:: press release ::

Wednesday April 23, 2008

TRIMBLE ADMITS DUP DID BETTER THAN HE DID

East Antrim Assembly Member Alastair Ross MLA has commented on remarks made by former Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble who, speaking in Belfast today said:

“I think that the position Dr. Paisley took in making republican support for existing police arrangements the key issue with regard to the formation of an Executive was right. It has brought about a major shift in the republican position”.

Mr Ross contrasted the former UUP leader’s comments with those of his former party colleagues who insist that the DUP “got no more than Trimble”.

Speaking this evening from his Carrickfergus office Mr Ross said,

“David Trimble has finally admitted that the DUP got Sinn Fein to do what he couldn’t. The next Ulster Unionist representative who spouts out the line that the DUP got no more than David Trimble should pay close attention to the words of their former leader.

Now a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, Mr Trimble has allowed himself to speak openly on his failures as leader of the UUP and has recognised that the DUP alone got the strategy right.

The DUP alone forced republicans down the road to entirely peaceful and democratic means. Mr. Trimble’s comments in Belfast rubbish his former Party’s political narrative, which they have been pushing over the past 12 months.

The DUP alone made support for the rule of law, the courts and policing structures a pre-requisite before the formation of an Executive at Stormont. It was our Party who rightly stated that all parties in the Assembly needed to operate on an equal basis with shared democratic standards.

Many said that it couldn’t be done and criticised our approach, but we pushed for and delivered republican support for the policing and judicial structures in Northern Ireland.

When even a former leader of the Ulster Unionist Party acknowledges DUP delivery in an area where the UUP failed, people should pay close attention.”