23/10/2011 The Politics Show Northern Ireland

In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Unionists hold their annual

conference - but where next for the party?

The final week in the race for Irish President - and is Stormont

Apology for the loss of subtitles for 1784 seconds

doing enough to break down barriers Hello and welcome to The Politics

Show. The electoral pact between the Ulster Unionist Party and the

Conservatives' lead to disastrous results for the party at the last

Westminster election. As the Ulster Unionist party faithful gathered in

Armagh for their party conference, Tom Eliot called for a strong and

united party. But could an invitation to the Secretary of

State being the party wants to rekindle its links with the Tories?

David Cameron and I are quite clear that we would like to bring

Northern Ireland to the mainstream of national politics. We have been

absolutely clear about that. How we go about that is subject to

discussion. Also: At the latest in the race for

the Irish presidency. And we will find out what more

community workers believe could be done by our politicians to improve

relations on interfaces. Some of the things inspire me to think very

positive but there is still no policy in place, there is still no

real genuine commitment on policy direction. That makes it quite

direction. That makes it quite direction. That makes it quite

diffident -- difficult. And the Secretary of State Owen Paterson

dropped into the Ulster Unionist Party conference and on my estate.

It surprised some, who thought the power to's next to a Conservatives

had been killed off because of poor electoral results. -- party's links

to the Conservatives. Where is the Crown? Here is the

harp. This is as close as we could come. The Secretary of State turned

up, even though he was trying to play down his presence. I have a

number of engagements in the Armagh airier and out of courtesy I have

dropped by to have a word with Tom and his colleagues. By you trying

to rekindle links between the two parties? That is really one for the

chairman to decide. Gerard discussions between the two

chairman. What is happening? A bat is to be addressed to the party

chairman. David Cameron and I have been quite clear that we would like

to bring Northern Ireland to the mainstream of British politics. How

we go about that is up for discussion but happily for me, I

have responsibilities that don't include running the Conservative

Party. Owen Paterson got a warm welcome. So, is something going on?

Hill better to ask than the man who was once a big advocate. We keep

hearing this scheme is dead but his presence today will rekindle

speculation that there are those who still want formal links between

the two parties. I have always felt it was sensible, because we are a

Unionist Party and therefore, why would we wish to cut ourselves off

from national politics? In the House of Lords, it is not the front

line, but whenever it comes to a vote, it is how many people you can

get into the lobby. The Conservatives in the House of Lords

are looking for support and I take their whip and I do support them. I

have saved them at least twice personally. So I think it makes

sense for the long-term strategic interests of Unionism to have a

connection to an assured Parliament. But mention of the Tory links still

causes nervousness. I believe there should be some sort of co-operation

between the Tories but to be honest I was never a great fan of the

link-up with the Tories in the form a we had previously. But there has

to be an understanding and I think we could work about. Our party

needs to unite behind Our Leader and then those other things can be

thought about. Were you a fan of the Tory link? No, I was concerned

about it because I felt we were going to lose our identity.

Conservatives were not mentioned in the leader's speech, but he did

call for unity. Our recovery depends on two key elements - a

strong, disciplined party and a clear, it relevant platform for

good performance. And there is one other element - if members of this

party do not stand shoulder to shoulder and quote from the same

agenda, then we will continue to damage ourselves. Teamwork and

unity of purpose is essential in this party, and we can only succeed

if we do it together, acting in the spirit of co-operation and goodwill.

A wherever the Ulster Unionists are heading, one thing is certain -

they cannot stay where they are. They have got to give people a

reason to vote for them again. But how do they do it? That is what a

sizable number of delegates packed into this room one to know. They

discussed going into opposition and repositioning the party on the

centre-right. I think it is a useful thing that people like us

come to rooms like this and hauled up politics in the open. The

shadows and dark filled rooms are where others do it. We do it in the

light. We do it where it can be seen and I think that is positive

for Northern Ireland politics. wonder if you followed the vox pop

from the people in the hall today, would you get a general instinct of

what this party really is? It has made mistakes along the way because

we have taken risks for the benefits of peace in the future. We

need to set out our vision. Where are we going? Job creation. What is

the feature of this party? A member of the audience was concerned that

media would misinterpret the meeting as a split. This is a

discussion for the future. But make that clear so that people don't go

out and splash that across the headlines. I accept your concerns

but I think that to an extent, it is a risk that goes with the

territory. Save for the simple media, there is no split. Perhaps

it was a date that should have been held on the main stage. Not this

year, but maybe next time. So then hopefuls, one job. This

time next week, we will know the identity of the new Irish President.

