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Ulster Unionist Assembly Member Billy Armstrong welcomed Paul Callaghan of the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland to Mid-Ulster yesterday to discuss our concerns regarding equality in various aspects of life as unionists living in rural Mid-Ulster.

This was an opportunity to examine some of the issues and dispel the propaganda put out by Sinn Fein that there is employment discrimination against the Catholic community. Evidence points to the Protestant community losing out in the jobs market particularly in some Public Sector agencies in Northern Ireland that have consistently returned levels of Protestants significantly less than in the available workforce

Billy said, “In welcoming Paul Callaghan from the Equality Commission to our constituency I very much appreciated the opportunity to bring to him the views of unionists in Mid-Ulster. There is a perception that those who shout the longest are being listened too by Government at the expense of the vast majority of law abiding Protestant people. The Nationalist culture, language and sports are promoted and funded but Protestants feel alienated that they do not have the same level of support. Uproar from Sinn Fein when the Orange Order received a £100,000 grant but GAA have received vast sums from Sports Council but still permitted to hold a political event in Casement Park commemorating the Hunger Strike without any penalties.

“It is evident that there is a great feeling of alienation and intimidation by Protestants right across Mid-Ulster.  The ongoing attacks on Orange Halls and other Protestant establishments and the displays of hunger strike memorials and excessive use of controversial flags, which have been erected throughout many towns and villages, have created greater division and tensions in communities.

“Furthermore Protestants feel that they are not being treated fairly in many ways in their everyday lives.  Too often it is portrayed that Protestants are gaining more at the expense of Roman Catholics.  But this meeting gave us the chance to discuss these matters and to refute that perception. Previous attempts to tackle deprivation had not always had the same impact in many Protestant areas that they had lost out to nationalists in improvement programmes. As part of the United Kingdom, the signs and symbols of Britishness must have a protected and treasured status in the public life of Northern Ireland.

“In all this was a very useful meeting with the Equality Commission and my unionist colleagues, which included Councillors Jacky Crawford, George Shiels and prominent unionists feel that the Equality Commission should be better informed of the inequalities felt west of the Bann.”

Ulster Unionist Assembly Member for Mid- Ulster, Billy Armstrong MLA has praised the PSNI on the discovery of a cannabis factory at Corcanaghan Road, Cookstown on Wednesday 30 August 2006.

Billy said: “A lot of professional gangs are believed to be turning to the manufacture of home grown cannabis because of the high profits, with little regard to the effects that these drugs can have on young people and teenagers. The downgrading of cannabis to a class C drug has resulted in cannabis being the most widely abused drug in the country, with prevalence rates at least twice as high as other illegal drugs.

The widespread abuse raises serious concerns about the damage being done to users, especially to teenagers and young people. Most young people remain unaware of the potential dangers to their mental health caused by using cannabis and think they can smoke this drug recreationally without any long –term consequences. There is no such thing as a “safe” drug and greater education is necessary to make young people aware of the dangers

I welcome the fact that another cannabis factory has been closed down and a potential source of supply cut off, as these factories are only concerned with profits with no regard to the damage they inflict on young people. Recent research has suggested strong links between psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia and other mental illnesses and the abuse of cannabis.”

Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Health Spokesman, has said he will introduce a Private Members Bill at Stormont if the legislative Assembly is restored which would make attacks on health workers and the emergency services “a very serious criminal offence”.

Dr Coulter unveiled his planned Bill in the wake of news that more than 5,000 attacks took place on health workers in Northern Ireland in the past year.

The MLA added: “These shocking and deplorable statistics from Dr Brian Patterson of the British Medical Association’s Northern Ireland Council clearly emphasise the urgent need for the creation of special laws making it a specific criminal offence to attack the emergency services as well as staff in hospitals.”

Assemblyman Coulter said he had received “considerable support” from people, not just in the constituency, but right across Northern Ireland for his earlier call to give martial arts-style self-defence training to doctors and nurses working in hospital Accident and Emergency units.

