It is my duty, and even more, my great pleasure to welcome you all here to our annual Conference.
This is the place where we meet old friends, and new friends, renew our contacts, rejoice in progress made and eagerly look forward to the political battles of the coming year.
It is a day for reflection on the past year – a year of considerable success for this Party and a day when we can set out our vision for the future of Ulster.
Among other things we will face an election to Europe next year and in that campaign we will be told by those who lack the courage, will and determination to rule ourselves, that we must stay in the E.U. at all costs.
I noted a press report a short time ago about those international firms, who although earning huge profits in the United Kingdom paid little tax here. We have all heard such stories before but this article pointed out that the tax loss arose because the E.U. allows such companies to channel their earnings to where taxes are lowest.
The writer alleged that the total loss to the U.K. was estimated at 120 billion a year – in other words, more than the budget deficit. No wonder such people want the U.K. to stay in the E.U.
Closer to home the Local Government elections open a new door for this Party. The scare tactic of the D.U.P. “Vote for us or our bedfellows will get in” has no logical force, and those tens of thousands who share our sentiments can vote for our candidates without concern.
I urge them to forsake their fears, follow their conscience and strike a blow for integrity and honest politics. Our principal political opponents have little to recommend them.
Sinn Fein’s wriggling under questions about the murderous behaviour of the I.R.A. simply misleads no one. Indeed their ghoulish celebrations when Mrs. Thatcher died exposed once again the depth of their hatred for all things British.
The S.D.L.P. was undermined many years ago when former leaders started to sanitize the I.R.A. They now show every sign of being past their sell by date.
In the Unionist community the D.U.P. long ago shifted from their battle cry “Service ever – Surrender never” to self-service only, from smashing Sinn Fein to hugging them to death.
Some of the new unionist groups seem intent on creating an illusionary world in which the malignant activity of Irish republicanism driving forward their united Ireland policy doesn’t exist. Consequently their policies are but a house of cards built on quicksand.
Politics in the real world is never about easy choices, and especially in this Province of the United Kingdom it is about the hard practical needs of Ulster.
One of the primary duties of Government in the U.K. is the defence of the Queen’s realm in its fullest sense. That is about far more than territory – something that quite escaped those who traded the old Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish Republics Constitution for the new articles, but the effects of the new articles surfaced recently when the new design of the Irish Passport showed a map of the whole Island.
We in this understand that attacks on the Queen’s realm, whether they are open violence, insidious propaganda, that modern name for lies, rewriting history to smear the innocent, and bleach the blood from the guilty, or political action to dismantle and destroy the U.K. are all part of the same programme.
The attack is on a broad front and it can only be defeated by a clear understanding of what is going on and clear firm intelligent political leadership. In recent years this Party has provided that leadership in Northern Ireland.
Churchill once said that in the darkest days of war when we faced Hitler alone that he provided the lion’s roar. The people provided the steadfastness needed.
We can say that in these dark days when truth and honesty have been so deeply buried in a flood of pious platitudes and downright moral cowardice that this Party has been the voice of reason and hope.
In the whole saga of the Maze, of the Special Advisors, the U turn on care homes, the exposure of waste in Stormont, others moaned and lamented. Jim, you got something done.
All these things were plainly simmering away below the surface and beneath the notice of the media and the political pundits. They didn’t notice, or pretended not to notice, that the numbers of the angry were great. The political class in Stormont largely ignored or dismissed them.
I am not unconscious of those who took up the fight on their behalf, some Unionist politicians, the Loyal Orders, and the various pressure groups – all played a large part and they are all owed our thanks.
That said, Churchill may have had the roar, but you, Jim, have been the razor that slashed through the humbug and hypocrisy, exposed the lies, and lacerated the conscience of many. You have been the voice that so many needed, for those whose sorrows and miseries were being swept under the carpet and contemptuously denied the justice they deserved. You gave the people hope and it should inspire all who seek a better future in this land to get out and vote next May. Increase our numbers in the political world in Ulster. Protest has its limited place but the ballot box filled with votes for T.U.V. is the surest path to follow.
This place needs a lot of new brooms to cleanse it thoroughly.