Speaking at the AGM of TUV Central Council, where a new Officer Team was elected, Jim Allister said returning to Stormont under the Protocol can never be an option, because it requires active complicity in accepting and aiding the dismantling of the Union. “No figleaf conjured up by Westminster, or anyone else, will alter that reality. If the Protocol’s imposition of foreign law and customs code, resulting alignment economically with ROI and the operation of the partitioning Irish Sea border continues, then, to operate Stormont is to accept such dismantling of the Union as permanent, indeed as transitioning us into an all-Ireland arrangement.”
Mr Allister said that faced with such unpalatable realities, unionism should unite around the historic and core unionist demand of ‘equal citizenship’ in the U.K. Forget the unworkable anti-unionist Stormont and demand that which is most irresistible, that of being treated equally within our own country. Returning to the basics of unionism is a far better course than aiding and abetting our unequal treatment by operating a Vichy Stormont.”
At its AGM Central Council elected the following office bearers William Ross (president), Jim Allister KC MLA (leader), Councillor Ron McDowell (deputy leader), Councillor Keith Ratcliffe (chairman), Councillor Allister Kyle (vice-chairman), Anne McClure (secretary), Councillor Timothy Gaston (treasurer) and Samuel Morrison (press officer).