POLL UNDERLINES HOW OUT OF STEP DUP ARE WITH MAINSTREAM UNIONIST THINKING ON POLICING AND JUSTICE POWERS SAYS UUP MEP
UUP MEP Jim Nicholson today commented on the government poll that claimed that 60% of people supported the transfer of policing and Justice and 53% backed the May deadline.
Mr Nicholson said the only poll that mattered was the recent Dromore by-election poll which gave a real snapshot of Unionist thinking.
In a statement Mr Nicholson said,
“The government are clearly engaged in a concerted effort to stick to the St. Andrews Sinn Fein/DUP deal that Policing and Justice powers should be devolved by May of this year.
This latest poll is evidence of that effort to bounce us into accepting it. Polls have been cynically used by the government before to try and influence public opinion and I do not give too much credence to them.
It should be remembered that there was a recent real poll, a proper test of public opinion. This was the Dromore by-election which offered an accurate and up-to-date snapshot of Unionist thinking.
It is clear that a majority of Unionists share the UUP view that it is just too soon to devolve policing and justice powers. The Institutions need to be bed down further and public confidence needs to be built up. Any rational person can see that the increasing TUV vote, the declining DUP vote and the retention of our seat by the UUP is indicative of unease and disquiet at the direction and methods used by the DUP.
Therefore their support in this government poll should not be taken as an indicator or an underlying trend within Unionism. Quite the reverse. It merely underlines how disengaged the party has now become from mainstream Unionist thinking.”