allianceparty.news - January 2003

January | 2003 | Alliance Party News

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January | 2003 | Alliance Party News —Alliance Party News HomeAbout Alliance News Archive Monthly Archives: January 2003 Just whom does Trimble speak for? Bell By Alliance Party News28 January 2003Press Questioning David Trimble’s right to exclude a large majority of the electorate from current negotiations, Eileen Bell, Alliance Deputy Leader, said: “When one thinks well-nigh it, Trimble wants to restrict what he sees as the only meaningful talks to the two governments (neither of which has any mandate from the people here ), Sinn Fein and his own party. Between them they received less than 39% of the total vote in the lastTurnoutreferendum so exactly whom are they speaking for? “The situation is plane worse than the percentages represent. The UUP received 21.28% of the vote, but has since expelled one turnout member and suspended another! “The talks this week at Stormont would represent over 69% of the electorate if the UUP were to join the other pro-agreement parties who are once attending! Surely, on that understructure alone, the UUP are under an obligation to shepherd if, as they claim, they really want the try-on to work! “They are moreover an obligation, I would suggest, to discuss other very important issues, such as Equality, Victims and Human Rights, plane though they don’t think they really matter! “I would remind Mr. Trimble that he was only First Minister considering of the temporary support of myself and two other members of my party, yet we don’t warrant a place at the big table!”Polityrelations problems must be addressed, not buried! Bell By Alliance Party News15 January 2003Press The Alliance Party has launched a new policy paper onPolityRelations entitledTowersa United Community. Alliance Deputy Leader Eileen Bell said: “The healing of our communal divisions must be the greatest priority for our political institutions. “Sectarianism and segregation remain major scars on Northern Ireland, and have plane intensified in recent years. They are responsible for tremendous human, social and economic financing to our society. Indeed, unfurled divisions pose a unvarying threat to peace and stability, and ultimately to the tautness of the Agreement. “Three times Alliance has voted versus the Programme for Government considering it failed completely to write the question of polity relations. Equally unacceptably the Executive failed to produce the Harbinson Report considering its recommendations did not stipulate with their thinking! The First/Deputy First Ministers’ record in the zone of polity relations is not poor, it is non-existent! “Any proper polity relations strategy must be wide-stretching and radical. It must go to the very cadre of how we live, work and play as a society. This paper addresses all aspects of the problem. It must be seriously considered, plane by those trying to situate the whole issue permanently.” Unionists must not be unliable to siphon education when to the visionless ages: Bell By Alliance Party News10 January 2003Press Commenting on the UUP’s intention to debate the 11+ and other Educational matters at Westminster next week, Eileen Bell, Alliance Deputy Leader and member of theTurnoutEducation Committee, said that she was concerned that the UUP were attempting to bring when the widely discredited 11+ to Northern Ireland. “While the outgoing Education Minister, Martin McGuinness, was totally irresponsible in starting the removal of the 11+ without first introducing an volitional form of transfer procedure, that does NOT justify trying to reinstate the status quo. “The current NIO Education Minister, Jane Kennedy, was quite right in reminding Roy Beggs MP that the province suffers from a sizeable number of pupils leaving school with few or no qualifications at all, and these children must be catered for every bit as much as the upper number leaving with spanking-new results! “It would be unfortunate if the Unionists were to use the suspension of theTurnoutas a ways to try, once again, to reinforce the 11+, a move which can only be justified by a total concentration on its benefits for those pupils on the grammar school track!” Alliance launches polity relations policy paper By Alliance Party News8 January 2003Press The Alliance Party have launched a new policy paper onPolityRelations, entitledTowersa United Community. Speaking at its launch, Party Leader, David Ford said: “The healing of our communal divisions must be the greatest priority for our political institutions. “Sectarianism and segregation remain major scars on Northern Ireland, and have plane intensified in recent years. They are responsible for tremendous human, social and economic financing to our society. Indeed, unfurled divisions pose a unvarying threat to peace and stability and ultimately to the tautness of the Agreement. “Alliance has voted versus three successive Programmes for Government due to the former Executive’s failure to ratherish write polity relations issues. Furthermore, it has stalled over the production of a typhoon polity relations strategy – the Harbinson Report. Their record