uuptoday.org

UUP Leader Sir Reg Empey and Party Parades spokesman Michael Copeland met today with the Parades Commission this morning.

The meeting, at the Commission’s request, saw Sir Reg and Mr Copeland pressing the Commission for fresh thinking ahead of the approaching parading season.

In a joint statement the UUP Men said,

“The parading season is very close and once again neither government nor the Parades Commission seem to have any fresh ideas or perspectives to bring to the table.

As always the parading issue has the potential, if not handled correctly, to derail or jeopardise the good will and positive new consensus that a return of devolution brings.

Druncree needs to be resolved along with other contentious parades across Northern Ireland. The progress that we have all made cannot be allowed to become undone.

The Ulster Unionist Party is appealing to all parties to urgently begin looking at a collective approach to the Parading issue.

Parading and the issues surrounding it cannot be swept under the carpet any longer.”

Ulster Unionist Councillor Alderman Arnold Hatch has today said that the “massive u-turn” by the DUP leadership to enter into power-sharing with Sinn Fein would leave their two MLAs in Upper Bann – David Simpson and Stephen Moutray – “bewildered and confused”.

In a statement, Mr Hatch said: “Messrs Simpson and Moutray were two of the 12 DUP elected representatives who signed that famous letter against the direction the DUP was taking. Have they turned full circle again?

“The DUP has finally played catch-up with the Ulster Unionist Party and accepted the framework and institutions that we negotiated in 1998.

“The images of Dr Paisley sitting at the same table with Gerry Adams were momentous and historic. However, it should be remembered that the DUP heaped physical and verbal abuse on Daphne and David Trimble, and the UUP, for sharing power with moderate nationalism.

“We had Seamus Mallon as our Deputy First Minister, not a former commander of the IRA. How times have changed.

“The DUP has been to the electorate with various messages over the years – from ‘Smash Sinn Fein’, to ‘government with Sinn Fein’. What happened to the requirement to see a photograph of IRA weapons being decommissioned? Is the testing period now only six weeks?

“The need for the dissolution of the IRA Army Council has gone. Have all the pledges and tests been abandoned?

“Jim Allister, their very capable MEP, has left their Party and several councillors will also follow suit due to this remarkable about-face. Will Simpson and Moutray now take the salaries and abandon so-called principles?”