DUP has to stop living in the past

Ulster Unionist Party deputy Leader Danny Kennedy has reacted to recent comments made by Sammy Wilson, DUP MLA for East Antrim, by suggesting that the DUP stops living in their own version of the past and get on with governing Northern Ireland.

In a statement Mr. Kennedy said "I find it regrettable, if not predictable, that Sammy Wilson and the DUP are again trying to rewrite history. It is now rarely contested - except by members of the DUP- that the St Andrews Agreement is essentially a reheated version of the Belfast Agreement. And the DUP cannot deny that because of the Belfast Agreement Northern Ireland is a better and more prosperous place to live in than it was ten years ago.

The DUP cannot deny that the Republic of Ireland has dropped its constitutional claim to Northern Ireland and that the Union has been secured because of the Belfast Agreement. However, instead of living in the present and getting on with governing Northern Ireland, the DUP and Sinn Fein are proving that their own histories and internal party hang-ups are balkanising Northern Ireland, stagnating government and pushing us into political crisis.

The Ulster Unionist Party is not like the DUP - when they were the smaller unionist party DUP members did all in their power to pull down the Executive. We have too much respect for the unionist community and the people of Northern Ireland to desire such an outcome.

Today the DUP are in a straight jacket with Sinn Fein and by their party leader's own admission the Executive has become unstable. The situation only appears to be getting worse and I would suggest to Mr. Wilson and his DUP colleagues that instead of misleadingly raking over the past and worrying about retaining their seats in Westminster and on local councils, they get on with running the country and delivering the stability that they promised. In fact I find it amazing that in light of the recent flooding, the crisis in the planning system and the economy, and the apparent inability of the new Environment Agency to stop incidences of pollution, Minister Wilson has the time to muse over the political history of the past ten years".