SF’s boycott
SDLP MP hits out at SF’s boycott
By Brian Walker
16 June 2005
Newly elected South Belfast SDLP MP Alasdair McDonnell has attacked Sinn Fein for its continuing boycott of Parliament.
In his maiden Commons speech, Dr McDonnell said it saddened him that five out of 18 MPs “did not have the courage to take their seats”.
As an Irish nationalist, he said, he would have preferred to be working in Belfast in the Assembly, but he was arguing South Belfast’s case at Westminster, “because its people deserve no less”.
Two examples of the “failure” of direct rule, he said, were the education budget cuts and Lord Rooker’s sudden decision to locate the huge shopping development at Sprucefield near Lisburn, thus “devastating the heart of Belfast”.
Making his speech during a Europe debate, Dr McDonnell said it was depressing that although Northern Ireland received £3bn annually from the EU, it had elected three anti-Europe MEPs.
While we stood closer today than ever before to achieving the goals of justice and peace, the “balkanisation” or splitting up of Northern Ireland into small units was a nightmare.
“The SDLP shall stand up to those who want an apartheid society,” he declared.
At the end of the speech, the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw left his place to shake Dr McDonnell’s hand.
