Absent Friends and Angel Delight
He was very much the "absent friend" at last weekend's DUP Conference - someone who Peter Robinson referred to as one of those who "once walked with us" but "strayed when the heat came on".
This weekend Jim Allister gets his chance to return fire at the TUV's first conference. The TUV will have its own absent friend, though. The party president, former East Londonderry UUP MP Willie Ross, booked his holiday long in advance of the conference. So he will be making his speech via video.
Last Tuesday on "Stormont Live" we had to make do with video version of the DUP's Nelson McCausland as the Speaker's one day ban on the North Belfast MLA prevented him from joining us in our Stormont studio. However for this weekend's "Inside Politics" both Jim Allister and Nelson McCausland apperaed in the flesh in front of me to argue the toss over the future of unionism and whether there is an alternative to the current mandatory coalition. You can listen to their debate on Inside Politics on BBC Radio Ulster tomorrow at 12.45pm, or after that via the programme website.
My colleague Maggie Taggart has just handed me today's eleven plus paper, which begins with a comprehension piece about how to make bruschetta (do I detect a middle class bias, there?)
I predict a cooking theme in the coming days. Jim Allister's conference agenda comcludes with an advert for a recipe book "What's Cooking? Tempting and Unusual Variations of Traditional Recipes". Next week, at Stormont, another recipe book will be launched with contributions from our MLAs. It's in aid of Cancer Research. Who likes Angel Delight and who likes Chocolate Balls? More next week.
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I'm 
~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~02~RS~)
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Mark,
You have brightened up my weekend. Jim Allister - my favourite person!!!
I hope you dont let Jim Allister or Nelson McCausland engage in bitter name calling. I want to hear what Jim Allister has to offer society. Anyone know where his conference is so I can tag along?
Before Jim Allister talked about leaks being made to him from the DUP ranks. Does he not realise the people at the top of the DUP would swear blind to Peter Robinson and the party in the same way people swear blind to TUV.
I hope you ask him the following 7 questions -
1. How much did Mr. Allister claim for travel expenses from the European Parliament since his election?
2. How much is each individual employee/service provider in his office paid from European funds?
3. Does Mr. Allister pay European funds to any family members? If so, what for?
4. Who administers his website? How much are they being paid for that?
5. How many trips has Mr. Allister taken since election to the European Parliament?
6. What was the total cost Mr. Allister claimed back from the European Parliament for travel expenses?
7. Have European Funds ever been used to pay office rent to the owner/owners of his office at any time?
Jim has chosen to ignore the issue. It has not gone away.
Stormontspy
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TUV conference or Jurassic Park revisited?
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What made Jim Allister change his mind and split with the DUP to fly solo?
Jim Allister criticises the DUP for adhering to the manifesto he helped construct. Every single day Jim engages in a continuing assault on the mandatory coalition he helped create. In his European election manifesto in 2004 on page 8 it clearly states that “there are three potential forms of administration which could be formed”. Guess what? One of those three potential forms of administration was “a mandatory coalition involving all the major parties”. If Jim genuinely believes that mandatory coalition cannot and never will work as he has stated since March 2007 why did he run for election on a manifesto advocating an administration in Northern Ireland that he now claims to oppose so strongly. Did he not support his own manifesto?
Further more if Jim never thought mandatory coalition would work why did he jet off to the United States and pose for pictures with a copy of Devolution Now under his arm?
Did he not realise or did he simply not care that that document, like his manifesto, supported mandatory coalition as a possible system of government?
In February 2007 Jim was out campaigning for the DUP vote with leaflets say “DUP – Getting it right” The same document he helped write. In fact Jim was on the campaign trails many times. Jim was in West Belfast with Diane Dodds, East Londonderry with Gregory Campbell, North Antrim with Mervyn Storey, South Antrim with William McCrea, South Down with Jim Wells and Fermanagh with Lord Morrow and Arlene Foster. Even 2 days before the vote he was on the campaign trail with Lord Morrow. How can someone change his mind within a short space of time? It appears Jim is happy to live of the DUP name.
How quickly he has forgotten what he sold to the unionist people.
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when push came to shove he couldn't face talking to republicans, thats essentially his problem
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Stormontspy et al
WHO'S THE ODDBALL?
You are all at pains to paint Allister as an oddball, but what's he really guilty of? His big failing in your eyes is that he cannot stomach, for sectarian reasons, Sinn Fein success and influence in the Assembly. Your big failing is you choose to ignore, but Allister doesn't, that Sinn Fein's prominence was achieved through bathing in the blood and tears of innocents.
Yesterday was the Anniversary of the Enniskillen Bombing. Who remembers? Who cares? After all, Allister's an oddball who believes that murder is foul.
LOVE 'IM OR LOATHE 'IM, ALLISTER'S RIGHT
Susie
Carryduff
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I don't like Allister at all, his politics or his personality however it stinks of hypocrisy that the DUP are getting stuck into a man who has stuck to what were formerly their principles.
He may have a twisted view of things and be an incredibly dangerous politician but given that Ian Paisley got away with that for forty five years it's hardly surprising that this element lingers within Northern Irish politics. If the DUP had stopped saying "no" a decade ago they could have neutralised this threat which could cause them massive problems at the next election.
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Susie,
I know who the oddball is but if I name that person the moderators will remove it!! I totally and utterly condemn murder by any person or organisation. There can be no excuse for it. What I would say is that Allister is right not to talk to Sinn Fein. I wouldn’t. What I would say is there is a way to go about and handle yourself. Yesterday's conference was all about shouting about the DUP and Sinn Fein. We had Walter Millar, then Jim Allister criticising the current regime. What other peaceful coalition is there? SDLP and UUP will not form a meaningful opposition so what do we do? Go back to 1978?
Take Jim Allisters opening paragraph yesterday - "Welcome to East Belfast where every Tom, Dick and Sammy must have their vehicle taxed and MOT displayed. You might expect the Road Safety Minister to know that, but then you might expect, in a democracy worthy of the name, that the Joint First Minister, his junior and the Roads Minister not to be convicted terrorists. And you just might have expected those who made careers out of lambasting everyone else as weaklings, not to have been the rollovers who ushered unrepentant terrorists into government, clutching pathetically at the fig leaf of non-existent Plan Bs. But what a rip-roaring success Plan A has turned out to be."
What does that say? It is a confident politician who knows where he is going or is it someone who is so bitter they wished they lived in 1978.
Stormontspy
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Mandatory Coallition as a form of government doesn't work now and never will in the future.
The TUV are playing the game that the DUP played for years and the DUP do not like it.
As far as Stormontspy's questions for the TUV leader at #1 why not be even handed and have the multi mandated First Minister and his wife answer questions on the monies they both claim from the public purse and the family members they employ and who owns the London properties and the Belfast offices etc.
It really get us no further forward but at least it lets us see what politics is really all about and why our political elite prosper so well at the trough called "public purse"
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Bushmill 1608
As regards to questions regarding expenses I totally agree with you. The First Minister and his wife earn approx £300,000 a year from the tax payer. Anybody who receives public money should detail -
1. How much do politicians claim in travel expenses?
2. How much is each individual employee/service provider in his office paid from taxpayer’s money?
3. How much off tax payers money goes to family members? If so, what for?
At least in Northern Ireland and Parliament these questions can be answered. In the European Parliament no one has to answer these.
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