DUP 2024: Dodds says Gavin Robinson struck right tone

News Letter

Lord Dodds says Gavin Robinson's speech struck the right tone - including on the Protocol, he tells David Thompson of the Belfast News Letter at the DUP conference on Saturday September 21 2024

Transcript

00:00So Lord Dodds, what did you make of the new leader's speech today?

00:05I thought Gavin spoke very well, I thought he had a great tone, I think he addressed

00:10all the important issues and he did it in a way which recognises the way forward is

00:15through the coming together of unionism and that's about delivery on the key issues that

00:21affect people, health, education, housing, economy, jobs, but also about defending the

00:26union and removing the colloquial status that we have under the Windsor Framework and

00:32getting rid of European law and that will be his focus as well, so I think it was a

00:36very good speech.

00:37Were you happy with the amount of detail he put into the part of the speech on the protocol?

00:44Yeah, look I think he dealt with all the issues, the thing about Gavin is that he doesn't

00:49shy away from or shirk the challenges and he's inherited a very difficult position,

00:55but he has, and he did this as soon as he became leader, he addressed the fundamental

00:59issue at the heart of the Windsor Framework protocol problem which is our subjection to

01:04foreign laws without any democratic input or say by elected representatives and he repeated

01:09that today and I think that's positive, that's good, it's a big challenge, we have major

01:14problems in trying to get rid of it, but he is focused on that as well as all the other

01:20issues that affect unionism in Ireland.

01:24What's your message to nationalists ahead of the vote in the Assembly on the Windsor

01:28Framework and the impact that all of this has had on unionism and the psyche of unionist

01:36people?

01:37Well, what I would say to nationalist friends and colleagues and parties and otherwise is

01:42they should seek to have the control over large swathes of our economy just in the same

01:47way as unionists want that control, so they are denying themselves in the Assembly and

01:53at Westminster, never mind Sinn Féin who don't take their seats, but even the SDLP,

01:57they are denying themselves the right to make the laws and have any input into changing

02:02laws which affect large swathes of the economy, they leave it to others in Brussels who make

02:06laws in their own interests, so how is that good for democracy, how is that in the interests

02:12of their constituents, in the interests of everybody who believes in democracy to have

02:17those laws made either at Stormont or Westminster, that's where the laws should be made, so I

02:22would say to nationalists this is as much in your interests to get democratic control

02:26back into your hands for your constituents than leaving it to somebody else who doesn't

02:30have your concerns at heart, so that needs to be addressed by them and those are the

02:36sort of questions I think that they should be faced up with.

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