A leaflet printed in Alliance Party colours of yellow and blue, headed ‘Thinking of Voting Alliance’, has been distributed widely in Northern Ireland. It is clearly intended to confuse Alliance supporters.

The publishers urge Alliance supporters to vote for the Ulster Unionists, wrongly claiming that the UUP supports Alliance ideals such as a shared future. (It is laughable that the Ulster Unionists claim to want a shared future. It was David Trimble, as First Minister, who blocked progress on a community relations strategy – a report by Jeremy Harbison called “A Shared Future” – for over a year.) There is also a graph that gives incorrect figures for party support at the Assembly election.

The PO Box given by the publishers is registered to a design company on the Holywood Road in East Belfast. This company has printed a number of leaflets for the Ulster Unionists this year. Despite this, UUP staff apparently first claimed not to know the company and then that this was merely ‘a bizarre coincidence’.

This leaflet has been distributed in at least six constituencies. Given the scale of the operation, there is a strong likelihood that those responsible are in breach of the criminal law regarding electoral
expenditure.

In November last, David Trimble offered a peerage to the Alliance Party in return for standing down from the election in five constituencies. That shabby offer was rejected outright. The behaviour of the Ulster Unionists over recent months shows how far they have moved to the right, seeking to outflank the DUP. This leaflet is clearly a sign of desperation.

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