Well said Sammy Wilson, one of the few politicians in the  Northern Ireland Assembly with the guts to tell things like they are:


Anti-racism campaigners have a "vested interest" in creating the impression that Northern Ireland is racist, Sammy Wilson has claimed.

The Finance Minister, known for his outspoken views, responded to criticism by the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM) by claiming that the body was part of a "race relations indusstry" which was exaggerating the level of racism in the Province.

NICEM chief executive Patrick Yu revealed that he had written to First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to express concern at Mr Wilson's comment in January that employers should give priority to local people over migrants in the job market.

Mr Yu described the then environment minister's remarks as enabling the "widespread incitement of racial hatred" and urged the Executive to show "strong leadership" by promoting "fairness and non-discrimination" and implementing anti-racism taskforces.

Mr Yu, who succeeded Anna Lo at NICEM after she was elected as an Alliance MLA, questioned how serious the Executive was about tackling racism in Northern Ireland after Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness took four months to respond to his letter.

But Mr Wilson dismissed Mr Yu's comments as a "sinister" interpretation of what he had said, something he claimed was common in the "race relations industry".

The DUP MP said: "Don't forget that NICEM have a vested interest in this – they need to keep up the impression that there's rampant racism in Northern Ireland because they apply for grants on the basis that their services are required."

Mr Wilson added: "These organisations have a vested interest in creating the impression that Northern Ireland is a racist society - this enables them to apply for more grants."

Mr Wilson said that he was "probably the worst person for him (Mr Yu) to level that kind of accusation at" and highlighted that he was the only local politician asked to sit on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and had also lobbied on behalf of Philippinos and Iranians in his East Antrim constituency.

Mr Wilson has also joined Zimbabwean exiles in Northern Ireland to protest at President Robert Mugabe's abuses of power in Zimbabwe.

Mr Yu's letter to the First Minister and Deputy First Minister, sent in February, warned that Mr Wilson's remarks "will be very effective in promoting and breeding hatred at a community level" and added that it feared "how to contain and to prevent a spiral of racist attacks in the next six to 12 month period when the economic downturn deepens".
In June, scores of Romanian families fled Belfast after coming under sustained attack by racist thugs.

In January, Mr Wilson told the Politics Show: "In any country citizenship confers certain privileges on people. It has obligations to its own citizens before those of other countries otherwise what is the point of citizenship?

"Do you really want to put someone from here on the dole and have to pay for their upkeep, family and lifestyle when someone who has chosen themselves to be mobile could be the one in employment?"

Rejecting Mr Yu's claims that those comments could inflame racial tensions, Mr Wilson said: "It's typical of the race relations industry that once anybody raises the issue of immigration or anything like that they are accused of being racist."

He added: "Freedom of speech is immediately stopped...everyone in that race relations industry uses it to try to stop any honest debate about issues."