They refuse to recognise Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom, they shave dot gov dot uk off their email, they use the Irish Language as a barrier, they argue for the removal of the Union Flag, they think they can hide the fact that they are administering British rule by exaggerating their republicanism.  They are opposed to the Home Coming parade for the home battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment.

As a matter of interest, who here has a relative, a friend or knows someone serving with the RIR?  Whether you agree with the war or not, these young women and men, the majority working class, Catholic and Protestant, from both parts of Ireland are workers, they are doing a job and a bloody tough one at that.  A job that could and has meant serious injury or death.  One young Ranger who has suffered serious injury is Andy Allen from my own constituency of East Belfast.  Andy has shown tremendous courage and strength in coping with his injuries and I would like to pay tribute to him and his comrades and wish him a speedy recovery.

I have a message for Sinn Fein and Barry McElduff – back off!  Ok you have an historical problem with the British Army in order to suit your ideology but the IRA killed more civilians than any other combatant group.  These young women and men are mine and your fellow countrymen.  You can pretend they are not, you can continue to dehumanise them in order to exaggerate your republican credentials.  We know why you do it.  And you are helping with the advertising so understand this, this community, Catholic and Protestant will turn out en masse to give our troops the home coming they deserve!

So back to the political impasse.  Who is benefiting from all this instability.  Northern Ireland is not benefiting – our First Minister said the other day that our international credibility has been damaged.  Who would want to invest in our economy when we don’t have a functioning executive?  The people in the community are not benefiting, they are crying out for government, the political parties are not benefiting – politicians are as popular as a nettle rash at the minute.  I will tell you who is benefiting – the dissidents on both sides.  The DUP and Sinn Fein are working their socks off making Jim Allister on the one hand and Mickey McKevitt and Co on the other the next popular choice for sectarian politics.  Follow it through to its logical conclusion.  First we had the UUP and the SDLP, Trimble and Mallon, then the DUP and Sinn Fein, Paisley and McGuinness and now Robinson and McGuinness.  If the DUP and Sinn Fein cant get it together are we facing round 3,  Allister and McKevitt?

So how do we resolve the outstanding issues in a way that the DUP can assure themselves they are doing the right thing and in a way that the Sinn Fein can show their constituency that politics does work.

The Maze – the Progressive Unionist Party wanted the Maze bulldozed, flattened, nothing left and not particularly in favour of a stadium there.  The Panel on the Maze which included the DUP and Sinn Fein wanted a stadium and a conflict transformation centre.  A few buildings from the site including the hospital and a Nissan hut have been listed and cannot be bulldozed.  The DUP have now backtracked.  They are making all sorts of excuses as to why the site should not have a stadium.  Meanwhile Northern Ireland is a laughing stock in the eyes of the rest of the UK.  An opportunity to play a role in the London 2012 Olympics squandered.  It may not be what we want but I say build the centre and develop the site to bring benefit to the people of Lisburn and beyond.

The Irish Language – Edwin Poots said that unionists have nothing to fear from the Irish language.  It was Presbyterians that preserved the language for future generations.  I know party colleagues like Gusty Spence and Plum Smith learnt the language.  We have nothing to fear from the Irish Language.  How Sinn Fein have used it to exaggerate their republicanism is damaging to the language itself.  I think we need to see the DUP bring forward proposals for a language act and one that recognises and encourages the development of all our minority languages.

The devolution of policing and justice – what’s so scary about it? Sinn Fein in charge of policing?  What does it mean – does it mean the police would be infiltrated by fifth columnists, that republicans would control and use the police to suit themselves.  Lot of nonsense – the only thing a policing minister has control over is the budget.  The Chief Constable has day to day operational control over the police.  And what of justice?  Sinn Fein in charge of the courts, the PPS, the judiciary?  The system works as a number of independent agencies not centrally controlled but accountable nonetheless through the Criminal Justice Inspectorate.  The parties have agreed that the minister in charge must be agreed by cross-community vote.  Sinn Fein will not get it and neither will the DUP.  The Alliance Party should take it for the life of this assembly and they have a very capable woman who could do the job very well.

