From: alanabit
Date: 31 Jul 05 - 05:26 AM

"The weapons of the UDA and attendant splinter groups have to go as well. Has there been any monitoring of that?"

There has indeed been some monitoring of it. In recent months there may even have been some progress towards stability, and a way through this to hopefully persuade these gangsters to disarm, decomission and.. to sit down and be quiet basically.


"Maybe the Nationalist community could press harder on that issue. They should have a good chance of forcing it. If their guns have gone away, they can demand their rights as a simple issue of law and order."

The problem is that its not just nationalists' rights being affected. The criminality of the Loyalist terrorists affects us all. Its not even an issue of rights. The Loyalists should be made to decommission by force, if they won't listen to reason. They have little or no mandate (other than the handful of votes that the PUP gets in some areas).


"If I were in a position of power, I would be tempted to light a fire under the Ulster Protestants' behinds, by telling them that they had (say) two years you make peace with their neighbours."

Really? Only the "Protestants' behinds"? What of the athiests and the Roman Catholics? Your misunderstanding seems to be that you are unaware that the vast majority of Protestant people in Northern Ireland ARE actually at peace with their neighbours and colleagues.

It is with some relief to me that you are not "in a position of power", as you sound rather sectarian in nature to me.


"Then, if they had not reached a workable agreement, they would have full independence - whether they wanted it or not."

"Full independence" from what exactly? Surely to be independent, there must exist a need or desire for indepenence from the perspective of the group of people you talk about. I cannot think of anything that a majority of Protestant people in Northern Ireland would particularly desire to be independent of.


"Believe me, very few Brits on the mainland have a deep sentimental yearning to keep Ulster within the UK!"

Thankfully, in your case, Ulster isn't "within the UK" in the first place.