Download the manifesto (PDF) - 2016 Assembly Manifesto #MakeItWork
LEADER’S REMARKS
MANIFESTO PUBLICATION, PARK AVENUE HOTEL BELFAST
THURSDAY 14 APRIL 2016
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
When we published our Westminster Manifesto in Portadown this time last year, I doubt if many in the room saw us emerging with two MPs. I certainly didn’t. I saw us winning three seats!
I am equally ambitious for these Assembly Elections.
There is a different mood in the country and that means this will be a different Assembly campaign for us. Different from 2011. Different from 2007. Different from 2003.
Different and better.
Because we have regained our appetite for elections.
We believe in ourselves again. We have new found credibility with the public and these two feed off each other in a virtuous circle, generating the gold dust of elected politics – Momentum!
That’s why we can confidently claim the 5th of May is about offering the voter a real Choice.
That choice is Change or more of the same?
More of the same is hardly an attractive prospect.
It’s more broken promises, like:
The £80 million OFMdFM promised to spend tackling poverty, but didn’t;
The £12 m the DUP and Sinn Féin promised to spend on affordable, accessible childcare, but didn’t;
The 5,000 jobs and £300m investment they promised at the Maze, but didn’t deliver;
Or the world class facilities for our brave emergency services they did not build outside Cookstown.
More of the same means the continuing whiff of something unedifying about which Government Minister to believe, and the rush to deploy a Petition of Concern to protect a party colleague rather than the minority rights the Petition was designed to defend.
More of the same means further failure to manage our statutory services, not least the NHS, with the scandal of 400,000 people – 20% of our population – on some form of Health Service waiting list.
Stormont is not working properly. Everybody knows and we all know the problem is political failure in the leadership coming out of the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
As Chair of the OFMdFM Committee, I have weekly experience of the dysfunction at the heart of our devolved government – the mutual veto, the “blame the other” culture, the political black hole that is a Department with more staff that 10 Downing Street or the West Wing of the White House.
No one can sensibly argue this is as good as it gets.
So, after 9 long years and two full mandates, does anyone really want more of the same?
Another five years of failure?
I cannot imagine the voters of England, Scotland, Wales or the Republic of Ireland voting for more of the same. Haven’t the people of the Republic already said “no” to more of the same, even though their government was delivering near to 7% economic growth, compared to our anaemic 1%?
So why do we even contemplate tolerating more of the same in Northern Ireland?
In a proper democracy, people elect a government, give it a term or two, then vote them out, so they can refresh, rebuild themselves for another go in the future.
Change, renewal, rotation. These are the natural rhythms of politics, just as in life.
The Ulster Unionist Party is refreshed. It has taken time, but we have rebuilt ourselves and we enter these elections ready and eager to lead again.
That is why this is such an important and exciting election. For once, real change is a possibility.
The change we offer is from a Party whose credo is to put the Country first – Country First, Party Second, Individual Third. Having lived through the era of Ian Paisley’s party, we do not want to return to the cult of the individual. People are central to our vision of delivery, and today, and with huge pride, I will shortly formally announce our candidates for the 2016 Assembly Elections. There are 33 in all, and a stunning 24 are first-time contenders for a seat at Stormont. Some come with previous experience of elected politics, all offer life skills and experiences badly needed in our devolved institutions.
Devolution made three big promises:
Mutual respect;
Better times economically, through a Peace Dividend;
Better politics than Direct Rule.
I do not think you will find many who think the last nine years of DUP/Sinn Fein rule have advanced any of those aims, especially the last. Stormont has never rated lower in the public’s estimation.
Here’s a question: Why did devolution stop at Stormont?
In our vision, devolution has to go further. Power has to be devolved off the Hill, through the councils into communities and as close to the family unit as possible, because that is where you make real change.
Other parties talk up the economy and brook no criticism. Too bad. The fact is, the DUP and SF have failed to close the prosperity gap that leaves our people at a significant disadvantage compared to our fellow citizens in Great Britain. Simply put, if someone in Liverpool or Glasgow has £1 in their back pocket, our people have less than 80 pence. That is a huge gap in Living Standards, as measured in Gross Value Added, and acknowledged in the latest NI Executive Budget document.
