Commenting after meeting the Secretary of State this morning TUV leader Jim Allister said:
“I pressed the case for change on a number of issues with the Secretary of State this morning. I pointed out that while we now have an opposition and that is welcome it faces two huge barriers. Firstly, there is the matter of funding. While DUP/Sinn Fein can rely on 16 Special Advisers and the whole Civil Service, there is no adequate funding for the opposition parties. This puts them at a huge disadvantage. Secondly and more significantly it is vital that an opposition is able to present itself as an alternative government. However, due to mandatory coalition even if the UUP and SDLP were to perform well in opposition and beat DUP/Sinn Fein at the next election it would not mean that both or either of those losing parties would be removed from government. Thus, creating an Opposition is only one step in democratising Stormont and delivering to voters the universal right to change their government.
“Sadly, there is reluctance to say the least on the part of HMG to address this matter.
“I also discussed with the Secretary of State the perversion and misuse of the word “collusion” as an aid for those rewriting their terrorist history. To any sensible person “collusion” denotes active involvement on a joint enterprise basis in crime, but not in the world of rewriting the terrorist narrative. From the days of Judge Corey it is abused to mean much less. Maybe, it is time to import a proper statutory definition into any framework purporting to deal with “the past”.
“Additionally, I used the meeting to raise the future of Ballymena Electoral Office. The local council has offered to provide space for the office and given that we are told that no job losses are planned I can see no rational for not accepting this offer. Ballymena has already suffered enough in terms of job losses without losing this service as well. The Council’s offer should be taken up.
“Of course I commended the Secretary of State on the role she is playing in the campaign to liberate the UK from the EU. On that issue at least we see eye to eye!”