Publication by the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) of its proposals for the three-stranded multiparty negotiations represents a retrenchment of its position. The document advocates the establishment of a Council of the British Isles to deal with the totality of relations within these islands, including any North/South structures. All meetings between representatives of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Dail would take place under the aegis of such a Council; decisions would require a unanimous vote and they would have to be subsequently ratified by the elected assembly/parliament. The tenor of the document is backward, rather than forward-looking and it is simply not realistic. It ignores government promptings of the past number of weeks and dismisses elaborations provided by them on the "Propositions on Heads of Agreement". The document reflects, to a large extent, the equally negative approach adopted by Sinn Fein to the establishment of a Northern Ireland Assembly.
Such a development might have been expected, given the timing of the document - released some days before the talks move to Dublin to consider Strand Two of the process. The Government declined to be drawn on the content of the document last night, other than to observe it was a negotiating position which could be expected to change. But the failure of the Ulster Unionist Party to speak to its supporters in more realistic terms at this time - when both governments hope to secure an agreed settlement by May - does not inspire hope.
This unwillingness by both the UUP and Sinn Fein to engage meaningfully and to educate their supporters in the realities of political accommodation, is deeply depressing at a time when murder again stalks the streets of Northern Ireland. Responsibility for those recent killings has not yet been attributed by the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, and police investigations are continuing. But if firm evidence becomes available which implicates the IRA in the murders, both governments have undertaken to uphold the Mitchell principles and to take whatever action is required to underpin the democratic process. That action could lead to the expulsion of Sinn Fein from the talks in spite of assertions that it is a standalone party and does not represent the IRA.
The content of the UUP document lays out in stark terms many of the difficulties that will have to be surmounted if an agreed political solution is to be reached. The most striking aspect of the document is its unflinchingly hard-line tone on North/South structures with executive powers. In that regard, it not only fails to address political realities for its own supporters, but it provides a list of aspirations that the DUP and the UKUP may eventually use against it. There was a predictable response from nationalists. Mr Seamus Mallon of the SDLP described the document as inadequate and totally incapable of achieving agreement between all the parties. In particular, the Northern Assembly and North/South bodies had to enjoy executive powers. Mr Mitchell McLaughlin of Sinn Fein dismissed it as unrealistic and unacceptable: an attempt to maintain the status quo and to secure a unionist-dominated Assembly while denying nationalists their democratic rights. At this stage, the gap between the major parties to the talks is so wide that it is difficult to envisage a settlement by May.