The DUP and Sinn Féin were more interested in "polarising" Northern Ireland society than finding a way forward, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said yesterday when launching his party's election manifesto. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports.
After years of internal division, the UUP, campaigning under the banner "For All of Us", was able to present a united front in the Waterfront Hall yesterday, where party candidates - along with such senior figures as former leader David Trimble, Lord Ken Maginnis and Lady Sylvia Hermon - joined Sir Reg for the manifesto launch.
Sir Reg argued that a vote for the UUP would strengthen the centre ground and challenge the DUP and Sinn Féin, who on their own were incapable of governing Northern Ireland.
"Can you imagine in any other country in the world that a government is formed by two parties that have never spoken, have nothing in common? How could you make it work under those circumstances?"
Sir Reg said the UUP intended to take the ministerial seats to which it was entitled on March 26th were the proposed powersharing executive formed. This was in contrast to the DUP which could not say "when they are prepared to work devolution for the good of Northern Ireland".
"Nobody knows what the DUP or Ian Paisley stands for anymore," he said, adding that the DUP's "internal division, narrow partisan considerations and lack of political courage are poor reasons to deprive Northern Ireland of devolution".
Referring to Sinn Féin, he said: "As unionists it makes no sense to leave republicanism in charge of the timetable for the restoration or Stormont; if we do that it may never return."
The UUP leader rejected DUP claims that it had pressurised the IRA into moving definitively on issues such as policing and decommissioning.
"We started and got decommissioning. As far as policing is concerned, had they come on board in 1998 [ at the time of the Belfast Agreement] all of these issues would have been settled years ago. They had to catch up."
Sir Reg was asked would he recommend UUP voters transferring to the SDLP. "Clearly we would always wish to see people use their franchise in a way that would most definitely minimise republican representation. People have to use their own intelligence in their own local situation," he said.
UUP deputy leader Danny Kennedy said that, from former unionist prime minister Terence O'Neill in 1969 to former first minister David Trimble, Dr Paisley had constantly attacked unionist leaders.
Yet he was now on the cusp of entering government with Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness. "People are saying what was the last eight years been all about? What's the last 38 years been all about?" he asked.
The most headline grabbing of the manifesto proposals, which deal with a wide range of social, economic and political issues, was that free prescriptions should be available to everyone in Northern Ireland.