Mark Brotherston has slammed Sinn Féin for “attempting to silence good journalism around the issue of welfare reform”. The Northern Ireland Conservatives’ spokesman said the party’s threat to report a News Letter editorial to the Press Complaints Commission constituted “pathetic bullying”.
“Not only does Sinn Féin want to rehearse ridiculous, threadbare arguments against helping people off benefits and into work, now it wants to silence a rising chorus of voices, appalled by its hostility to welfare reform”, Mark observed. “The News Letter’s chief offence is to see straight through a party which simply does not want voters in its own strongholds to get off benefits, get into work and enjoy the fruits of prosperity. Sinn Féin relies on making people feel poor, helpless and dependent.”
“Across a whole range of policies the party is against business, against jobs, against combating dependency and against aspiration. If you look beyond welfare, you can see the same type of attack on ambition in John O’Dowd’s latest broadside against grammar schools, while he does his best to defend sectarian divisions in education and prevent integrated schools growing.”
“When has Sinn Féin articulated a single, positive idea about the type of welfare system it wants to see? When has it voiced its argument against helping people off dependency on benefits? It can only trot out a tired litany of snide remarks about Tories and the British government. The News Letter should be congratulated for making a clear, unambiguous argument for helping people into work and out of poverty, of the kind not always heard in Northern Ireland. It should not be bullied by a political party whose political success depends upon condemning people to a life on benefits.”