Andrews speaks out against ‘Tap Tax Tories’
(Letter to the Belfast Telegraph, 26th December 2006)
Dear Sir,
Conservative abstentions in the House of Lords on December 11 led to the defeat of an Ulster Unionist motion to defer the water charges until the restoration of devolved government following the St Andrews Agreement.
The absence of new DUP peer Baroness Paisley was also noted.
Ulster Unionists recognize that water charges are inevitable to bring us into line with Great Britain and as a result of an agreement back in 2001 between the Executive and the Treasury which gave the Executive borrowing powers to upgrade our deteriorating sewerage and water systems .This motion if successful would have deferred the charges to enable the incoming Executive to ensuring a fairer system of charging related to usage through metering.
Ulster Unionists will continue to demand parity with the rest of the UK on fair and equitable water charges .We hear now of secret memos indicating the water service may be privatized .We will continue to demand equality of treatment with the rest of the UK.The Treasury is insisting on a 5.8% rate of return from the NI water company when the equivalent rate for England is 5.1% and for Scotland 4.1%.On privatization the English water companies were paid a large contribution to enable capital infrastructure investment.As equal citizens and taxpayers in UK we demand the same treatment to make up for lack of government investment after years of direct rule under unaccountable civil servants in underspending departments of temporary direct rule Ministers .
While some of us may like and flirt with the idea of a style of politics more like the rest of the UK, the reality is we are a long way of this ideal ,our priority is to make Northern Ireland work within the UK while ensuring our rights as equal citizens of the UK .
Once again we see lack of engagement by local Tories on a serious local issue where we were within grasp of defeating one of the planks of Hain’s draconian direct rule.While Conservative spokesman Lord Glentoran claims to have obtained concessions from the Government ,he admits they are only technical.Once again we see the Conservatives complicit in their support of this colonial vice- regal style rule and reverting to bipartisan policy under Government pressure as one day they might be the Government in power.
yours faithfully,
Johnny Andrews
Party Officer
Ulster Unionist Party