Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“The decision of the Assembly Commission to light Stormont up in yellow tomorrow night to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement is in stark contrast to the approach adopted when I requested that the building be lit up to mark Innocent Victims of Terrorism Day. That request was refused because it supposedly didn’t comply with the Commission’s lighting policy.
“Today’s announcement shows that the policy can be overridden when there is a will to do so. If the policy could be changed for George Floyd why couldn’t it have been changed for the thousands of innocent victims closer to home?
“Why the double standards?
“When Alex Maskey, the chair of the Commission, issues a statement telling us that the Assembly is united in the belief that Black Lives Matter has he changed his view on the murders of Errol Gordon, Paul Garrett and Eustace Handley by the PIRA?
“Do some lives matter more than others? It seems that it is politically correct to say that Black Lives Matter but it’s an altogether more difficult for Stormont to acknowledge innocent victims closer to home.
“This decision is a telling one, coming as it does at the end of a week when it emerged that the Executive couldn’t deliver a pension for innocent victims.”