Paisley: United Ireland 'push' must be rejected

The leader of the DUP, Ian Paisley has warned that the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister are trying to push the North towards a united Ireland.

Speaking to members of the Independent Orange Order at their annual July 12 rally in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, Mr. Paisley said the two governments' Joint Declaration was designed to drain away the Britishness of people in the North.

In typical Paisley style, the DUP leader warned the Joint Declaration was a blueprint for the destruction of the union and what he called the latest stage in the surrender process started by the Good Friday Agreement.

It had been designed by the British government with the assistance of Dublin and the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to deliver the unionist people of Ulster further down the road of Irish unity, he said.

"The unionists of Northern Ireland have had enough of Blairite lies and Trimble deceit over the last five years," he said.

But the law-abiding citizens of the North would never tolerate reductions in security, freedom for on-the-run paramilitaries and Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly becoming the North's Justice Minister, he added.

"Traditional unionists must rally to battle against this charter for the destruction of democracy", said Mr Paisley.