Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“The narrative of “the peace process” has been one of pandering to proscribed organisations whose might trumps the rights of ordinary law abiding citizens, many of whose lives these organisations have made a misery.
“To reach the point that a chief architect of this process, Jonathan Powell, tells us that, in defiance of all reason and probity, it is in fact desirable to sustain such illegal organisations, is but another perverse stage in such a warped process. Of course, and here the choreography of this week fits into place, what goes, in his terms, for so called loyalist paramilitaries will also go for the IRA. To be told that retaining this and other killing machines is in our interests is repulsive.
“Soft landings are being prepared for any findings of criminality flowing from the Chief Constable’s affirmation that the Provos killed McGuigan.
“Proscribed organisations are proscribed for a reason, but in Powell land they would soon be not just sanitised but legitimised, with the long term winner being the biggest killing machine of all, the Provisional IRA.”