Britain must show peace commitment

THE meeting today in Dublin between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair is taking place amid heightening tensions over the British Government’s decision to postpone the Northern Assembly elections until the autumn.

It was widely suggested this was done because the British feared Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) would replace David Trimble’s Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) as the largest unionist party. It was thought this would fatally undermine the Good Friday Agreement, which the DUP have opposed from the outset.

Mr Blair has left himself open to the charge of blocking the elections because the people of Northern Ireland were not going to vote as he wished.