Cameron backs Union and asks Northern Irish voters to participate fully in British politics.

Jim Nicholson MEP’s Euro 2009 Party Election Broadcast is due to be screened tonight, at 6.55pm, on BBC 1. It will be available to view, from the same time, on the ‘Vote for Change’ campaign website.

During the film, David Cameron will back Nicholson’s candidature. His endorsement will be highly significant. The future prime minister of the United Kingdom is publicly throwing his weight behind a pro-Union election candidate in Northern Ireland.

Clearly this represents a departure for a mainland political party and a major advance for unionism in the UK. The next British government will not be neutral on the constitutional question.

Whilst it will respect the aspirations of nationalists and will uphold the right of the people of Northern Ireland to determine its constitutional future, it will argue, strenuously, that it is in the province’s interests to remain part of the United Kingdom. And, just as importantly, that it is in the United Kingdom’s interests to remain intact and to include Northern Ireland.

The Conservative leader is seeking electoral backing for his party’s European policies from the people of Northern Ireland and next year he will ask voters here to vote for his prospective government. Rather than merely feeling the effects of politics at Westminster, Cameron wants people here to participate, on an equal footing with the other regions of Britain.

That is the prospectus on which Nicholson is standing, and other Conservatives and Unionists candidates will offer a similar agenda to voters in Westminster elections. No other pro-Union party can offer anything comparable.

Comments

Gary said…
Whilst I have voted the DUP now for a lonnnggggg time, I will not this time. Aside from the tiresome "little Ulster" politics and with the religion mixing with politics that is now putting me off the DUP, I absolutely and for a very long time have been crying out for integrationist politics. The UUC party are promising me this if I vote for them, it excites me and I wish Unionism to drop the insular attitude and I want the real work to begin....promotion of the Union. Nicholson WILL be getting my vote, and I hope Cameron sticks to his word!
11 May 2009 at 15:29
Anonymous said…
Tired old man with a bit of stardust sprinkled on. You cannot sell a message of change with the same old faces - Empey, Nicholson, even Danny Kennedy have all been around for 20+ years. It wont work.

The DUP's was better, though at least it was better than Sinn Fein's dire performance.

All-Bran next. Then Parsley - cannot wait for Jim A's - outta be good for a laugh.
11 May 2009 at 19:30
Gary said…
Ba Hum bug mate. Don't excercise your right then.
11 May 2009 at 23:15
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