EUROPEAN ELECTIONS:DELEGATES applauded when Fermanagh Assemblyman Tom Elliott claimed that the UUP was the only unionist party confident enough to name a candidate in next year's EU elections.
Without mentioning the DUP or rebel MEP Jim Allister by name, he hinted they were in some difficulty over the issue. “Others haven’t been able to choose a candidate,” he jibed.
Mr Allister was elected as an MEP for the Democratic Unionist Party but broke away from the DUP over its sharing power with Sinn Féin.
Mr Elliott warned that the combined unionist vote was less then 50 per cent at the last European Parliament elections. The UUP’s Jim Nicholson had huge respect in Europe and in Northern Ireland, he added, but this was of little use unless there was a concerted drive to see his re-election.
“I don’t ever want to hear another Ulster Unionist talk Jim Nicholson down,” he said to applause. “Jim is an excellent candidate and don’t ever let anyone tell you different.” Unionists were less likely to come out and vote, he warned. Each Ulster Unionist had to make a commitment to do something to assist in the campaign, he said.
“There has been a shortage of focus on the European election, “he said. “We need every possible bit of support otherwise it could be a very difficult election for us.”
M rNicholson, the man rewarded with a European seat for once defeating Seamus Mallon for a Westminster seat, told delegates: “This is an Ulster Unionist seat, not Jim Nicholson’s seat we are defending.”
Underscoring the importance of the wider political stage, he warned: “It is no longer enough to fight our corner and for the union from the confines of the Assembly or Executive”. But he added that the EU institutions had to know their place. “We want to be in Europe, not run by Europe.”
He said Northern Ireland had to cease to be insular and said that influence could only be achieved by earning the respect of others.
His unionism meant “forging alliances and explaining our solid case for being an asset within the United Kingdom”. Accusing the DUP of scare tactics, he accused Peter Robinson’s party of turning defiance on its head in relation to opposition to Sinn Féin.
“They called us the pushover unionists – who are the pushover unionists now?” The DUP were bitter and divided, he said, and Jim Allister had quit the DUP, not the Ulster Unionists.
“This is their fight, not ours.” Turning to Arlene Foster and Jeffrey Donaldson who left the UUP for the DUP, he asked them: “What was that all about? The trip to the Waterfront Hall so you can now sit around the Cabinet table with five Sinn Féin Ministers instead of two? What was gained from splitting unionism asunder.” The Ulster Unionists “had secured our position within the union” and had helped remove Articles Two and Three of the Irish Constitution.As the candidate of “the party of the union” he said that only the UUP could deliver new East-West relations “rather than be told that the future must always be North-South”.