Someone said to me recently that nowadays there was not much probity in politics.  Probity is a word which is really shorthand for truthfulness, honesty, morality, uprightness, decency and high principles.

Given the behaviour seen in Parliament and by some in Stormont you could be forgiven for thinking that politics in the last place to look for such attributes.  Yet it is the very place where such standards are vital for the good of the citizen.

It is certain that those who have fallen so far below the high standards they proclaimed have done grave damage to the image and standing of Ulster Unionist politics.

One of the reasons for the existence of this Party is to restore the integrity and standards which our electorate demands.  As well as the foolish behaviour of some we have had a roaring torrent of spin, abuse and misdirection thrown at the Unionist people.  As a result, they have become disorientated and confused as to how to act in defence of all they hold dear.

When people are interviewed on the street the lack of understanding and the confusion is plain from what people say.  In fact, they usually respond by uttering one of the current platitudes.  “Moving forward”, “Making progress” are such responses, but once you stop and think you realise that the words imply travelling to an unspecified destination.

Given that both SF/IRA and S.D.L.P. are United Irelanders you can be sure that they are not on a journey to a stronger Constitutional position for Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.  I also find it strange that when people say that they don’t want to go back to violence they don’t seem to understand that they are proclaiming that if Unionism doesn’t give Republicanism its progress towards a United Ireland then Republican violence to move Ulster in that direction will reappear.  In other words, the threat and fear of violence is being used to blackmail Unionist people into a United Ireland.

In the same way the cry to address the real problems of everyday life, and in effect blaming Unionist politicians in Stormont for not doing more about those things illustrates a deep lack of understanding of the structure of Government under which we live for it is constructed so as to ensure deadlock.

The people are, however, right to blame politicians for the mess we are in for it was the UUP, the DUP, their then Leaders David Trimble, and the Rev. Ian Paisley, Tony Blair and the U.K. Government who created the Belfast and St. Andrew’s Agreements.  The truly dysfunctional nature of the Stormont Government they brought into existence has been laid bare over the last week.

This is not now, never was, and never can be, an effective and stable system of Government and Administration.  That suits SF/IRA and all other Republicans just fine for they don’t want a stable workable structure of Government in Northern Ireland.  They want a United Ireland so it is in their constitutional interests to keep Ulster politics in turmoil.

Of course, apologists for the present arrangements deny this.  They will say that the Republic couldn’t afford Northern Ireland, that they don’t really want it, and that all rational people know that.

Unfortunately Irish Republican dogma is not a rational thing.  It is a deep rooted, unchallengeable conviction and not amenable to reasoned argument.  The whole edifice built upon the Belfast and St. Andrew’s agreements is a cruel deception sold to the Unionist people with soft sweet words which have painted a picture far from the reality which resulted.

Our people need to take off their rose coloured spectacles and look at where we have been brought to.  The flaws in the agreement and in Government policies are deep, wide, unbridgeable and raw.

This is the real consequence of lack of probity in the Government of Northern Ireland since 1970.  The sheer scale of the dishonesty and misrepresentation of what has gone on here to deceive and mislead our people is immense.

Thank God, however, there have always been some who saw the dangers and opposed the foolish actions of Government and of self seekers.  I am glad to see you here tonight.