Alliance Party
Party in Belfast

It's time for zero tolerance of illegal and inappropriate flags and emblems that tell some people they are not welcome, and it's time to stop labelling our elected representatives in a way that discriminates against those who vote for change.
Our team including justice minister David Ford MLA, deputy leader Naomi Long MP, our 7 MLAs, our 32 Councillors and hundreds of volunteer activists is working across Northern Ireland to build a better society.

We believe a shared future will enable us to build a stronger Northern Ireland, making it a more attractive place to invest and leading to an increase in job and other employment opportunities. This will also allow us to save resources by investing in services for everyone and ensure better public services for all. It is much easier to protect the future of local schools when resources are shared. Young people growing up together will help Northern Ireland move forward as we seek to build a shared society. We want to see a society where mixed housing is the norm and public buildings and spaces are open to everyone. We want to see the removal of interfaces with the support of all communities and find an inclusive way to display flags on public buildings, with added regulation of all flags on lampposts. We want to celebrate Northern Ireland's cultural diversity and find agreement on a process for regulating parades. We want to see agreement on a shared, inclusive process to deal with our past, which includes input from all Parties and the British and Irish Government. We believe the public sector need to deal more adequately with this and consideration should be given to regulating the display of national flags on public property. Whilst we can see benefits to dialogue as a method for removing them, should this approach fail there must be swift follow up enforcement action. Rather we use it to celebrate, in an inclusive way, not to intimidate and keep people away. It is important to note that most parades in Northern Ireland are peaceful and pass off without problem or controversy. Whilst this work is on-going everyone, political parties and community leaders, should support and respect the agencies already charged with regulating parades and the decisions that they take. Again this isn't about creating bland, neutral space where nothing happens in case it is offensive, it's about celebrating culture in an inclusive fashion. We want the Executive to work with everyone to build the conditions under which they can come. To do this we want the Executive to tackle threat, fear and the perception of both of these, regenerate interface areas, use a mechanism to assess the risk to people in interface areas., with strategies to address these risks in a swift and effective manner, each of these steps would help to build community confidence to create the environment in which structures can be removed. Dealing with the past is difficult but this must be done for reconciliation and to build a shared future. Firstly all Parties must agree that dealing with the past is necessary if we are to build a shared future. Completing a tick box exercise and merely releasing a document was not good enough for us, what is needed is a strategy, grounded in reality clearly mapping the way forward, that is what Alliance have produced. With this document we have laid our cards firmly on the table, we have clearly laid out the steps the Alliance Party believe need to be taken in order to build a truly shared society and future for everyone. The Alliance Party always has, and will continue to, base our decisions on what we genuinely believe to be the best outcome for everyone. We believe our document is a clearly laid out, thoroughly thought through strategy on how we go about building a shared future, for everyone. It is time now for the other Parties to step up and tell us what they can agree with and what action they are willing to take to address division. We've also balanced the need for action with the need to build confidence and have firm strategies in place, with thoughts and figures that have been carefully considered.