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12/08/2002
'United unionist convention' call rejected
Following on from unity calls by rival unionists and factions within his own party to join forces with the DUP, senior UUP member Michael McGimpsey has said that any such move would be "desirable but unrealistic".
Mr McGimpsey was reacting to last week's appeal by the UUP's MP for South Antrim, David Burnside, for a "united unionist convention to be called" comprising of representatives from all the main unionist parties.
Mr Burnside hoped that such a meeting could produce "a bottom line for renegotiating the Belfast Agreement". He added that September's UUP convention would be "make-your-mind-up time" for the party.
However, Mr McGimpsey rejected this, saying: "It is at best naive to believe that the zealous DUP would ever sit with unionists like David Ervine on the one hand or Bob McCartney on the other.
"It would simply turn out to be a wreckers convention, full of politicians who have spent their careers sowing disunity across the unionist family. It is foolish to think that by weight of unionist numbers alone we could ever move into some sort of fantasyland where republicans can just be ignored by us."
Elsewhere, Northern Ireland Unionist Party assembly member Norman Boyd backed the call, adding that it was disgraceful that the two main unionist parties continue "to slug it out for party political gain".
(GMcG)
Mr McGimpsey was reacting to last week's appeal by the UUP's MP for South Antrim, David Burnside, for a "united unionist convention to be called" comprising of representatives from all the main unionist parties.
Mr Burnside hoped that such a meeting could produce "a bottom line for renegotiating the Belfast Agreement". He added that September's UUP convention would be "make-your-mind-up time" for the party.
However, Mr McGimpsey rejected this, saying: "It is at best naive to believe that the zealous DUP would ever sit with unionists like David Ervine on the one hand or Bob McCartney on the other.
"It would simply turn out to be a wreckers convention, full of politicians who have spent their careers sowing disunity across the unionist family. It is foolish to think that by weight of unionist numbers alone we could ever move into some sort of fantasyland where republicans can just be ignored by us."
Elsewhere, Northern Ireland Unionist Party assembly member Norman Boyd backed the call, adding that it was disgraceful that the two main unionist parties continue "to slug it out for party political gain".
(GMcG)
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