SDLP leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell has claimed that Stormont assembly members should be entitled to a ‘small increment’ on their 43,000 basic salary a year and better pension payments to keep them from ‘poverty’ in retirement. Yet again one rule for them and another for the rest of us as these gangsters on the hill expect us to bear the brunt of their vicious cuts in jobs and services being imposed by all our local political parties at the behest of their masters from Westminster.

When the 'Northern Ireland Assembly' discussed the issue of abortion in June, the prospect of denying rights to women united politicians right across the so-called 'religious divide'. The Democratic Unionist Party proposed a motion to prevent the extension of the 1967 Abortion Act to the 6 Counties. The SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party!!) imposed a party whip in favour of the motion.

LAST SUMMER, the Irish News ran an article titled 'SDLP slams Britains record in East Timor'. (August 6th). SDLP assembly member Carmel Hanna rightly criticised the British government for continuing arms sales to Indonesia. She even went so far as to describe Britain's role in relation to East Timor as "sordid" because of this.

Quite right, but...