Edwin Poots says unionists need positive offer for electorate not 'Project Fear'

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00:00So, you know, we're in a situation where we should have had 10 Unionist seats, but we didn't,

00:06because of the way things worked out. So we need to get to that position once again,

00:12and we can only do that by cooperating with each other. So, you know, Lagan Valley had 29,000

00:17Unionists voted, and there was 18,000 when Dodd voted for the Alliance. So, you know, that seat

00:22shouldn't have been lost to the Alliance, that's just the reality. But when you have a three-way

00:26split on one side and one on the other, you're almost certain to lose out. And we look at,

00:33you know, other seats around the country which came very close to being lost, and,

00:37you know, that should be a wake-up call for people not to take those risks again.

00:41Is Saurce East with a different prospect from Alliance MPs we've seen before, like Stephen

00:47Farrie? Is it, there's been some chat that, you know, this seat can go back to Unionism in

00:51five years' time? That, in my opinion, wouldn't happen easily or simply, and will involve a lot

01:00of hard work to actually convince and encourage people once again. In my opinion, there's an issue

01:08of trust out there, and that trust needs to be fixed before we can seriously go out there to

01:15actually maximise seats for Unionism. And what about the apathy? How do you check that

01:21off? Is that part of the trust issue? I don't think so. I think the apathy is more just apathy.

01:26I think it's not just within Unionist areas. I think, you know, you look at the turnouts in

01:31quite a few areas, and apathy reigns. And, you know, people, I think, in Northern Ireland for

01:40too many years have been voting, you know, against something. And I've always preferred in politics

01:46to give people a reason, you know, positive reasons to vote for you. So therefore, you know,

01:52delivering things which are of the benefit to the wider community, to me, is important for

01:57politicians in general. And I'd encourage politicians to actually focus on actually

02:02delivery for a community and going back to them and saying, well, we got to that in the last term,

02:06and there's more that we can do, and encourage people out that way as opposed to using, you know,

02:13who's actually there.