TUV man slams Stormont 'duplicity'

TUV leader Jim Allister

November 19 2011 05:12 PM

Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister has branded the Northern Ireland Assembly an unmitigated disaster.

The party's only MLA told his conference he would continue to be a thorn in the side of the two main parties, the DUP and Sinn Fein.

"I'd rather be a lone voice any day and have my principles intact than be part of such despicable duplicity," he said.

"If all I can do is bring discomfort to those who have so abandoned their principles then it's a job worth doing, but I believe I have and can do much more."

Describing the Stormont Executive as a catastrophic waste of money, Mr Allister called on the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP to "step out" from the power-sharing administration to form an Opposition.

"They are in the Executive but intend not to be of it," he said.

"The result is they are but fodder for DUP/Sinn Fein, who when it suits uses them and when it suits abuses them.

"How long can they put up with the humiliation to which they are subjected?"

The former DUP member said he had "special advisers in surprising places" and would act as a catalyst for change in Stormont.

"This one-man band has shown the stir just one can sustain. Think what a whole orchestra of opposition could do," he told his followers.