Is 'gain for Hain' the overriding priority?
18 January 2007
"So Hain is at bully boy tactics again! Sinn Fein bowls lamentably short, making even verbal support for the police conditional on the DUP first jumping into government with them, and instantly, as their chief cheerleader, Hain - instead of insisting on real delivery by Adams - gauchely tries to duress the DUP into doing a Trimble and blindly jumping first. It isn't going to happen, Mr Hain. What part of delivery do you not understand?
Mere words from IRA/Sinn Fein mean nothing. We remember that the same Sinn Fein signed up for “the Mitchell principles” – a fine body of words - but that didn’t stop the Florida gun-running, Columbia, the Castlereagh break-in, Stormontgate, the Northern Bank robbery and several IRA murders, including that of Robert McCartney! Proven actions, not mere words, are the test. It's deeds not deadlines that matter.
The truth is that Hain won't be here to pick up the pieces of another quick fix as it crumbles in the face of republican duplicity. His overriding ambition is to become Deputy Prime Minister. Northern Ireland is but a pawn which can help him in that game if he can claim progress. Hence, his impatience and interest in form rather than substance. Likewise, Blair seeks the glory of a legacy. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, has to live with the consequences. Hence, the necessity for delivery to our satisfaction. Hence, too, the logic and abiding prerequisites of the 9/11/06 resolution of DUP Party Officers, Assembly Group and Executive that:
"The DUP holds to its long standing position that there can only be an agreement involving Sinn Fein when there has been delivery by the republican movement, tested and proved over a credible period, in terms of support for the PSNI, the Courts and the rule of law, a complete end to paramilitary and criminal activity and the removal of terrorist structures."
It is also timely to remind the Secretary of State that he too is in default on another DUP requirement, namely the provision in legislation of a workable exclusion mechanism to deal with the eventuality of a repeat of IRA/Sinn Fein default. He knows upfront delivery is required on this issue but he has done nothing. In recent weeks we've seen him dance to the Sinn Fein tune to orchestrate statements on MI5, plastic bullets and the Assets Recovery Agency, but Unionist demands he studiously ignores. In that we have the measure of the man. It's all about "Gain for Hain", and never mind if it ends in pain for Ulster."
