New
bodies pose threat to the Union
From NEWS LETTER December 23rd, 1999
The British-Irish Council on the other hand is purely consultative and has
no harmonising or executive decision- taking powers. The North/South Council
is free-standing. It is simply wrong to claim that it exists within the
framework of the British-Irish Council. Little has been said about the other
meeting in Downing Street last week. The inaugural meeting of the British-Irish
Intergovernmental Conference took place amid a deafening silence from those
so loud in their proclamation of otherwise historic events.
The BITC is of course the renamed Anglo-Irish Conference complete with a
replacement for the old Maryfield secretariat. It gives Dublin the right
to be involved in policing, human rights, prisons and security issues and
demands that the governments make determined efforts to resolve differences
between them. Familiar language from 1985! Only this time around, the all-
Ireland and cross-border aspects of these issues are to be ''intensified''.
Amid the propaganda which seeks to erect a smokescreen over the true nature
of the institutions created by the Belfast Agreement, it is essential that
unionists recognise the dangers posed to the Union. Some have argued that
unionists have suffered all the pain under the Agreement and now is the
time for gain. The events of last week, not forgetting Mr Mandelson's commitment
to the implementation of Patten, demonstrate that more unionist pain is
on the way. |
