UUP Parades Spokesperson ‘interested’ in Scottish approach to Parading Issue
Ulster Unionist Party Parades spokesperson and East Belfast Assembly Member, Michael Copeland MLA, has expressed interest in moves in Scotland to protect parades from sectarian bigotry. The Scottish Executive, the Orange Order in Scotland, other parading organisations, the Scottish TUC, police and local authorities this week signed a joint statement pledging to use their influence against those who engage in abusive or violent sectarian behaviour in the vicinity of parades.
Mr. Copeland said, “the fact that the Scottish Executive has sponsored a statement that refers to ‘Scotland’s proud history of parading and peaceful assembly’ stands in stark contrast to the unimaginative, unhelpful and legislative approach taken by the NIO and the previous Parades Commission to Northern Ireland’s parading tradition. Ensuring the involvement of the Orange Order and other parading organisations - along with other stakeholders - powerfully expresses both a respect for the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and the need for those associated with parades and protests to avoid sectarian words, displays and actions.
The joint statement notes that those who engage in sectarian abuse know nothing of the ‘expressions of history and tradition’ represented by parades. Such abuse, it states, ‘has no place in a modern multi-cultural and multi-faith Scotland’. Exactly the same can be said of Northern Ireland - parades and processions by the Loyal Orders, trade unions, political groupings, and civic organisations are expressions of our society’s rich cultural diversity. That is why sectarian behaviour by protestors or spectators of parades hurts everyone in Northern Ireland.
The approach taken by the Scottish Executive may have much to commend it - and I hope that the Direct Rule Ministers are open to learning lessons from their Scottish colleagues.”