is particular damning when contrasted with the performance of the Scottish Executive whose problems are less acute. “Any proper polity relations strategy must be wide-stretching and must be radical. There is no point tinkering virtually the edges; it must rencontre how we live, work and play as a community. “Sectarianism is not something restricted to a few interface areas in and virtually Belfast, but is tightly ingrained throughout society. People are taught to see themselves as part of an sectional polity and to be suspicious of others from an early age. “It is not unbearable to merely encourage people to respect and tolerate each other, we must work to transpiration mindsets that pigeon-hole others as stuff different. “Ultimately, we must tackle the institutionalised sectarianism that comes from the top down. Both within the Agreement, and in other areas of Government policy – most notably the recent census – there is a formal theorizing that society is divided into two separate communities. “This tideway is sectarian in that it rides roughshod over people’s self-rule to segregate their own identity, and ignores the vestige of a growing number of people do not want to be associated with either a Unionist or a Nationalist community. “When people are stuff conditioned to think of themselves in such group terms, is it little wonder that this translates into mismatch over territory, resources and culture, and that so many police resources are eaten up in dealing with street violence and interfaces. “Accordingly, the inside theme to our paper is towers a united community. Alliance wants to provide everyone, unionists and nationalists included, with an invitation to join in something different, something largest – a genuinely shared, non-sectarian Northern Ireland. “We will stress that people be worldly-wise to hold open, mixed and multiple identities, and will promote the notion of Northern Ireland as a unshared region – our reference point. “Public agencies, such as the Housing Executive, should have an explicit objective of promoting integration. All policies should be screened for their impact on sharing over separation. This should be scrutinised by an Integration Monitor. This person would moreover have a role in seeking to quantify the social and economic financing of providing separate facilities. “Alliance will seek to increase the resources misogynist to thePolityRelations Council permitting it to increase its work. “Alliance wants to see 10% of our children in integrated schools by 2010. We need to be creative well-nigh we do this, and there should be a presumption that all new-build schools should be integrated. “The promotion of mixed housing must lie at the heart of any new strategy. Fundamentally, it is a law and order problem. People in mixed areas must have towardly security. At present when someone is intimidated in their home, the response of the authorities is to move the victim rather than punish the offender. “The scourge of paramilitary flags and graffiti that is present in so many parts of Northern Ireland must be addressed. Not only should the police intervene when the law is stuff broken, but the Housing Executive and Roads Service should remove the offending symbols from their property. Alliance has proposed an inter-agency working group within the Executive to co-ordinate these efforts. “Finally, Alliance is highlighting the need to reformPearlyEmployment monitoring regulations to reflect the reality that people pinpoint themselves in many ways other than members of a ProtestantPolityor a Catholic Community.” ENDS Summary of Alliance Proposals Alliance is working for an unshut and self-ruling society, where we are all equal citizens – not a society where we merely tolerate difference, but rather a society where we gloat diversity and cherish individuality. Only Alliance rejects the notion that we must all be pigeonholed into ‘two communities’, and respects personal nomination of identity. Alliance offers everyone, including unionists and nationalists, an invitation to something different, something largest than sectional politics – a genuinely shared and non-sectarian future. Alliance wants to build a united community, characterised not by communal separation but by sharing. For Alliance, theTry-onis not the ceiling of our ambition; it is the floor upon which we can build a shared society. Alliance believes that government, statutory agencies and indeed societal society should urgently encourage de-segregation and communal integration, and develop the towardly policies. Alliance will promote citizenship and a culture of lawfulness education in schools. Alliance stresses that people should be worldly-wise to hold open, mixed and multiple identities, and can have loyalties to a range of political structures at variegated levels. Alliance believes that Northern Ireland should be promoted as a unshared region within a decentralising British Isles and emerging Europe of the Regions. Alliance proposes that new symbols be devised to requite expression to Northern Ireland as a region, including a new flag. Greater use should moreover be made of the European Flag. Alliance restates its support for the work