Stop 'their terrorists are worse than ours' nonsense: Alliance

4.03.20pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 20th Oct 2005

Alliance Party Leader, David Ford MLA, has highlighted Unionist hypocrisy in calling for expenses to be withheld from Sinn Féin, while making no mention of the PUP.

David Ford, Assembly representative for South Antrim, said:

"It is the height of hypocrisy for Unionists to suggest that expenses should continue to be withheld from Sinn Féin, while remaining silent on a political party directly linked to an organization involved in ongoing paramilitary activity, as the PUP confirmed at the weekend with regard to the UVF. Would this be because that paramilitary organization happens to be 'Unionist'?

"This is a clear case of the old 'their terrorists are worse than our terrorists' line, and shows the ambiguous nature of the Unionist response to terrorism and its apologists.

"The simple fact is Unionists are fiddling while the communities they claim they represent are burning -- and it is Loyalist thuggery that is primarily responsible for that. Unionist representatives have the power directly to influence the violence within -- people have a right to ask when they intend to use it, rather than constantly moaning about things they can't change."

ENDS