Paisley Vows to never speak to Sinn Fein

Villain

From Breakingnews.ie:

Paisley rules out power-sharing with SF
06/04/2005 - 11:31:31

Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley has vowed never to speak to Sinn Féin under to any circumstances.

Speaking at the launch of his party's general election campaign in Belfast, Dr Paisley categorically ruled out any negotiations between the DUP and Sinn Féin after the May 5 British general election.

The 79-year-old said he would never share power with what he called a "terrorist organisation" and there was nothing republicans could say that would alter that.

His comments come ahead of a speech later today by Gerry Adams in which he is expected to outline the difficult choices faced by republicans if they want the peace process to continue.

Mr Paisley needs to wake up and realise that Sinn Fein represent the majority of Nationalists and there never can be a powersharing government unless his party are willing to talk to Sinn Fein.

He can call Sinn Fein what he likes but they are an elected party in Northern Ireland and they have a mandate voted for by the majority of Nationalists.

I do think this may only be a pre-election stunt to get the hardliners of the party back on side after the pre-xmas negoiations.

sovtek

If only he would do us all a favor and vow to just not speak at all.

Mighty_Mouse

Mr Paisley needs to wake up

.... is there even a need to discuss paisley! Put it this way, he wont be waking up anytime soon.

bonkey

irish1 wrote:

Mr Paisley needs to wake up and realise that Sinn Fein represent the majority of Nationalists and there never can be a powersharing government unless his party are willing to talk to Sinn Fein.

Given that Mr. Paisley has, since Day 1, stated his opposition to a powersharing government, what makes you think he hasn't smelled this coffee a long time ago.

Just looks to me like he's either returning to his ultra-hard-line no-compromise-of-any-type-ever approach that they started out with around when the GFA was being negotiated, or he's just saying he is to erap votes from those who will vote for such a stance.

jc

Villain

bonkey wrote:

Given that Mr. Paisley has, since Day 1, stated his opposition to a powersharing government, what makes you think he hasn't smelled this coffee a long time ago.

Just looks to me like he's either returning to his ultra-hard-line no-compromise-of-any-type-ever approach that they started out with around when the GFA was being negotiated, or he's just saying he is to erap votes from those who will vote for such a stance.

jc

Well Bonkey IMO his stance seemed to be softening around xmas and he seemed prepared to go into government with Sinn Fein if the IRA ceased all activities.

Nuttzz

I think he might be hoping that the nationalist vote might swing back to the SDLP and that the underlying tone of his message is "Taigs, vote for the SDLP if you want power sharing".

I think the DUP have a lot ot answer for in the breakdown of the xmas talks, we almost had full decommissioning under independent supervision and he banjaxed it all for the sake of the few photos.

He was said "Never" before, I do think if the opportunity arrose from him to be first minister of NI he would go for it again

marcowil

Of course he will talk to them again at some stage.

His ultimate goal is , and always has been, to be the Prime Minister/Leader of Northern Ireland and even he knows that to do that he must talk to the majority opposition party.

He will huff and puff, as he has done since before I was born, but will somehow manage to find a way to speak to whomever he needs to in order that he can take power.

As far as i am concerned that is a frightnening thought even for someone like me, from a moderate unionist background. I hope I NEVER see Paisley in charge of this country.

I believe that with Paisley out of the picture things in Northern Ireland could move forward with a litlle more ease. Unfortunately for us that means we have to wait until he pops his clogs as he will never relinquish the grip he has on his party.

Villain

His son is keen to follow in his fathers footsteps and I believe he may even be worse

flogen

Look, the DUP became the majority party on the back of slags thrown at the UUP for talking to Sinn Fein and a promise to never compromise with the Nationalists. He almost did at Christmas and he almost got burned by it too. This is him shoring up his support before the election so he can ensure he has the same support on may 5th that he did before. After the elections he will speak to Sinn Fein, assuming that he has reason to (he has no need to speak to them while the IRA exist, because the blame can't be put at his door, and he obviously has no need to speak to them if the SDLP won).

bonkey

irish1 wrote:

Well Bonkey IMO his stance seemed to be softening around xmas and he seemed prepared to go into government with Sinn Fein if the IRA ceased all activities.

Key word in that sentence for me : seemed.

The only times Paisley has ever softened his stance has been when Republicans of some sort are so far on teh ropes that the softening isn't actually going to commit him to anything.

As soon as Republicans look like they might be getting off the ropes, or - Lord forbid - actually doing what he demanded (not this time, but previous instances), then its time to change demands and/or just refuse to deal with Republicans at all.

marcowil wrote:

His ultimate goal is , and always has been, to be the Prime Minister/Leader of Northern Ireland

Coulda fooled me. I would have said that his ultimate goal is and has always been to prevent as much as possible the devolution of control of Northern Ireland away from Westminster where Paisley firmly believes it belongs.

Given a choice of scuppering the Northern Assembly and becoming its leader, I'd put money on Paisley taking the former option.

jc

Elmo

cdebru

bonkey wrote:

Coulda fooled me. I would have said that his ultimate goal is and has always been to prevent as much as possible the devolution of control of Northern Ireland away from Westminster where Paisley firmly believes it belongs.

Given a choice of scuppering the Northern Assembly and becoming its leader, I'd put money on Paisley taking the former option.

jc

actually the DUP are a devolutionist party the ultimate goal of all politicians is to be in power and actually have some powere to wield
ideally the DUP would like straight forward majority rule as we had prior to the fall of stormont 30 odd years ago
but as realists they realise that is not going to happen so they will jhave to share power with nationalists the SDLP are obviously the least offensive to the DUP but they dont have much choice in who they share power with under the GFA

the DUP are just politicking with the we will never talk to sinn fein they have not spoken to them yet and almost agreed to share power with them in december so presumably another deal could be done without the DUP ever talking to SF
on the we wont share power with a terrorist organisation that is just a restatement of the fact that the IRA must decommission and stand down or go into a different mode before the DUP will sahre power

there is absolutely nothing new here it is just playing to the gallery during an election campaign
trying to highlight the difference between them and the UUP would did speak to sinn fein and did share power while the IRA was still a terrorist organisation

rsynnott

Ah, where would we be without good old loony Paisley? If not for him, SF's Rolf Harris impersonator would look silly.

Zombrex

irish1 wrote:

I do think this may only be a pre-election stunt to get the hardliners of the party back on side after the pre-xmas negoiations.

Is anyone surprised by this?

The DUP has a hard enough time talking to Sinn Fein when the IRA are on ceasefire and the last thing they did was 4 or 5 years ago. Now people expect Paisley to talk to SF only months after the IRA pulled a bank job (with direct links to Sinn Fein) and one of it members beat someone to death?? That ain't going to happen.

This is why people said the peace process has been put back years, not because Sinn Fein won't do anything but because no one will talk to them after Christmas.

I don't support Paisley in any shape or form, he is a bigot and a nut case. But my god! could Sinn Fein have handed him an better excuse not to talk to them!

The DUP can now say we are not talking to SF, the IRA is still active and Sinn Fein have members involved in crime and death, why would we want to talk to them. And you know what, they ain't going to get too many of their supporters arguing with that.

sleepwalker

he'll be dead soon enough just a matter of patience