The end of academic selection – this is probably the most controversial for the PUP.  We have long argued for the end of academic selection.  It is a discriminatory tool that unfairly disadvantages working class children in general and Protestants in particular.  It is beyond comprehension that the DUP, a party that purports to represent working class Protestants, can support the retention of a system that discriminates against the very people they say they represent.  But the most influential and the most articulate have swayed the DUP.  Let me tell you why.  Behind all the nonsense about Northern Ireland having the best education system in the UK, lies elitism, snobbery and closet comprehensives.  The non-academic criteria that the Minister has proposed to use for children transferring to post-primary has sent the closet comprehensives into a spin.  Let me explain.  Top of the list of criteria is geography – catchment area or nearest suitable school.  Another criteria is socially disadvantaged – looked after children or those on free school meals.  Now I will not draw any inference you can draw your own.  Just say you were the principle of a grammar school in the centre of town, so elite that you were able to pick the cream of the crop from all over the country, including a mixture of 11+ grades, and all of a sudden you are hit with this new criteria.  This would mean taking children from Sandy Row, Lower Falls, Donegall Pass and the Markets.  Just say you were the principal of a grammar near Stormont, what would the new criteria mean for you – children from knocknagoney or ballybeen.  And say you were the principal of a grammar school near the Cliftonville Road, you would be expected to take children from the New Lodge or the Shankill.  I will let you draw your own conclusions from that scenario.

The only compromise I can see in this debacle – not one I like or can absolutely hand on heart say I am in favour of – was that which was proposed in the Burns report a number of years ago.  Burns proposed a collegiate of schools within a defined geographical area with different schools providing different specialisms including academic, technical and vocational.  Where children could attend the best school suited to their talents.  Not an ideal solution but one which accommodates all the party positions and allows the elites to come out of the closet.  Speaking of closets…

I see Bob McCartney is back.  He has reinvented himself as the chair of the grammar schools association.  He is like the Peter Mandelson of Northern Ireland politics.  I think the only people glad to see him are the BBCs Folks On The Hill!

Anyway what I am trying to explain is that there is a way to reach agreement on these issues if the political will is there on both sides – set a date for devolution, compromise on the other issues and stop giving the dissidents a leg up!

Poverty and disadvantage

Our community is struggling.  It is struggling with poverty.  Food poverty and fuel poverty.  Rising food prices mean many families are struggling to make ends meet.  We have been hit with mega fuel prices this year.  Oil has gone up – you can now pay up to £600 for 900 litres.  Electricity has gone up nearly 50% and gas has gone up 40% in the last six months.  I know many people who cant afford a fill of oil.  They are surviving on the small drums from the garage which actually cost a fortune in the long run.  There are many more families who are debating their priorities, food or fuel.

When the fuel prices started to go up, what did the Executive do – they capped rates for the property rich and gave rates concessions to businesses, nothing for those struggling.  Two weeks ago the minister for enterprise gave £5million to help businesses over the credit crunch, and she would look at ways of making the enery market more competitive.  Socialism for the rich and free enterprise for the poor – a sign of the times at the minute.  Around the world, billions and billions and billions of pounds are found to bail out irresponsible banks and amoral money markets while the victims of poverty are innocent.

Our Executive is not meeting and the social development minister cannot do anything with her proposals to address fuel poverty until they are approved by the Executive.  Over 80% of deaths this winter will be as a result of the cold – Rome burned while Nero fiddled.  Cold-related deaths and illness cost the Health Service over £40million every year – Rome burned while Nero fiddled.  Nearly 140,000 homes have insufficient heating and nothing will change this winter – Rome burned while Nero fiddled.  Analysis shows that even if these homes were given efficient heating systems and insulated to the highest standards the household will not necessarily be brought out of fuel poverty.  The cost of fuel and household income remain critical factors in the rising incidence of fuel poverty.

Over 12,000 young people are leaving post primary schools every year with no qualification in Maths or English.  That’s after ten years in an education system.  That means little hope of a job and reduced earning capacity – what sort of a future is that!?

You have heard today about the failings of our education system, and what needs to happen to address the needs of our young people.  You have heard today about community safety and policing and what needs to happen so our community can enjoy a decent quality of life.

We, the Progressive Unionist Party, know the issues, live the issues and more importantly know how to resolve the issues.  There are our party principles on which we base all our policies and dealings with each other as fellow human beings.  Empowerment, participative democracy, community ownership, equality and social justice and mutuality.  The Progressive Unionist Party is the only party standing up for the working class and for women’s equality.  We have something that none of the other parties have – a conscience.  We are proud of our policies, proud of our representation and we will continue to fight the social and economic injustices that prevent each and everyone of us from having and enjoying that better future we so desire.

Moving Forward conference.