Choose concessions or future opportunity, unionists told

Unionists will have a clear choice at the next Assembly election between more concessions to republicans or an opportunity to shape Northern Ireland’s future, they were told tonight.

As the Democratic Unionists launched the first in a series of public meetings across Northern Ireland on recent developments in the peace process, deputy leader Peter Robinson said in Portadown if elections took place soon they would come on the back of “an IRA stunt”.

Addressing supporters in his main rival Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble’s Upper Bann constituency, the East Belfast MP said: “The tactics of deception and delusion have been used before to seek to trick the people of Northern Ireland.

“If elections do come in the next couple of months, we can be absolutely sure they will come on the back of another IRA stunt, government spin and applause from the usual suspects who will be marshalled in an attempt to deceive the unionist community.

“This election will represent the last opportunity for unionists to halt the surrender process represented by the Belfast Agreement.

“It will offer unionists a clear choice between a new agreement which both unionist and nationalists can support or further concessions to republicans.”

With speculation mounting that an election could be held in Northern Ireland on November 13, Mr Robinson said the vote would offer people in the province a genuine chance of achieving a new settlement.

If the DUP were to secure more than half the seats in the Assembly, he argued, they could thwart the election of a First and Deputy First Minister at Stormont who would require the support of more than half the unionist MLAs as well as over half of the nationalists.

This would result in negotiations on a new agreement, the former DUP Regional Development Minster insisted.

“The prospect of failing to win a majority of unionist seats in the Assembly would leave the dangerous prospect of four more years of the Belfast Agreement,” he argued.

“It would likely mean up to five Sinn Féin Ministers of one kind or another, (Gerry) Adams or (Martin) McGuinness as Deputy First Minister, Gerry Kelly as Policing and Justice Minister and the prospect of uncontrollable Sinn Féin rule in many areas.

“This is the choice facing the people of Northern Ireland at the next Assembly election.

“Victory at the elections will mean being able to play a part in shaping the future of Northern Ireland whilst defeat will spell the diminution of the union to a position where it is virtually unrecognisable.”

Mr Robinson attacked David Trimble’s record as Ulster Unionist leader, claiming he was “bereft of credibility” in the unionist community.

The Upper Bann MP was incapable, he claimed, of leading unionism.

Mr Trimble, the East Belfast MP maintained, was a “divisive figure whose negotiating incompetence had, in Freddie Kreuger fashion, left unionism facing nightmare options”.

The DUP deputy leader added: “It is too easy to forget how much has been lost under the leadership of David Trimble over the past five years, and how people were deceived in 1998.

“The destruction of the Royal Ulster Constabulary, the release of terrorist prisoners, the creation of unaccountable all-Ireland bodies with executive powers and the elevation of Sinn Féin/IRA members to the heart of government have all taken place under the Belfast Agreement.

“That only represents the tip of the iceberg of what unionists have lost over the past few years.”