THE DUP will fight unionist opponents on its record within devolved government at Stormont and will, on condition, accept the transfer of justice powers, Peter Robinson has said.
The party leader used a detailed and lengthy leader’s address to dismiss both the Ulster Unionists and the Traditional Unionist Voice and to portray Conservative leader David Cameron as a unionist vote-splitter.
The new electoral alliance between the UUP and the Tories is a farce, the First Minister said, reminding more than 500 delegates of Margaret Thatcher’s support for the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement which was hated by unionists.
He also vociferously opposed the stance taken by the Traditional Unionist Voice led by former DUP MEP Jim Allister, vowing to counter the electoral threat to the DUP’s electoral dominance.
Referring to the party’s main rivals by name, Mr Robinson was joined in strident condemnation by other key DUP figures including deputy leader Nigel Dodds, finance minister Sammy Wilson, Jeffrey Donaldson and many others.
“The choice is not between some unionist panacea and the present form of devolution, but between devolution and direct rule with Dublin involvement. This party will continue to oppose Dublin rule,” Mr Robinson said.
A lengthy section of his address was designed to boost party morale following a difficult European election campaign and a troubled time around the Executive table with three other parties including Sinn Féin.
Sounding a defiantly optimistic note, he said: “I would hardly deny that we still face a few little, and some not-so-little, local difficulties.
“Yet they are as nothing compared to the crisis situations in which we have previously gathered. And without being in any way complacent, I have to tell you that I have not experienced a shiver of apprehension, doubt or conflict in preparing for my task today. I firmly believe that our largest problems are in our rear-view mirror.”
Addressing both a packed conference hall and a live BBC television audience, he said the DUP had led unionism though times of “cruel isolation and rejection, dangerous days and dark, dark nights”.
In a key section of his address, he emphasised the DUP’s devolutionist credentials.
“From the outset, we were the unionist party of devolution – yet always, too, the unionist party that rejected devolution at any price,” he said.
The deal struck by his party at St Andrews which laid the ground for restored devolution was “a far better deal”.
“There were always going to be problems for people sharing power after years of conflict and enmity. But we were never going to be remotely credible in that undertaking while private armies were allowed to hold themselves above and beyond the law while thinking to administer their own brand of so-called community policing and restorative justice.Walking away from Stormont and powersharing would be counter to unionist interests.
“It wouldn’t just be mad, it would be bad, and wicked beyond belief to knowingly consign future generations – our children and grandchildren – to more of the same violence and uncertainty that would unquestionably follow renewed political instability and conflict in our province,” he said.
Turning to the contentious transfer of justice and policing powers, Mr Robinson warned the conference and the wider unionist electorate against following the old rule of Northern politics, “if it’s good for them, it can’t be good for us”.
“The return of policing and justice powers to Stormont is of huge symbolic significance, and it is especially so for unionists,” he said.
Referring to republicans “muttering darkly about an emergent political crisis and a threat to the existence of the Assembly”, he said this was “the clearest evidence that it is they and not we who are under real pressure from the new dispensation in Northern Ireland”.
“I cannot guarantee the future of the Assembly but I can guarantee that it will not be the DUP that will walk away.”
Mr Dodds dwelt on the party’s desire to change the structures of the Stormont institutions and the cross-Border bodies.
Calling for an end to what the DUP calls “mandatory coalition”, Mr Dodds urged instead “a voluntary coalition with robust minority protections”. He also advocated “cutting government departments, North-South bodies, quangos and MLAs”.
Mr Donaldson, recently returned from Tripoli where he is seeking Libyan compensation for victims of IRA violence, denounced the Eames-Bradley report on dealing with the legacy of the Troubles.
In particular, he demanded a redefinition of the term “victim” and rubbished the Eames-Bradley plan to consider a £12,000 recognition payment for the families of all those who died in the conflict whether paramilitary or not.