He said: “The people who work for the emergency services also need to have their human rights recognised, too. We urgently need the introduction of more radical measures to protect fire fighters and paramedics when they are on their ‘mercy missions’.

“No democratic society should tolerate any type of attack – whether physical or verbal – on those whose job it is to save lives. There must be a zero tolerance attitude adopted towards the mindless thugs in our community who are perpetrating these attacks on fire appliances, ambulances, their crews as well as on GP’s, nurses and other health workers.

“There must be greater use of cameras and video recording equipment on emergency vehicles in the short term. We do not want the situation to deteriorate to the level that emergency crews cannot respond to a call because of a danger to their own lives.

“Similarly, in A and E units, we do not want the situation to arise where hospitals have to provide American-style ‘panic rooms’ which are secure units where medical staff can lock themselves away in the event of serious attacks breaking out.

“If words are not followed up effectively by solutions which work practically for the benefit of the emergency staff, then the nightmare scenario could become a reality where armed guards are required to either patrol A and E units, or escort fire engines and ambulances during their ‘mercy missions’. I have continually emphasised the martial arts training is purely for defensive purposes, but a legislative Assembly could go on the offensive by introducing a special category of crime which highlights attacks on emergency personnel with tough punitive sentences for those found guilty of such criminal behaviour.

“The emergency services also need more support from the public. Parents should be held responsible for any of their children found guilty by the courts of involvement in such inexcusable attacks. Such guilty young people should also be made to do hard manual labour as punishment, not face hotel-style treatment in prison or a young offenders centre. The bottom line has now been reached in Northern Ireland – we radically require a meaningful deterrent to this totally unacceptable behaviour which is affecting the general well-being of the entire community in Ulster. To make this legislation work will also require a community campaign of support.

“I am calling on my fellow MLAs in the Assembly to forget party political point scoring and follow the lead of the Ulster Unionist Party and join an all-party community campaign to once and for all stamp out this heinous crime of attacking the brave men and women of the emergency and health services. We need to act sooner rather than later. We cannot wait until a fire fighter is killed tackling a blaze, or a nurse bludgeoned to death in an A and E ward before acting. Now is the time for action – before lives are lost,” said Dr Coulter.

Ulster Unionist agricultural and rural development spokesman, Tom Elliott MLA, has raised concerns over recommendations made by Dr Alan Lennon to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) over the future of the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE).

In particular, the reasoning behind the proposal that equine courses should be provided in a single site has been questioned by the Fermanagh and South Tyrone assemblyman. The consolidation of equine courses will mean that DARD exits from the Necarne site near Irvinestown.

In a statement Tom said: “I have a number of concerns if DARD act upon these recommendations, firstly I fail to see how they can continue to provide equine courses of the same standard without the use of the facilities at Necarne.

“Necarne has some of the leading equine facilities in the UK, if not in Europe, the number of world class events attracted to the venue is evidence of that fact. Having access to these facilities surely gives students the edge, and this has no-doubt contributed to the popularity of the equine courses provided by CAFRE.”

The MLA added: “I am also very worried that this is the first step in the complete withdrawal of CAFRE from County Fermanagh, such a move would be a kick in the teeth and demoralisation of the entire agricultural and equine sector.”

Agriculture and Rural Development Minister, David Cairns MP, announced the outcome of the review of educational facilities, which also included recommendations for some upgrading of existing facilities at the three campuses; Enniskillen, Loughry and Greenmount.

Tom continued: “The agrifood sector requires new blood to thrive and there is a strong need for both new entrants, and indeed existing farmers, to train and retrain in modern farm practices. Investment in educational provision is essential for ensuing that the industry here remains competitive in the global marketplace.”

UUP South Belfast MLA Michael McGimpsey today welcomed the fact that the DUP are embracing positive change by seeking cosmetic tweaks to the Belfast Agreement.

