Mike Nesbitt,
Conservatives and Unionists candidate for Strangford
This Election will provide the Unionist voters of Northern Ireland with a genuine choice.
I believe Conservatives and Unionists are offering candidates who, if elected, will take their seats at Westminster with hundreds of other Conservatives and Unionists from throughout the United Kingdom, and be in a position to shape the policies of the next Government of the United Kingdom from its very core. For the first time in over 40 years, locally elected politicians will be at the heart of British politics.
I believe that the people of Northern Ireland deserve the opportunity to engage fully in mainstream National political life. The Union and Unionism is bigger than a "little-Ulster" mentality. For the past 40 years Northern Ireland political life became detatched from the British mainstream, and as the terrorist campaign unfolded in the 1970s and 1980s we did become a place apart. At last we have an opportunity to remedy that.
The local political scene has changed utterly since 1998, and now is the time for Northern Ireland and its People to regain their rightful place within the Union. I believe that we can best do that as an integral part of the Conservatives and Unionists at Westminster, with the genuine prospect of real power and influence over issues such as taxation, benefits and defence. Unlike any other Northern Ireland Party, we actually can deliver on the promises we make and the policies we put before the electorate.
Others can promise, but only Conservatives and Unionists can deliver.
A vote for the DUP is a vote to weaken the Union and endanger the economy. If elected, DUP members will sit as a small pressure group on the Opposition benches with the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists. A fringe grouping sitting amongst those whose sole aim is the breakup of the United Kingdom, but who will settle in the meantime for a Hung Parliament in which they can use their votes as a bargaining chip to loosen the ties that bind us together as a Nation.
I wholeheartedly agree with you Mike. At last a real prospect of influence at Westminster and an opportunity for ALL political parties to debate the core issues facing the Union - taxation, the economy, investment, manufacturing growth and welfare reform. No more insidious and myopic politics for Northern Ireland, we are beginning to come of age!
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