Manufactured outrage by UUP hypocrites who stand with UVF and UDA parties

ULSTER Unionist Party (UUP) leader Mike Nesbitt's move to have his party withdraw from the Northern Executive over unfounded concerns that an unarmed IRA may still exist as an organisation is the height of hypocrisy when he is happy to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those who represent still-armed loyalist gangs involved in crime, including intimidation, drug dealing and murder.

In July 2014, Nesbitt issued a joint statement alongside leaders of the Progressive Unionist Party and Ulster Political Research Group – two parties representing the armed, drug-dealing UVF and UDA.

One of those individuals was Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) Councillor Billy Hutchinson (pictured below) – a man who publicly boasted that his sectarian murder of two young Catholics effectively helped prevent a united Ireland.

The unionists were there to issue a joint statement (along with the DUP, UKIP, Jim Allister's Traditional Unionist Voice and the Orange Order) on the stand-off in north Belfast over a rerouted Orange parade.

The latest move by the UUP is motivated by selfish electoral concerns, pure and simple. It is a blatant attempt to out-unionist the DUP.

Sinn Féin has been unequivocal in its condemnation of violence and support for democratic institutions.

Importantly, Sinn Féin have also been opposing the Tory party's attempts to impose regressive austerity measures on the North which will impact on all communities and struggling families, unionist as well as nationalist.

With elections looming North and South, it is very convenient for the UUP, DUP, Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Labour that the media shifts its focus from their parties' abysmal performances and pro-austerity policies and instead parade their faux outrage over a non-existent organisation.

'Red Scare' mastermind Joe McCarthy would be impressed.