Alliance party calls for new flag
Northern Ireland should have a new flag devised for it which can command the support of everyone, a political party argued today.
The cross-community Alliance Party, which draws its members from the Protestant and Catholic communities, called for new symbols for Northern Ireland, including a flag replacing the current one containing the crown.
As Alliance launched its community relations paper, party leader David Ford was also fiercely critical of the handling of last month’s 2001 census figures, and urged the British government to stop encouraging people in the province to label themselves as Catholic or Protestant.
Alliance’s document, entitled Building A United Community, also called for:
* Greater use to be made of the European Flag.
* The appointment of an integration monitor.
* A target to be set of 10% of all children educated in integrated schools by 2010.
* The promotion and maintenance of mixed housing should become an explicit objective of the NI Housing Executive, with a more pro-active police policy of intervening when paramilitary flags and other emblems are being erected on estates.
* An end to the construction of “peace walls” to keep people apart provides a meaningful solution to tensions in sectarian flashpoint areas of Northern Ireland.
* The extension of the Football Offences Act (1991) and other relevant legislation in Britain to deal with racist and sectarian chanting at football grounds in Northern Ireland.
* The drafting of a Bill of Rights for Noorthern Ireland by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, as required under the Good Friday Agreement, and a Charter of Freedom from Sectarianism.
* A less sectarian voting system within the Assembly based on a straightforward weighted majority, freeing MLAs of the obligation to declare themselves as unionist, nationalist or other.
* The active encouragement by government of de-segregation and communal integration and the development of appropriate policies.
* The promotion of citizenship and a culture of lawfulness in schools.
Alliance 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 even intensified in recent years. They are responsible for tremendous human, social and economic costs to our society.
“Indeed, continued divisions pose a constant threat to peace and stability and ultimately to the durability of the Agreement.
“Any proper community relations strategy must be extensive and must be radical. There is no point tinkering around the edges; it must challenge how we live, work and play as a community.
“Sectarianism is not something restricted to a few interface areas in and around Belfast, but is deeply ingrained throughout society. People are taught to see themselves as part of an exclusive community and to be suspicious of others from an early age.
“It is not enough to merely encourage people to respect and tolerate each other, we must work to change mindsets that pigeon-hole others as being different.”
