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UUP Chief Negotiator Alan McFarland today challenged DUP Chairman Maurice Morrow to list what changes his Party had made to the Agreement.

In a statement Mr McFarland said,

“Mr Morrow is in denial. Last week in TV studios he was stating that the Agreement was gone and that the interim Assembly was a new Assembly. Unfortunately for Mr Morrow his statements have more in common with fiction than reality.

Only last week the British and Irish Governments issued a joint communiqué. It says:

‘They (Both governments) underlined their commitment to the Good Friday Agreement, as the indispensable framework for British-Irish relations, and confirmed their intention, in all circumstances, to ensure the Agreement is implemented to the fullest possible extent for the benefit of all communities.’

Of course Mr Morrow trotted out the same age old untruths about my Party. This is his comfort blanket. The reality is that there is no ‘Fair Deal’ and the Agreement has not been consigned to the dustbin. So either Mr Morrow is hopelessly out of the loop within his own party or he is attempting to conceal some home truths from the party faithful.

I would like to offer the DUP Chairman the opportunity to list what changes his party has made to the Agreement, how the Agreement is gone and how exactly the interim Assembly is a ‘New’ Assembly?”

UUP Chief Negotiator Alan McFarland MLA, speaking to Ballinderry Ulster Unionists, said that the DUP has now adopted Ulster Unionist policy, proving that they always follow the UUP lead – albeit several years behind. He called their policy: “the Belfast Agreement for slow learners”.

In a statement Mr McFarland said,

“It’s hard to fault the DUP at the moment, they are following the lead given by the UUP over the past 10 years and proving that UUP policy was correct. Pushing the boundaries out, Peter Robinson’s visit to the British-Irish Inter-parliamentary group in Killarney and his ground breaking ‘sons and daughters of the planter and the gael’ speech in America were liberal Unionist in their nature, Well done Peter!

It is interesting that, along with the moderating influence of ex-UUP MLAs, Jeffrey Donaldson, Arlene Foster and Norah Beare, the DUP party administration is now run by former Young Ulster Unionists, resulting in the DUP becoming more moderate and in the process of being ‘civilised’.

However, there is a political reality that surely must register with the DUP:

• If we do not get control of our own affairs through the return of devolution, the Union is in danger. The Direct Rule proposals will destroy our excellent education system. Rates rises will cost us dear. The Review of Public Administration plans will re-partition Northern Ireland. If the DUP does not get into a position to head off these dangers by November, then the government is threatening ‘joint management’ with the Irish – and the Union is in peril.

• To re-establish devolution, Unionism needs to do a deal with Nationalism.

• Nationalism (we may not like it, but it’s a fact for the foreseeable future) has chosen Sinn Fein to represent it.

• Therefore the paradox is that, in order to re-establish devolution and save the Union, the DUP will have to do a deal with Sinn Fein.

It is not if, but when, Peter Robinson will do the deal with Sinn Fein. He will clearly need ‘cover’ from another IMC report and one of the famous DUP tours of the Province ‘to take the public’s mind on the issue’. So come the autumn, though there may be opposition from Jim Allister MEP and the Ballymena Councillors, expect to see the Robinson wing of the DUP drive for a deal. Of course the biggest question of all will be: Whither the Paisley Family?”

Ulster Unionist Party Chief Negotiator Alan McFarland today said that the joint statement by Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern confirmed the complete failure of DUP policy.

In a statement Mr McFarland said,

‘Towards a new agreement’ and the ‘fair deal’. In both of these flagship policies the DUP swore that they would negotiate a new agreement. On Thursday, in black and white and unambiguous language there was a renewed commitment from both London and Dublin to the implementation of the Agreement, with or without devolution.

Following the Prime Ministers statement the DUP Leader issued a statement in which he conceded that the Irish Republic has now been given a role in running Northern Ireland. What an admission!

What happened to an end to push-over unionism? What happened to the increased power and influence that was talked about? What happened to the fair deal? And what happened to binning the Agreement?

No amount of spin or rhetoric from the DUP can get them out of the deep trench of unfulfilled promises that they have dug for themselves. There won’t be a new agreement nor have they stopped any concessions.”