UUP CONFERENCE:ULSTER UNIONIST leader Tom Elliott has portrayed his party as the builders of the current peace in Northern Ireland and himself as a traditional yet moderate and fair unionist.
Addressing his party conference in Belfast, Mr Elliott, elected earlier this year as the Ulster Unionists’ 14th leader, castigated the DUP-Sinn Féin-led Executive at Stormont.
He urged delegates to work with renewed vigour ahead of Assembly and local government elections next May which the UUP would fight as an independent party.
Yet Mr Elliott insisted his party also wanted to construct relations with the DUP to safeguard seats. He also pledged to retain links with the British Conservatives despite the failure of their electoral pact to deliver any seats at the last Westminster election.
He did not refer to the resignations which have marked his first months as leader. He dwelt on his personal attributes, denying he was a “political dinosaur”.
“My unionism is not determined by religion, race or background. My unionism is open to anyone and everyone who lives in Northern Ireland. My unionism is founded on pluralism and an equality of citizenship and opportunity.
“My unionism is one which sets out the value and benefits of the United Kingdom. So let no-one try and say that Tom Elliott is some sort of political dinosaur: for I am not,” he said.
Nationalists’ passion for a united Ireland “is every bit as valid as my passion for the United Kingdom,” he said, adding that the collective duty of unionists and nationalists was the good governance of Northern Ireland.
“If powersharing means anything, then it means that we are all in this together,” he said. “You cannot talk about a shared society and common responsibility when you have a government which is built on carve-up and veto.” Sinn Féin and the DUP could not offer a means of breaking down barriers when they had proven utterly incapable of reaching their own compromises on a range of key issues, he said.
“Both Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have become very fond of telling us about how good their working relationship is,” he said.
“They also like to tell us about the benefits that the Executive and Assembly have brought to Northern Ireland since their marriage-of-convenience in May 2007. Isn’t it odd, then, that poll after poll indicates that the level of disengagement and disconnect between the Assembly and the electorate is at its highest ever levels?
“When they talk about Northern Ireland being a better place today than it was 20 years ago, they forget to mention that the DUP did everything it could to stop the progress that the Ulster Unionists were trying to make happen.”
He listed alleged failures including the inability to date to conclude the Stormont budget or to agree on the reform of public administration. He castigated the transfer arrangements between primary and secondary schools, the Sinn Féin-DUP “Shared Future” strategy on sectarianism and the arrangements for policing and justice.
“We have even lost the potential for a national stadium,” he said, “and the much awaited Parades Bill has been hidden away with deserved embarrassment. What we have today is a carve-up in government. It’s supposed to be co-operative, consensual, powersharing government. It’s not. It’s Sinn Féin-DUP failure.”
He claimed the Assembly needs a proper voluntary coalition with a cross-community basis, which requires an appropriate opposition.
“It boils down to this: you cannot build a consensual, genuinely powersharing Northern Ireland upon the particular interests of Sinn Féin and the DUP. It isn’t working and it won’t work.”
Mr Elliott devoted a section of his address to claims of authorship of Stormont devolution. “We have been the party of delivery.
“When the DUP walked away, we stayed. It was the Ulster Unionist Party that put Articles 2 and 3 on the negotiating table – ensuring that their final removal spelled the end of the territorial claim.”
The union with Britain was stronger because of the UUP, he claimed.