Blair's blunder
It appears as if Tony Blair's efforts to pander to unionism by excluding
Sinn Féin will founder on the rock of unionist intransigence.
On Wednesday evening, David Trimble threw Tony Blair's concessions back
into his face proving that the policy of continually caving in to unionist
pressure does not work and will never move the political process forward.
The Ulster Unionist leadership has attempted to accomplish in the past few
days what it failed to achieve during the negotiations of Good Friday 1998
and in the most recent Stormont discussions. The amendments put into the
legislation by British Prime Minister Tony Blair undermine the Good Friday
Agreement. The legislation itself is a sop to unionism and clear evidence
that the Orange card is once again being played with considerable success.
On the basis of ever-more strident unionist demands, Tony Blair headed down
the path of exclusion. But even Blair's best efforts at appeasement may
once again not to be enough for the insatiable no men of unionism.
The election of the new Labour government in Britain saw the beginnings of
a change in British government policy in Ireland. What we witnessed this
week was a return to Conservative policies, as Tony Blair went back to
something which had already been proven not to work.
Mo Mowlam has pledged that d'Hondt will be triggered today, but the
prospect of a working Executive and the other institutions contained in the
Good Friday Agreement remain as far away as ever. By capitulating to
sectional interests, Tony Blair has weakened his standing as British prime
minister by jumping to the unionist drum and has undermined his credibility
with all parties to the peace process.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)