Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Today’s determination by the Parades Commission defies logic. The parade on the morning of the 12th July passed off without incident. Why shouldn’t the Lodges be allowed to return home at a similar time?
“Additionally, the Commission claim in their determination that this is “not a traditional route”. This is utter nonsense given that the parade is designed to merely complete the journey home from the 12th celebration.
“Once again the Parades Commission will be regarded as the enemy of Unionism and the Loyal Orders and the protectors of Republican interests when faced with the threat of violence.
“It is deeply regrettable that the imaginative proposal of the local lodges which could have resolved the situation has been thrown back in their faces by the Commission.
“It seems to me that the Parades Commission has become so perverse and vindictive that it doesn’t matter what the Loyal Orders propose, they will turn it down, because, sadly, they are now in the business of stoking confrontation, not finding solutions. They are part of the cultural war on unionism.”