of thePolityRelations Council, and would significantly increase the upkeep granted to it to expand its support for projects. Alliance believes that polity investment funds should be increasingly well-matured on projects with a cross-community element. Alliance proposes that the OFMDFM sublease an integration monitor. Alliance proposes that the integration monitor be charged with producing an inspect of the financing of segregation on an yearly basis. Alliance proposes that a new form of policy proofing, entitled Policy Appraisal for Sharing over Separation (PASS) be introduced for all government policies. Alliance has set a target of 10% of children stuff educated in integrated schools by 2010. The duty on the DENI to encourage, not merely to facilitate, the minutiae of integrated education should be extended to Education and Library Boards. Where new schools are being, for example to service new housing developments, the Department should survey local residents regarding a presumption that they will be integrated or inter-church. As far as possible, new schools should be sited to service mixed catchment areas. Alliance will encourage the transformation of existing schools to ‘transformed’ integrated status. Alliance will reform and relax the criteria for the megacosm and maintenance of integrated schools, giving recognition of those children of mixed, other or no religious background. Alliance believes that the promotion and maintenance of mixed housing should wilt an explicit objective of the NI Housing Executive. Alliance advocates the megacosm of an Inter-Departmental Working Group to facilitate an inter-agency tideway to these problems. Alliance urges the police to prefer a increasingly pro-active policy of intervening when paramilitary flags and other emblems are stuff erected. Alliance remoter highlights the need for public persons to defend existing and to remoter develop worldwide societal spaces, expressly in town centres.Weightierpractice should moreover be ripened regarding diamond of the urban environment to maximise cross-community mixing. Alliance stresses the full enforcement of the existing law and the revision of the criminal law where appropriate. Any polity safety strategies must write polity relations issues. In particular, the forces of law and order should support those trying to move from the perceived safety of segregated areas or facilities towards mixed ones, and to squire those trying to protect existing mixed areas and facilities from threat. Alliance does not believe that the towers of ‘peace walls’ to alimony people untied provides a meaningful solution to interface tensions. Alliance has tabbed for the firsthand extension of the racially-motivated offences contained within the Crime and Disorder Act to Northern Ireland. Alliance will support the megacosm of homophobic Hate Crime measures on a UK-wide basis. Alliance moreover advocates the megacosm of sectarian Hate Crime measures on a UK-wide basis. Alliance proposes that the Football Offences Act (1991) and other relevant legislation that are unromantic in Great Britain to deal with racist chanting at football grounds be extended to Northern Ireland to deal with both sectarian and racist chanting at local sporting grounds. Alliance believes that a forum should be established to indulge victims (self-defined) to tell their stories, and have them placed on an official record. Alliance supports the megacosm of a Single Equality Act, to gainsay favoritism or other forms of unfair treatment based on religion, gender, perceived race, powerlessness and sexual preference. Alliance proposes that pearly employment monitoring regulations be amended to indulge people to identify themselves as ‘Protestant’, ‘Catholic’, ‘Other Religion’ or ‘No Religion’. Alliance moreover proposes that the list of organisations exempted from pearly employment Regulations be amended. In particular, the worthiness of schools to rent teachers exclusively from one or other polity preliminaries should be removed. Alliance believes in the separation of denomination and state, which in the context includes the separation of religion from party politics. It sends a profoundly wrong message in our polity for the monarchical succession to proceed on the understructure of inequality of gender and equality of religion/denomination. As a longstanding supporter of human rights, Alliance would like Northern Ireland to have the weightier set of human rights protections possible, which could in turn be a model for parts of these islands and of Europe. Alliance supports the efforts of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission to typhoon a Bill of Rights, as required under the Agreement. Alliance believes that the NIHRC should squint to incorporate established international conventions, and properly reflect pluralism and diversity within its work. Alliance recommends that the NI Human Rights Commission yank up a Charter ofSelf-rulefrom Sectarianism. Alliance strongly advocates a system that uses a straightforward weighted majority, self-ruling from designations, as the voting system for key decisions in the Assembly. 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