Paisley calls for Taser attack as war of words goes on

Ian Paisley jnr told a DUP audience at the weekend that he would like to see his fellow Policing Board member, Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson, ‘Tasered’.

His comments came during a speech about policing and justice to around 700 delegates at the hardline unionist party’s annual conference.

He called her “a ghastly woman”.

“I’m sure there is quite a few people who would like to see Martina Anderson tasered,” Mr Paisley said.

Taser guns are a potentially lethal electroshock weapon which discharges 50,000 volts used to subdue targets.

Although they are said to be a non-lethal weapon some 290 deaths in the US and Canada since 2001 have been attributed to the use of Taser guns.

The PSNI were given permission earlier this year to buy 12 Taser guns despite opposition from human rights groups and some members of the policing board.

Ms Anderson, a Sinn Féin assembly member for Foyle, has been an outspoken critic of the Taser weapons.

“His speech is the only speech from their party conference which has not been made available on the party website,” she said. “It is obvious he has embarrassed them again.”

UNIONISM AT CROSSROADS

The DUP’s annual conference was filled with anti-Sinn Féin rhetoric, with the party’s deputy leader Nigel Dodds at the heart of the cheerleading.

Claiming the DUP was winning the battle with Sinn Féin on many fronts, Mr Dodds suggested republicanism was fracturing and the pressure was telling most on Gerry Adams.

“It is now Sinn Féin where the divisions are appearing,” he added. “There are some realists in Sinn Féin who know they can’t turn the clock back. But the old guard has raised its head.”

It was “a case of Gerry versus the pacemakers”, he said, singling out the SInn Fen President for attack.

“Gerry Adams is yesterday’s man -- out of step, out of tune, out of touch, out of excuses. But he hasn’t gone away you know and now he’s doing what he does best -- threatening anyone who gets in his way.

“When he talks of ‘partnership’ and ‘equality’ it’s code for Sinn Féin getting its way. The DUP is in government to deliver on its manifesto agenda, not that of republicans.”

Speaking last weekend in Sligo, Gerry Adams described unionism itself as being at a crossroads, forty years on from the Civil Rights Movement and ten years on from the Good Friday Agreement unionism,

“The shift from not an inch politics, from the outright opposition to sharing power with nationalists and republicans to the situation where unionism now finds itsel

Urgent Appeal