Trimble slams Parades Commission

The UUP leader David Trimble is calling for the removal of powers from the Parades Commission.

Speaking to a meeting of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee of the House of Commons at Stormont, Mr Trimble accused the Commission of being biased against Orange Order parades.

Mr Trimble said he had opposed the setting up of the Parades Commission and was even more opposed now, four years on.

It was, he said, an exercise in the government abandoning its responsibility for maintaining law and order.

The law now favoured anti-parade objectives and was a concession to threats of violence.

The Commission was a "grievance factory", he said for politically motivated groups who had fostered intolerance of the Orange Order.

He said he had experienced hostility and resentment from the Commission during his attempts to relieve the Drumcree crisis.

The legal framework setting up the Commission was wrong, he said and parading problems would never be relieved as long as the law provided a veto to those who threatened violence.