Unionists slam plan to give Parades Commission more power

Unionists have criticised the British government's decision to give the Parades Commission extra powers to restrict loyalist marches in the North.

Yesterday, Britain announced new laws giving the commission jurisdiction over the hangers-on that traditionally accompany Orange Order marches.

The new law follows a High Court ruling last year that the commission had jurisdiction over Orangemen and bands involved in parades, but not the hundreds of supporters who normally accompany them.

That ruling led to violence in the nationalist Ardoyne area when the PSNI decided to allow a loyalist mob to march past a flashpoint area after bands and Orangemen had been bussed through the area in line with a Parades Commission ruling.

Responding to the new law, Ulster Unionist MP Sylvia Hermon said it was an outrageous increase in the commission's powers, while DUP Assemblyman Nelson McCausland said such powers should not be given to a commission that had made many "appalling" rulings.