David Trimble Quotes
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The decision to give an indicative date for a return is a mistake. It degrades the process. It degrades human life.
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During the 1996 Forum election my election agent, John Dobson, told me that at some stage down the line we were going to have to talk to the IRA and that I was the man to do it. And my reaction was not printable!
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There was a process in place at that time - the Downing Street Declaration of December 1993 - which set out the terms and conditions under which people who had been involved in paramilitary activity could come into the political process.
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There are still substantial areas of disagreement, .. you simply have to look at the public statements to see there is a significant gap.
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It wasn't too difficult to see that [Ian] Paisley would never do anything positive.
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The Republican movement have not behaved properly over the years. They have not themselves implemented the Agreement. If they had implemented the Agreement then they would have disarmed completely in May 2000, that is what they undertook to do, that is what they failed to do.
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I knew what I had to do as party leader had to be sensible and relate to the real situation we were in, rather than a situation you would like to have.
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The one thing I can assure you is that I'm not going to do a Prescott.
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We had a completely deniable exchange of papers - in the winter before the 1997 election - with [Tony] Blair, setting out what we thought were the realistic parameters for a solution: and we were getting reasonable responses back from him. That's what led to Blair's visit to Belfast on May 16, 1997 - two weeks after he became Prime Minister and his first official visit outside London.
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The dark shadow we seem to see in the distance is not really a mountain ahead, but the shadow of the mountain behind - a shadow from the past thrown forward into our future. It is a dark sludge of historical sectarianism. We can leave it behind us if we wish.
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I was organizing a fringe meeting at the Conservative Party conference in October 1994 and I got a message that the Prime Minister would like a meeting. I went to the meeting. It was just me and John Major.What Major said to me was this: "If you were in my shoes, what would you do?". He wasn't asking me what a unionist should do, but what he should do. And I knew that I had to give him a sensible answer.
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I had read an early profile of [Tony] Blair by Frank Millar in which he said that Blair was very keen on the 'consent principle'.
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We had the IRA ceasefire in August 1994 and a lot of people assumed that a deal had been done - which wasn't right.
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There are two traditions in Northern Ireland. There are two main religious denominations. But there is only one true moral denomination. And it wants peace.
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Politics can be likened to driving at night over unfamiliar hills and mountains. Close attention must be paid to what the beam can reach and the next bend.
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In the future there cannot be room for ambiguity. They have to make their position absolutely clear before they can expect anyone to respond to it.
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As we take stock of this century of achievement, Ulster Unionists have every reason to feel proud.
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It seemed to me that John [Taylor] had a good chance of becoming leader: and I was fairly comfortable with that. I respected his judgment. And I also thought to myself that - because I was able to get on with him - I could become his Chief Whip.
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