Election briefs

The Ulster Unionists have pointed to greater political and economic stability as a basis for supporting the agreement.

The Ulster Unionists have pointed to greater political and economic stability as a basis for supporting the agreement.

Mr Michael McGimpsey, a former minister and negotiator in the talks with Sinn Féin, said: "There are 15,000 reasons to support the agreement."

He contrasted Northern Ireland today with the situation five and 10 years ago. "Ten years ago, we had the Shankill bomb and the Greysteel massacre. Five years ago, we had 'not a bullet, not an ounce' from the IRA. Today, we have three acts of decommissioning, with each one getting bigger."

He claimed that 125,000 jobs had been created since 1998, exports had doubled and unemployment was down to 5 per cent.

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• The SDLP has called for "radical reform and real change in the education system". Speaking on the day of the first paper in the 11-plus school transfer test, Mr Tommy Gallagher, the party's education spokesman, said that Mr Martin McGuinness, the former education minister, who had abolished the test, left the job "half done".

"We are disappointed that the Sinn Féin minister did so little to make change actually happen," he said, adding that he was opposed to "rigid academic selection at 11".