The Belfast Agreement has spawned a political monster which is incapable of improving the lot of the citizens of Northern Ireland, it was claimed today.
UK Unionist leader Mr Robert McCartney told his party's annual conference in Bangor, Co Down, the North's power-sharing executive, Assembly and other political institutions were failing Northern Ireland on a number of fronts.
And he accused Mr David Trimble's Ulster Unionist of being seduced and bribed into supporting the new institutions by the "trappings and spoils of office".
Mr McCartney told UK Unionist delegates the current peace process was "a return to the application of all the policies which have failed in the past".
The North Down MP claimed the system of devolution in Northern Ireland was designed to "neutralise the power of a democratic majority" and create transitionally political institutions which would move Northern Ireland out of Britain and into the Irish Republic.
As a result, he claimed the Assembly and the Executive were both sterile and designed to stagnate while all Ireland institutions had the capacity to expand and develop.
Mr McCartney claimed agriculture had suffered under devolution, with the Executive powerless to help the industry in the face of the BSE crisis.
He also claimed the haulage, textile and ship building industries were being pushed on to the brink of extinction.
He criticised the political system at Stormont for allowing the four biggest parties in the Assembly to take part in the power-sharing Executive.
This, the UK Unionist leader said, meant that 91 of the 108 Assembly members came from parties taking part in the Northern Ireland Executive.
Mr McCartney claimed the Reverend Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists had left themselves vulnerable to the accusations of their political rivals that they were not truly anti-agreement by participating in the Executive and taking all the benefits of ministerial office.
He also criticised the record of Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble, claiming his party was propping up the Assembly because of the "illusion of power, the pomp of office and the generous remuneration which its Assembly members enjoy".
The North Down MP claimed Mr Trimble had presided over a system which enabled Sinn Fein ministers to take charge of health and education while the IRA remained armed as well as allowing the RUC to be destroyed and demoralised.
PA