allianceparty.news - March 1995

March | 1995 | Alliance Party News

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March | 1995 | Alliance Party News —Alliance Party News HomeAbout Alliance News Archive Monthly Archives: March 1995 Alliance welcomes Framework document By Alliance Party News16 March 1995Policy The Alliance Party is a liberal party. We recognise the diversity of society in Northern Ireland and our objective is to create a fair, just and peaceful society based on respect for all sections of our polity and on the widest possible participation in government and visualization making. We believe that the problem is substantially within Northern Ireland and can only be resolved by the people of Northern Ireland like-minded on a worldwide way forward. On that understructure we welcome the publication of the framework document as a understructure for discussion between the Northern Irish parties. We have in fact pressed for the publication of such a document since the last talks process ended in 1992, as we considered that the Northern Ireland parties would not enter into realistic debate until the two governments gave an indication of their thinking. What is now needed is serious dialogue between the parties here to take the process forward. British policy in Northern Ireland has tended to be a matter of walking a tightrope, moving timidly forward while attempting to alimony a wastefulness by satisfying everyone, or at least by offending everyone equally. The balancing act has wilt plane increasingly difficult recently with the government’s narrow parliamentary majority prompting both official unionists and Tory backbenchers to throw their weight around. But the two governments may have got the wastefulness not far short of right in the Framework document. What is particularly welcome in it is the transferral to the principle of consent. The unequivocal recognition by both governments that there can be no transpiration in the ramble position of Northern Ireland without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland is an essential starting point for progress. It offers unionists the prospect for having their fundamental requirement underwritten not only by the British government but moreover by incorporation in the Irish constitution. That represents a major step forward for unionists, who have unchangingly been haunted by insecurity and by the fear of a British betrayal. That unionist politicians spurn the commitments made is increasingly a measure of their political ineptitude than of the importance of what they are stuff offered. The proposals for devolved institutions in Northern Ireland in which powers would be shared wideness the community, for the unobjectionable protection of rights, and for North/South institutions which would provide for constructive co-operation and a positive relationship between the two parts of this island moreover provide a starting point for discussion. However, the specific proposal made on each of these areas need a lot of work. In our view any constructive proposals must reflect the diversity of Northern Ireland, must be based on the participation of the `Northern Ireland people in visualization making, must be accountable, and must be straightforward and transparent – people will not trust institutions or proposals which have a sense of sleight of hand to them. On that understructure the framework document leaves a good deal to be desired. For example, its paragraphs on human rights are conspicuous for their vagueness. It may surprise some people to realise that this is an zone on which the Northern Ireland parties are substantially well-set – we all want o see the European Convention on Human Rights incorporated in NI domestic law, as at least a starting point on the rights issue. So why this vagueness and this talk well-nigh charters? Why not a specific transferral to incorporation? No doubt the simple wordplay is that the British government, and no doubt the Irish, have their own agendas well-nigh human rights, and incorporating the Convention isn’t part of them. Similarly, why is such a ramified and improbable structure proposed for devolution in Northern Ireland? Not only an Assembly with proportionate distribution of offices – which is straightforward and fine and readily comprehensible by everyone – but moreover a directly elected three man “panel” to oversee it. That proposal – powerfully for a joint presidency on the perhaps unfortunate model of the former Yugoslavia – would exclude all but the representatives of the traditional blocks and thus would promote rather than reduce sectarian semester , and would muddy the waters of peccancy by leaving it unclear where power really lay. Equally it has to be well-spoken that any North South persons are practical agencies for co-operation, subject to the Northern Assembly and the Dail. Transparency and peccancy are really the keys here. We need institutions which are straightforward, capable of stuff worked collectively by people with widely differing political viewpoints, and capable of reflecting the wide diversity of opinion and polity in Northern Ireland. The government – and the Northern Ireland parties – need to concentrate on the practicalities of setting up workable institutions capable of commanding widespread support and confidence. And they need to do so with a greater sense of urgency than has tended to be displayed up to now. Steve McBride (Chairman, Alliance Party) Archives June 2014 March 2014 April 2011 April 2010 November 2009 September 2009 March 2009 May 2005 January 2004 January 2003 August 2002 March 2002 May 2001 November 2000 October 2000 February 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 September 1998 August 1998 July 1998 June 1998 May 1998 April 1998 March 1998 February 1998 January 1998 December 1997 November 1997 October 1997 September 1997 March 1997 February 1997 November 1996 March 1995 Categories Alliance News Alliance Youth Biographies Elections Policy Press Press Coverage video threshing upkeep Civic Forum Civil Rights Association climate transpiration polity relations Conservatives powerlessness DOE economy education referendum employment energy environment equality Euro European Union finance Good Friday Agreement health homophobia housing justice language military Multi-Party Talks murder New Ulster Movement Northern Ireland Assembly Northern Ireland Forum Northern Ireland Labour Party obituary parades peace process policing poverty power sharing public transport rates sport Sunningdale Agreement UUP violence womenMeta Register Log in Entries RSS Comments RSS WordPress.com Blog at WordPress.com.