Sir. I recently attended a meeting at the House of Commons addressed by Andrew Hunter, MP (chairman. Conservative Backbench Northern Ireland Committee). Mr Hunter claimed that unionists were primarily participating in the current multi party negotiations to "negate the proposals contained in the Joint Framework Document", adding that he was optimistic that some good could come out of the talks.
After rebutting Mr Hunter's interpretation of the primary reason for unionists participating in the current circus and explaining that they were seeking to secure an alternative to, and replacement of the Anglo Irish Agreement - although I personally believed their chances of doing so were so severely diminished by their negotiating under the auspices of the very agreement they were seeking to replace - I went on to suggest that the negotiations themselves would stand a much greater chance of success were they not tied to the inflexible three stranded structure and/or the nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" nonsense, which is a recipe for stalemate and procrastination.
Furthermore, I added, if Her Majesty's, Government is intent on imposing its will on the Ulster electorate by reducing the number of education and library boards from five to three - in spite of all party opposition to it within Northern Ireland shy does it lack the courage to impose its 1979 General Election Manifesto commitment to "establish one or more elected regional councils (in Northern Ireland) with a wide range of powers over local services"? This would place education and other public services under the control of locally elected representatives, not central government appointees.
Mr Hunter replied that he shared my commitment to administrative devolution, but Felt that without the prescribed three strands of relationships being discussed in the talks and/or the nothing is agreed until everything is agreed" formula being enshrined in tablets of stone, nationalists would not participate in meaningful discussion with unionists on the future of Northern Ireland.
Mr Hunter's answer, I venture to suggest, vindicates the failure of Irish nationalists to recognise that the greater number of people in Northern Ireland wish to remain within the Union of the United Kingdom. Clearly, there should only be two strands to any negotiations: firstly, the governance of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom and, secondly, relations between the UK (as a whole) and the Irish Republic. This, in turn, underlines the urgency to concentrate attention on re-establishing the totality of relationship within these islands", rather than seeking to sustain Anglo Irish relations upon existing agreements, declarations and proposed frameworks. Yours, etc.,
Hon life member,
Queen's University Belfast
Ulster Unionist Association, Pembury Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN2 4ND.