But the home straight in a poll for the park has been anything but

straightforward. The prize is within touching

distance, but it has been a week of speed bumps for all the

presidential candidates. Dana Rosemary Scallon's campaign Castle

the day tyre blow-out. Gay Mitchell was stopped in his tracks when he

stumbled into a lingerie shop in Limerick. And Mary Davis hit the

brakes to voice heard frustration at having to defend our membership

of company boards. But the membership is out of fuel for David

Norris who says he has been cleaned out of his funds for the campaign.

Martin McGuinness is denying a raft of claims in connection with his

Republican past. Sean Gallagher has been bought back to the scene of a

Fine Gael fund-raising dinner he attended in 2008. And then there is

Michael D Higgins, who has ruled out hitting his campaign to any

chance for a pact. The final lap lies ahead.

This summer's riots in east Belfast and Ardoyne underlined the problems

which still exist in some of our interfaces. So what is the Assembly

doing to help communities live together peacefully? One programme

that has been talked about for several years now, and which has

yet to be uprooted, is the Cohesion, Sharing and Integration programme.

-- has yet to bear fruit. Yvette Shapiro has been to meet one group

in West Belfast that is regarded as MUSIC PLAYS THIS road in West

Belfast marks the border of two communities.

One has 7,000 communities -- residents, but the other only a few

hundred. This used to be one of the worst flashpoints for sectarian

violence. This group grew out of contact between the residents in

the mid- 1990s. Funding secured to rebuild these derelict shops,

building a shared space. Is a real symbol of when Northern Ireland and

the community and voluntary sector have come from. We are policy start

in this area. We had the recent strategy meeting, which is being

reviewed. But in the lack of any strategy or policy, people will

forge ahead to try to make their lives better. The most important

thing is to decide who is going to be Santa. These were among the

first residents to begin contact. For many years, this interface was

desolate. I described it like no man's land. There was no interest

from any government departments or agencies to put any investment in

to it. It was left as his. When we came together and formed this

company, wet we end livened. We put new heart into this area. They say

it is important they group has no party political influence, but they

want government to start taking the lead. Some of the things we have

seen happening in Stormont have been very positive but there still

is no policy in place, no real genuine commitment or policy

direction towards shared working. That makes it difficult for people

like us on the ground sometimes to know where we are going. It was a

major blow to the pot as the community in Suffolk when this

primary school closed in 2008. -- Protestant community. By the end,

only 40 children remained. Most children from the area are now sent

out to schools elsewhere, returning her home by bus at the end of the

day. But the Interface Group has big plans for the site - they are

applying for funding to build an integrated nursery school, did

bring children from both sides of These teenagers have formed a real

friendships through their involvement in cross-community

project. Sometimes Catholics and Protestants would not normally mix

together and would think there was to be to the, and I think it is

good that we get to know each other and get to know our similar

interests, about we are all the same. It helps to build

relationships and appreciate diversity between other communities

- and not as Catholic and President - a Protestant, but other

minorities. We have X UDA people and X IRA people and we have done

all that and it helps a lot because we get into the's opinions and

views on it. I have not had so much as one parent phone me up and say

they did not want a young person to be involved, debeaked interacting

with people from the other side. I must admit that that has been a

very, very pleasant surprise for myself and I have had overwhelming

support from both communities. There are still occasional flash

points along the interface during the summer months, and there are

still people of both communities to reject the idea of shared space.

But there is no doubt that this once troubled area has been

transformed by the efforts of its own residents.