Mr McGimpsey, responding to today’s article in the Newsletter in which the DUP claimed they had made significant changes to the Agreement, welcomed the engagement from the DUP and said it was a long overdue recognition by them of the progress that Northern Ireland had made over the last 10 years.

In a statement the UUP MLA said,

“Bar a few cosmetic tweaks here and there to the agreement, the deal being offered by the DUP is essentially the Belfast Agreement.

It is useful to think of these ‘changes’ as similar to the changes you would make to a modified car. Under the hood it is still the same car. But the bodywork has been changed with a few go faster stripes and a spoiler. In the end it still does the same things as the car without the modifications and ultimately will drive you to the same destination.

With direct rule ministers continuing to negatively affect the daily lives of everyone in Northern Ireland with policies that do not command the support of the public, it is refreshing to see that the DUP have woken up, ditched the negative messages of the last few weeks and are beginning to embrace positive change.

Ultimately they will have to present the people to whom they promised so much with what effectively is a slightly modified Belfast Agreement. This obviously requires a lot of ground work and I welcome their opening move on this front.

I welcome and congratulate the DUP on this positive development. It will be seen as an act of significant engagement. It has been a long hard slog, but finally after a number of years in the wilderness the DUP are finally embracing positive change.”

Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson welcomed the Agriculture and Fisheries Minister David Cairns MP today to Brussels where they discussed a number of issues currently affecting the farming and fishing communities in Northern Ireland.

Speaking after the meeting Mr Nicholson said,

“I was delighted that the Minister came to Brussels and used the opportunity to once again raise with him the serious financial difficulties facing the dairy sector in Northern Ireland, especially with the continuing fall in export refunds on dried milk powder and asked him to take personal charge of lobbying the Commission on this issue.

“I impressed upon the Minister the need for the Government to consider a restructuring package for the industry. This is of paramount importance for the future viability of dairy farming in Northern Ireland.

“I also raised my deep concerns over the UK Government’s position on modulation. It appears that Defra will not back down on their decision to modulate up to 25% of our farmer’s single farm payments to pay for rural development programmes. What we need is regional modulation to take account of the regional circumstances in the UK.

“I also welcome the Ministers meeting with the fisheries commissioner, Joe Borg. We had an important discussion surrounding the future of the Northern Ireland fishing fleet and in particular focussed on the Fisheries Council due to take place in December and the cod recovery plan. It is extremely important that the Minister travels to Brussels in December for these negotiations.”

UUP Leader Sir Reg Empey had urged the government not to stage a ‘big country house’ summit in October as part of their efforts to raise the political stakes in the run up to November 24th.

It is understood that the government is planning another Leeds Castle type ‘spectacular’. The UUP Leader has cautioned against the move and not just on the grounds of the massive expense to taxpayers.

In a statement Sir Reg said,

“There is speculation that the Northern Ireland parties will be moved to Scotland or England for another summit in a big country house sometime in October. The aim of this move is presumably to raise the political stakes in the run up to the November 24th deadline.

The cost of hiring the venue, the associated security, flying over, accommodating and feeding a large number of MLAs and staff is astronomical and a chronic waste of public expenditure.

The big house spectacular summit may have worked in the past in terms of the optics and trying to generate a pressure cooker environment, but in reality they achieve little. Can anyone in Northern Ireland name one big house summit where a breakthrough was made? The answer is surely no. The contrary is true. Castle Buildings, Stormont and Hillsborough Castle have been places where meaningful progress has been made in the past.

I have already urged the government not to go down the road of another big house summit. It is irritating to politicians who cannot communicate with their parties at home due to limited communications and often poor mobile phone reception; their staff who cannot operate effectively and the taxpayer who has to foot the bill for these summits.

We need meaningful dialogue and a meaningful engagement amongst the parties. We do not need a stately home for this to happen. If anything the opposite is true – the big house summit hinders progress. The government need to think again.”

