Member

We are now going to have a vote in the Northern Ireland Assembly, by majority vote, on a very serious issue. A simple majority vote creates a democratic deficit, as the concerns of unionists, who are in the minority in the Assembly, can be ignored—“Forget about them. Let them sit over there, they’ll be all right. We’ll just change the laws and procedures in the Assembly to suit whoever they need to suit”. You cannot even bring a petition of concern to the Assembly with 30 signatures, which normally would trigger a cross-community vote—that does not happen either now. All avenues are blocked to make sure that this vote is rigged to get the desired outcome. There can be no other reason for them doing what they did: it is a rigged vote to get the outcome that they want to get.