Unionist ultimatum UUC sets democratic clocks back

Once again democracy in Northern Ireland is being threatened

Deciding to bring it down, they have decided that if the IRA has not disappeared by January 18 next, they will effectively collapse the Executive, the government of Northern Ireland.

In the meantime, Unionist ministers will not engage in any North South Council meetings attended by Sinn Féin Ministers which will present immediate, practical problems.

It is, of course, an absurd demand that emanated from the weekend meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council. It is the latest in a series which ultimately, and insidiously, has the objective of dismantling power sharing with nationalists and republicans to serve their own political agenda.

In agreeing to a three month deadline, after which his party will withdraw from a government that includes Sinn Féin, First Minister David Trimble finally capitulated to anti-Agreement factions for his own political survival.

Mark Durkan, SDLP leader and deputy First Minister, is absolutely right when he said this latest move will not deter paramilitarism and is nothing other than a strike against the Good Friday Agreement, setting the clock back.

Any doubts that the anti-Agreement faction, led by Jeffrey Donaldson and Donald Burnside, are now the driving force within Unionism can be dispelled. The UUC meeting was described by Burnside as “the most successful since the Agreement was signed.”