Naomi Long MLA @naomi_long@respublicae.eu

@mc39763951 I only had the role of giving the justice agencies the powers they needed. It's up to them how and when they use them - they are and always were independent of me.

But I could not have been clearer as to my views about going after the money. That is their only interest.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641911186965798921

@Lactrollsintol @superglens They're UDA factions. Until this feud, they were UDA: now they're RUFF 🙄.

I don't see any of those as a barrier to being a criminal or drug dealer and I certainly don't rely on LCC analysis.

They're all illegal groups: there are no goodies or baddies, just criminals.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641910451951763464

@NoraUtd Hi, if it has gone to my MLA account, you'll receive a response in due course. If you could be patient, that'd be great, as I've been off work with pneumonia - hopefully, will get caught up soon.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641908808048861185

@Toomai2 Let's hope they do. And soon.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641907796424679428

@mc39763951 Introduced Unexplained Wealth Orders, account seizure and forfeiture powers under Criminal Finances Act, all to enable active enforcement against such organisations. I also drove the Tackling Paramilitarism Programme to expose this criminality and support those vulnerable to it.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641907598650744839

@james8745 You're claiming drug dealing thugs were influenced by geopolitical changes in this turf war? Really?

Where have you been? Before Brexit/the Protocol/Windsor Protoco, they were flooding our communities with drugs and fighting over territory.

Don't make excuses for them.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641906085912014849

@superglens @Lactrollsintol I retweeted a colleague who had done so earlier. I also never named any group or designation: they're all narco-terrorists, organised criminals, human rights abusers.

Whether they claim loyalism or republicanism as cover is, as I said, utterly irrelevant to me.

They need to go.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641905101265596416

@Irishbaldy2 How is that my job as an MLA? I can't arrest, prosecute or jail anyone. However, I absolutely support the PSNI and justice agencies doing exactly that.

And I wasn't asking. I was telling.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641904469968404480

RT @1leekane: Wearing my old @niabf jacket to mark the last day of the Forum 😢

Thinking of the Chairs and Vice-Chairs, the members, the partners, teachers, youth workers, and all the young people I worked with.

#EndBullyingNow #ActingTogetherToEndBullying

And a splash of red for #WRD23

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641892840723697689

Irrespective of what flag of convenience the elements of this feud are operating under or what turf/ego war sparked it, people are just sick of paramilitary organised crime gangs and their intimidation, threats, drug-dealing, racketeering and loan sharking.

Get off the stage.
RT @allianceparty: "There families living in terror now because of these criminal gangs," says @Kelmba

They serve nobody in our communities other than themselves and it's time for them to …

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641892313503879198

@Hereweg77404901 @allianceparty Our proposals aren't for party gain: they ensure all votes count equally (they currently don't), incentivise parties working together, and make the institutions stable.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641830197182726150

@AndyBelfast @CrothersAlwyn @allianceparty A 71% majority delivered the GFA. No reason a similar level of genuine cross-community support shouldn't count to enable progress now.

There was no consensus for DUP changes at St Andrew's.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641829772178202626

@BarryMcann83 @allianceparty Sadly, Barry, apart from the ending of the majority of violence, it's our view that insufficient emphasis was placed on both victims and reconciliation.

That work is still incomplete: SHA went some way towards it, but wasn't delivered. I tried, delivering the Victims Pensions.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641829180877729792

@CrothersAlwyn @allianceparty You too. And Happy 80th for next week! Have a great birthday.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641827884519096322

@Hereweg77404901 @allianceparty We are arguing for changes to the structures, not the principles.

There have already been changes: there absolutely can be further reform.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641827621309673472

@AndyBelfast @CrothersAlwyn @allianceparty We're not ignoring that.

It isn't working now.

Our proposals would ensure it does, consistently, and encourage cooperation and compromise, in turn marginalising extremists.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641827221412237314

@CrothersAlwyn @allianceparty None of that is about placating nationalism: it's about making this place work for everyone, unionist, nationalist and neither.

It means accommodation with others: that's the only way our society can work.

If others don't see that, then they need to accept the consequences.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641826420509888512

@CrothersAlwyn @allianceparty We haven't done anything to erode the union. We actively warned unionists that Brexit would do so, but our views were dismissed as project fear. We warned a hard Brexit would make it worse: the DUP pursued it anyway. And we're honest that collapsing the Assembly is damaging. 1/2

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641825432583434240

@NSixtysomething @pushbikebilly We do issue statements and use social media: that includes a level of engagement from all our MLAs as it does for other parties, with the exception of SF and DUP.

I'm comfortable with our reps speaking their mind.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641824309529178112

@pushbikebilly @Davywilson5 I have replied. I wasn't on Twitter again until now.

🐦🔗: https://n.respublicae.eu/naomi_long/status/1641823819965816838