Video – Gerry Kelly MLA on the Pan Unionist Front and SoS Villiers

NORTH BELFAST Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly has said that nothing should be done to help unionists undermine the Parades Commission.

Speaking after unionist leaders and the Orange Order announced plans for protest and called for a Commission of Inquiry into the parade through nationalist Ardoyne, Mountainview and the Dales, Gerry Kelly said:

"The Parades Commission was set up and constituted by statute as an independent body to deal with disputed parades.

"Unionists are asking for a Commission of Inquiry simply because they didn't get their own way.

"Neither unionists or the British Secretary of State should do anything to undermine it.

"The myth of the hollowing out of British culture flies in the face of the facts.

"The number of parades has doubled in the last five years, the number of loyalist bands has also doubled and more than 95 per cent of all loyalist parades are uncontested.

"Walking out of talks with their partners in government and demanding that the British Secretary of State imposes a unionist solution can only raise tension and inflame the situation."