Excluding Sinn Fein will not help, says loyalist
Tony Blair’s British government will go for the “soft option” of suspension of devolution in Northern Ireland in a bid to save the Good Friday Agreement, a loyalist politician claimed today.
David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists have given the British government one week to lay a motion before the Stormont Assembly to expel Sinn Fein from the power-sharing executive, but Progressive Unionist Party leader David Ervine said exclusion would not help resolve the crisis.
The East Belfast MLA, whose party is linked to the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force, said: “I think government will opt for the soft option.
“It will go for the option which cushions the whole edifice at Stormont if it comes down rather than one which will result in its hitting the rocks.
“I suspect we are going into suspension and then a review.”
As Tony Blair prepared for crucial talks at Downing Street with the nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan and the An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Mr Ervine spoke out against any move to exclude a political party.
He observed: “Political exclusion is at the core of our problem in Northern Ireland.
“Anyone who thinks exclusion will work is in cloud cuckoo land. It will only exacerbate the problem.”
The PUP leader, whose party will hold its annual conference in Belfast this weekend, said loyalists were concerned about the allegations that republicans operated a spying operation at the heart of the British government’s headquarters in Belfast.
“Loyalists’ ears pricked up and it focused their minds when they heard that prison officers’ names and loyalist names were allegedly in the hands of republicans.
“Perhaps some of the loyalist names were people that Sinn Fein was talking to. We don’t know.
“But it certainly is not helpful and we need to find out more.”
The East Belfast MLA was hopeful that despite the current crisis, there would be no return to war.
But he believed republicans would continue street violence along sectarian flashpoint areas as a tactic.
He was hopeful that in the absence of a terror campaign, parties would at least “have the space” to find a way of resolving their differences.
Mr Ervine added: “What republicans must bear in mind is that a lot of this is not about not wanting republicans in government.
“It is about how people are perceived to behave and it is about the relationships between the different players in the process.”
