Party spokesperson John Lowry has condemned the attacks on Alliance Party members homes and premises as despicable and bearing all the hallmarks of fascist mobs.

 

That the supposed pretext for these attacks is the issue of flags and identity is a reminder that Northern Ireland has failed to make progress towards the new type of society envisaged by the Good Friday Agreement and that sectarianism is alive and well and deeply rooted in society.

 

The triumphalism which has prompted this, and the predictable reaction that has followed, demonstrate why neither unionism nor nationalism have anything positive to offer the people of Northern Ireland who are concerned to build a better future, let alone deal with the serious social and economic difficulties facing thousands of families on a daily basis.     

 

 US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton will be visiting  Northern Ireland in a fanfare of media hype and fawning adulation from the Stormont Executive, intent on peddling the myth that all is bright and rosy in the Northern Ireland garden. Let her ponder on the events of the last few days and ask her herself then if she thinks Northern Ireland society has changed for the good. Maybe the DUP and Sinn Fein should do like wise, something we in The Workers Party doubt they will, but those who vote for them should.