Paisley refuses to take part in Good Friday review
The Rev Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists will not participate in any review of the Good Friday Agreement.
Emerging from talks at Stormont with the Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy, Mr Paisley claimed the British government appeared to be focused on a review to save the Agreement.
The North Antrim MP warned: “Our position will be that we are not taking part in any review.
“The Government will still talk to us. He (Mr Murphy) has made it clear that his door will still be open.”
Mr Paisley, who was joined at the meeting by the party’s MPs Peter Robinson, Iris Robinson, Nigel Dodds and Gregory Campbell as well as assembly members Maurice Morrow and Ian Paisley Jnr, noted that Mr Murphy had not ruled out Stormont elections next May.
However he believed the government was loath to allow the election to go ahead as scheduled.
“He doesn’t want any elections. He wants to have an agreement with the present constitutional position of the parties,” the DUP leader said
“He made it clear that an election would bring up a lot of changes. He admitted in a partial way that the Democratic Unionist Party did represent a majority of unionists.”
Mr Paisley confirmed that the party had raised the position of prison officers whose personal details were discovered in the hands of republicans at the time when an alleged spy ring at the heart of the Northern Ireland Office was uncovered last month.
The DUP also raised the plight of Northern Ireland’s farmers with Mr Murphy.
The north Antrim MP continued: “It is a tragedy that the British government are still so taken up with the Agreement that they are prepared to go for a review.
“We also gave a strong warning to him that we also deeply resent what has been said from the south of Ireland that they are going to have more say in what is happening in Northern Ireland.
“We told them that that is totally intolerable to the unionist people in Northern Ireland and we are not going to wear it.
“If he is going to go down to the south of Ireland and make binding decisions in the North-South conference, decisions on everyday matters, he is going to face the stiffest opposition.
