Republican News · Thursday 24 July 2003

Taylor threatens to scupper Agreement

Leading Ulster Unionist John Taylor has threatened to scupper the entire Good Friday Agreement if the proposed Independent Monitoring Body (IMB( will include a nominee from the Dublin government.

UUP leader David Trimble has championed the establishment of the IMB and nationalists have seen its establishment as another sop by the British government to rejectionist unionism. But, as with other concessions, as soon as they get their cake, unionists want to eat it as well.

With two British to the Irish government's single nominee, the British government is set to exercise complete control over the actions of the IMB. Furthermore, the body must report directly to the NIO Secretary of State who has ultimate power to decide to act or ignore its recommendations.

The IMB is a discriminatory, anti-democratic mechanism, designed to place further burdens on the nationalist electorate in exercising their right to democratic representation. But recent unionist opposition to the IMB has nothing to do with this; on the contrary, unionist objection is based on opposition to even the appearance of a nationalist dimension within the IMB.

Writing in the London Times, Taylor said he would "probably" vote against the sanctions body and warned that it could undermine any unionist support for the GFA. He went on to say that the proposal that the Dublin government should nominate a representative to the new body would not win the support of ordinary unionists. Jeffery Donaldson has also claimed that the participation of an Irish government nominee in any monitoring role of the Stormont Assembly represents a fundamental breach of unionist principles.