Worse, the gap has actually widened since the DUP and SF took over the heart of government. That was 2007, the year before the worldwide recession, and given we have such a large public sector, we were more sheltered from recession than any other region or nation of the UK, so the gap should have narrowed, not widened. But it did widen.
Stormont isn’t working.
Make It Work.
That’s what we are hearing.
That is what we are willing to commit to.
To a new Era of Belief.
Belief in Stormont.
Belief in our politicians and what motivates them
Belief we can make tough decisions in a timely manner
Belief that better days may lie ahead.
To make Northern Ireland work, we need to change the mind-set at the Stormont Estate.
Fewer Departments and a cut in the number of MLAs should help, but frankly, 18 MLAs with the same mindset as the DUP and Sinn Féin can muck it up as badly as 108!
We understand real change is cultural. Stop obsessing exclusively with the processes of government. That’s code for holding power for power’s sake – for the sake of the party.
Focus on outcomes. Are you actually doing something that will positively impact someone’s life?
We have a bureaucracy.
We need to turn it into a proper Democracy.
I make no apology for my crusade to encourage Stormont to get serious about tackling our shocking rates of poor mental health and wellbeing.
I’ve taken it to the Prime Minister, to the five local parties, to Dublin and Washington. We need help, because thousands of our people need help. They yearn for the capacity to change their lives to something more fulfilling – to wake up with a sense of purpose.
Fix that and we get a triple win. We tackle a toxic legacy of the Troubles. We empower people to end their welfare dependency. And by making them economically active, we rebalance our economy.
We want Wellbeing measurements to assess how effective government is. Measures such as:
Life Satisfaction
Self-reported health
Satisfaction with family life
Satisfaction with social life
Satisfaction with the devolved government
We want to return the devolved focus to fostering the creativity of our people.
We’ve had Our Time and Our Place.
As we approach Northern Ireland’s Centenary, it’s time for Our People.
To celebrate that Centenary, we propose two things.
First, each of the six counties of Northern Ireland to have a new, environmentally-friendly facility – forest park, community centre, whatever people want locally, and we think our young people should have the loudest voice in that choice.
Our idea is the People Park, a celebration of our people: the great sportsmen and women, the inventors, the engineers, the artists and musicians, the thinkers, the do-ers, the generals and the Presidents.
Before you ask, it is not a costed proposal, because the costs will depend on two factors as yet unknown – the design, and the level of private sponsorship we can attract. The objective would be minimal demand on the public purse.
This Manifesto is the ninth and final policy paper we have published in the last two months.
We have already published Our Vision for the Voter, and dedicated policy papers on:
Mental Health & Wellbeing;
Cancer Care;
The Knowledge Economy;
Book Buddies, a scheme to tackle literacy issues in our schools;
The Arts;
The Armed Forces, Veterans and their Families;
Animal Welfare.
So, we have the Vision, we have the policies and we have the people with the energy and commitment to deliver.
We approach the 5th of May buoyed by the momentum that has carried us through the 2014 and 2015 Elections and confident we have the people to change Stormont.
As we are in East Belfast, let me start with our two candidates in this constituency:
Andy Allen
Chris McGimpsey
In West Belfast, but absent today, Gareth Martin
In South Belfast, Rodney McCune
In the North of the City, Lesley Carrroll
In Foyle, Julia Kee
East Londonderry, Aaron Callan and William McCandless
West Tyrone, Ross Hussey
Fermanagh South Tyrone, Rosemary Barton and Alastair Patterson
Mid Ulster, Sandra Overend
North Antrim, Robin Swann and Andrew Wright
East Antrim, Roy Beggs, Maureen Morrow and John Stewart
South Antrim, Steve Aiken, Paul Michael and Adrian Cochrane-Watson
LaganValley, Robbie Butler and Jenny Palmer
Upper Bann, Doug Beattie, Jo-Anne Dobson and Kyle Savage
Newry and Armagh, Danny Kennedy and Sam Nicholson
South Down, Harold McKee
North Down, Alan Chambers, Chris Eisenstadt and Carl McClean
Strangford, Philip Smith and me.
These are not just Mike Nesbitt’s candidates.
These are YOUR candidates.
People who have real life experience and expertise
People who know who to Make It Work
So, it is in the hands of the Voter.
For once, the choice is real – Change, or more of the same.