Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“The top brass of the PSNI can spin all they like but the truth is as clear as day for all to see. The proposal is to cease to use the official crest anywhere it can be seen. The police may pretend that the official crest has not changed but if it is hidden from public view because it includes the words Northern Ireland then it has the same effect as being officially binned.
“Why go to the expense of rebranding? What is the rational if no one in the PSNI has a problem with the name of the police service? Why produce a mongrel crest? Why make stupid points about the words Northern Ireland being too long to fit on the badge when there was no difficulty getting it on badges and clothing for the past 20 years? Do they take us all for fools?
“There has clearly been a deliberate, conscious decision to go down this road and spend public money removing the legal crest. Is this a proposal which originated with the director of communications in the PSNI?
“The biggest question in all of this and the one I find hardest to understand is how the proposal got to this stage. How did it get through the Policing Board? Where were the objections from the Unionist members of the Board? If there were none why was that?”