NI Conservatives' co-chairman, Trevor Ringland, has the described violence which took place at protests against a dissident republican parade in Belfast over the weekend as "wanton thuggery".
"Just what the people who turned up to these protests, intent on violence, thought they would achieve is anyone's guess", Trevor commented. "In fact, the results of their thuggery were simply to blacken the reputation of Belfast and undermine some valid arguments against an extremely unpleasant and sinister dissident republican parade."
"It makes it all the more disappointing that so many politicians qualified their condemnation of the violence by pointing fingers at the Parades Commission, the police and failing to place the blame squarely at the feet of rioters. Why do these parties continually refuse to stand up for the vast, silent majority in Northern Ireland who are absolutely sick of rioting, violence and disruption and prefer instead to make excuses for the people who are involved in such incidents?"
"There are political parties at Stormont who consistently foster and exploit the culture of victimhood and grievance that feeds into violence on both extremes of the political spectrum. That is simply not good enough. We need politicians who are prepared to stand up, first and foremost, for the people who are sick of seeing the reputation of their country damaged, their lives disrupted and their livelihoods impaired by a tiny minority. The same people who support the police and are revolted to see them continually endangered and attacked. Let's give them a voice and stand up for the peaceful majority in the face of violence and thuggery."