Following statistics released this week which show that the take up of foreign languages at GCSE level is declining at an alarming speed, Ulster Unionist Member of the European Parliament Jim Nicholson has said that more must be done to encourage students to study foreign languages at GCSE level.

The statistics which were revealed this week as thousands of students received their GCSE results show that GCSE entries in German were down by 14.2%, while French declined by 13.2% and Spanish by 0.5%.

Speaking today Mr Nicholson said,

“It is extremely worrying that the numbers of students taking a foreign language to GCSE level are rapidly declining. Parents and pupils should be made aware that studying a foreign language can significantly enhance employability and aid personal development.

“The competitive global economy in which we all must opeate means that businesses and corporations all over the world are keen to recruit people with language skills. Recent surveys have even indicated that language graduates are less likely to be unemployed than those who study other disciplines.

“More and more of us are taking advantage of cheap flights to Europe yet many people fail to recognise the value of learning a foreign language. You can travel to almost any country in Europe and most locals will be able to have a conversation with you in English, yet our basic skills in foreign languages are sadly lacking.

“Two years ago the Government abolished the requirement that pupils had to study a foreign language at GCSE level. It was a serious mistake to sideline languages in this way and I would urge the Government to rethink their position. A much higher emphasis must be put, in both primary and secondary schools, on learning a modern language and in addition we must find new and exciting ways of teaching languages which are more attractive to students.”

Ulster Unionist Environment Spokesman Sam Gardiner MLA, today warned all householders to check the small print of their insurance policies to make sure they were covered for global warming events.

“Forecasters say that hot, dry summers followed by violent storms in the winter will be our weather pattern as global warming takes hold, meaning more of us will need to call on our home insurance to bail us out when the rainy day comes. Hot weather can cause subsidence with prolonged dry weather, such as happened earlier this summer, causing underlying soils – particularly clays – to become brittle after drought.”

“There are no figures readily available for Northern Ireland but nationally the number of homes at high risk from flooding events has jumped from 220,000 in 2002 to 570,000 today. People should check out exactly how their insurer will treat flood damage. Some policies, for example, will not pay out for rising groundwater - flooding that occurs because the ground is saturated by a nearby river.”

“Wind damage can also be a problem. Some insurers will measure wind speeds and will only pay out when winds reach 55mph, or force 10 on the Beaufort scale.”

“So the advice has to be – check the small print of your house insurance policy and make sure it is global warming proof.”

East Londonderry UUP Assembly member Norman Hillis says the GAA has proved that it is a political organization by permitting the use of Casement Park for a hunger strike anniversary commemoration.

Speaking as he received a petition from a Coleraine group objecting to the Council’s decision to give funding to Kilrea Gaelic Club, Mr. Hillis said the GAA’s action in allowing one of its grounds to be used for a political rally turned its claim to be a purely sporting body completely on its head.

“I sympathize with those who are incensed by this action. The GAA’s central governing body in Dublin had said the rally would break its rules about staging political events. However, that did not stop the County Antrim Board from letting the commemoration go ahead.

“The hunger strikers were guilty of the most dastardly crimes against innocent people and that is something which seems to have been forgotten by those involved in this event.

“There would be an outcry if a rally celebrating the activities of a terrorist loyalist organisation were held at a major sporting venue in Belfast.

“All sporting arenas must be free from such involvement. Until such time as this happens I feel it is inappropriate to hand over public funding to sporting groups affiliated to the GAA. Other parts of its organisation are clearly quite comfortable with such political association and care nothing about who is offended by it.”

Mr. Hillis said previous Council grants to assist the development of Gaelic sports in the Borough were made on the understanding that the GAA was a non-political body but he added: “This action now proves that this is not the case.

“The work of many people in the GAA to reform its rules and regulations has been undone by the Casement example and I can understand why victims of the actions of the hunger strikers are angry about the situation.

“The GAA is tainted by the actions of those who run Casement Park and also by the fact that the Association did not move to stop the event taking place there.”