BLAIR BACKS UNIONISTS

On his first visit to the Six Counties as British Prime Minister he made it absolutely clear that British rule was going to continue.

He offered a meeting of British government officials with the Provisionals’ political organisation without a ceasefire but delighted the unionists by stating “I believe in the United Kingdom. I value the Union . . . my agenda is not a united Ireland . . . none of us in this hall today, even the youngest, is likely to see Northern Ireland as anything but a part of the United Kingdom. That is the reality, because the consent principle is now almost universally accepted.”

David Trimble suggested on the BBC that one passage could have been lifted directly from the Ulster Unionist Party manifesto.

Blair continued: “A political settlement is not a slippery slope to a united Ireland. The Government will not be persuaders for unity. The wagons do not need to be drawn up in a circle.”

Tony Blair’s “principle of consent” is the unionist veto by which 18% of the people of Ireland (the unionists) are given the say by the British government over the wishes of the other 82%. It is therefore anathema to Irish Republicans and democrats.

Blair’s offer for his officials to meet the Provisionals is conditional on their military organisation continuing their de facto ceasefire for the Westminster and 26-County general elections. According to the British Prime Minister the meeting would not negotiate cease-fire terms but would discuss whether the Provisionals were “ready to give up violence”.

A reference to “cross-border arrangements” was even qualified by Tony Blair by saying that “if such arrangements were really threatening to unionists we would not negotiate them”. He also called on the Dublin administration to change Articles 2 and 3 of the 1937 constitution which contain a “paper claim” to jurisdiction over the 32 counties. This would be a sign of their support for the ‘principle of consent’, he said.

Thus the only constitutional change referred to in his speech was the demand that the 26 Counties drop Articles 2 and 3 before any settlement.

This would mean that nationalists in the Six Counties could be disowned by the Dublin government in so far as they could and would become British citizens in every sense.

The message from Tony Blair is clear and has been predicted by Republican Sinn Féin since the start of this process: a partitionist settlement is the only conceivable outcome of the so-called all-party talks.

The alternative peace process based on a British withdrawal must now be promoted by all Irish people and friends of Ireland abroad as the real path to a lasting and just solution to Ireland's English problem.

Think before you vote Provo

The most recent abduction lasting 24 hours occurred on May 20-21. “Even as voting took place in the Six-County local elections and Provo representatives were talking to British officials a Republican rejecting any ‘internal settlement’ under British-rule was being held and interrogated by the new Broy Harriers,” the statement added.

“In view of these developments Republican Sinn Féin urges would-be Provo voters to think long and hard about where the current process is leading. “Will it mean former Republicans using force against their own community in the interests of a reformed British rule in Ireland? Surely this is not what sincere Republican-minded people want.”

Speaking on Radio Ulster’s Talkback programme on May 28 Provisional councillor in Belfast, Alex Maskey, said that their councillors would not rule out performing the royalist duties of Lord Mayor of that city if they were elected to the post.

These duties were listed as toasting the British Queen at official dinners; attending Remembrance Day ceremonies and greeting members of the British Royal Family visiting Belfast.

In reaction Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, President, Republican Sinn Féin said that “this statement by Alex Maskey shows a further deterioration by the Provisionals as they depart further from their roots.

“As the pace of their absorption into the British systems quickens, Republicans are entitled to ask how long will it be before they are indistinguishable – not from the SDLP – but from the Alliance Party?”

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