Ulster Unionist Justice spokesperson Tom Elliott has hit out at the SDLP decision to oppose the Bill designed to prevent those with serious criminal convictions being appointed as Special Advisers to Stormont Ministers as evidence they do not understand the suffering of Victims.
The Fermanagh & South Tyrone MLA said;
“During the debate on Monday of this week I listened as an SDLP MLA described his party as ‘supportive of victims.’ At the time I was prepared to accept that, due to past performance and motions tabled.
I was prepared to take them at face value, but the subsequent behaviour of the SDLP on this issue has been disgraceful and created a great deal of anguish for the families of Victims, particularly Ann Travers, whose sister Mary was murdered in 1984 by an IRA gang which included Mary McArdle.
Just as Sinn Fein left her to find out in the media about the appointment of Mary McArdle as a Special Adviser to the Culture Minister, so the SDLP left her to find out via the media that they were preparing to block a Bill designed to prevent such an appointment from ever happening again, even being prepared to support a “petition of concern.”
If either Sinn Fein or the SDLP had any commitment to victims they would understand the need to at the very least forewarn people if they were planning to embark on a course of action that might bring back memories and re-open old wounds.
How can a party claim to be victim centred when they leave a victim feeling she has been “punched in the stomach?”