Mr Long said not only was the DUP responsible for the continued exclusion of other parties in the borough, including Alliance, but that its actions of the past year – starting with a bogus leaflet campaign – left little belief in the sincerity of Mr Robinson’s words tonight, with yet again no clear actions to back them.
Councillor Michael Long said: “It is utter hypocrisy for Peter Robinson to talk about unionists ending their siege mentality, especially when addressing the Mayor’s dinner in Castlereagh where for almost 40 years he and those who have followed on from him have operated a policy of exclusion towards others when it comes to ensuring power sharing.
“His party epitomised a siege mentality throughout the period and in the past few months have again excluded Alliance from the top posts in the Council and from committee chairmanships.
“Even worse, the DUP and UUP have failed to follow guidance from the relevant departments to exclude Alliance from Chairing the PCSP whilst the Belfast Statutory Transition Committee has yet to meet as Peter Robinson’s party refuse to nominate Alliance to the position to which they should be entitled.
“Actions speak louder than words and when we see Mr Robinson actually encourage his party to become involved in power sharing without having to be forced into as he is at Stormont, perhaps we in Alliance might take a little more notice of his platitudes.
“I remember he used a similar address three years ago to supposedly support shared education but we have not seen little action on that front either from the DUP and I will not be holding my breath waiting for him to end the siege mentality of Unionists in Castlereagh either.”