I am joined by the junior minister Jonathan Bell. Are you embarrassed

to see groups like that getting on with the job, getting the work done,

with little government funding? state the issue of government

funding first of all. Under the last comprehensive spending review,

21 million. What is it today? 30 million. I am proud of the fact

that we have put extra money into anti- sectarianism and anti- racism

work. It is designed to build a better shared future for us all.

There is a 30% increase in funding over 2008-2011. Is that all

government money or is it European money? That is government money. We

have European money. 88.7 million euros over a particular programme

has been spent. We are flying into Brussels, pressing them for an

extension to deliver what we are doing and that money is working

together. Because sometimes we don't have the nouns and verbs and

adjectives in the correct order on the document, it doesn't mean we

haven't been doing the job. Why is it taking so long? The first

mention of this was in 2005, their consultation in 2007. A year since

the consultation ended, still nothing. There are areas about this

work. The first is a practice. On small schemes, we have half a

million pounds but in the summer period into young people and

interface groups in Belfast which has been highly successful, in

terms of taking people away from conflict situations. We still had

terrible riots but not as bad as before. Northern Ireland is

experiencing the lowest level of violence that has experienced in my

lifetime. But significant community problems existed in east Belfast,

which blew up into what the boy said weather may significant riots

in 10 years. But overall, we have had the lowest level of violence in

our generation. We have got to see the implementation of work on the

ground. The increase of work that the Interface Group you mentioned

is doing is amazing. People working hard on the ground, right across

the airier, promoting proper anti- sectarianism and anti- racism

agendas club building a shared future. So what you are saying is

that the book on the ground are doing the Government's work, to

save you having to produce a document? I cannot praise the

people on the ground enough. They are doing the work and doing it

well. We have rewarded the good work they have done because we have

increased their budget in the most austere times, from 21 million to

30 million. How long can that be guaranteed? Most of the groups we

have spoken to say the government is not doing enough. They say they

are doing it without government funding and doing it themselves.

can show you a spreadsheet that shows how we have taken from 2008-

2011, and we have put an extra 30 million -- an extra �10 million. We

have got a five party working group and we are working every single

week, with high-level representation, and we hope to get

this document correctly done with the right to nouns, adjectives and

verbs and get a proper document out in 2012, which will drive forward,

in policy terms, good relations. And that will take it up to seven

years since all of this started. The we are further than we have

ever been before. The Ulster Unionists, SDLP and their

administrations could not even get a document out. We have got a

document out to consultation and we have 280 responses. If you ask the

but to respond and you get 280 responses, you should take time to

consider them. People said poor structure, lack of clarity on aims,

a strong feeling from the public that you will go ahead and do what

you want no matter what they say. That is a damning indictment on a

public consultation exercise. welcome constructive criticism. I

am on the ground in north Belfast. I have been out talking to people

and listening. There have been some things said. I worked as a social

worker with disengaged young people for 21 years. Those people told me

the document was badly structured towards young people and it did not

recognise young people's contribution. As a result of that

constructive criticism, we will have a better document in 2012. We

have got the document out, we have 280 responses and we have got a

consultant working on it and we have got all the parties in

Stormont working at a high level, every single week. We have ring-

fenced our time every week to get this document, which we can

hopefully producing 2012. The good relations were it to a dress

sectarianism and racism, which is being done on the ground, his work

that must continue. We must continue to fund it and that is

what we are committed to do. We had Irish described as a foreign

language. We had up criticism of a Sinn Fein colleague for chasing

rainbows and being a royal watcher - it is not a very good example.

look for the academic base and the knowledge base which are the good

relations indicators. They are coming back to us telling us 88% of

people want to live in shared spaces. A young people want to make

a positive contribution. But should the language in the chamber not be

more mature and rise above the sort of language you would expect on the

streets? What I want to see all of us to ring - and we are all

collectively doing - is building an anti- sectarianism, anti- racism

policy based on shared and good relations. So it is just for show

in the Assembly? You get on well behind the scenes but you are just

having a pop at each other. five parties are working coherently

and constructively with the to that. We have further to go but the good

work must continue on the ground. There are heroic people working

individually in their communities who are building a better, shared

feature. On the tightest budget round, we have given them an extra