THE UK Unionist MP for North Down, Mr Bob McCartney, has called for a set of unionist principles to be drawn up. At the launch of his party's manifesto yesterday he said agreement on detail was unnecessary, as a basic platform of principles to which all unionist parties could give allegiance would be enough.
Mr McCartney said everyone wanted peace but not at the price of sacrificing the Union. "Any settlement must be fair, stable and permanent, and not simply a staging post to Irish unity.
"The creation of friendly and mutually beneficial relations with the Republic of Ireland is to be welcomed. The erection of political institutions to create a united Ireland by instalments will be utterly rejected," he said.
The absence of valid economic or social arguments for a united Ireland forced republicans to resort to violence, he said. But those who condoned terrorism or retained the means of inflicting violence on others could not expect to sit down with democrats.
Mr McCartney said the political wings of the paramilitary groups had to accept the Mitchell principles and agree to begin decommissioning immediately if they wanted to be at the negotiating table. Mr McCartney is to meet the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, in London today.