Major proves the truth will out
  

 By ROBERT McCARTNEY MP, Leader of the United Kingdom Unionist Party                        Wednesday Oct.2oth.,1999 

 TRUTH cannot be indefinitely suppressed since time and circumstance inevitably expose it to the public gaze.  

 John Major, in a Sky News interview promoting his memoirs, provided such an occasion. He claimed credit for the Belfast Agreement, describing it as 'The Frameworks Document with knobs on it.'In March 1995, the Ulster Unionist Party, in a policy document responding to the Framework's proposals, rejected them in their entirety as offering any basis for discussion. It described the proposed Assembly as one that would be paralysed and ineffective.  

 Such was the view of the party prior to David Trimble becoming leader. On April 10, 1998, he endorsed an Agreement which John Major now describes as the Framework with knobs.  

 Mr Trimble now asserts that the Belfast Agreement is just not the only way forward, but the best way forward. He claims that the Frameworks have been shelved as history, but this view is clearly incompatible with Mr Major's.  

 Who is telling the truth? Well, political truth usually emerges from those who no longer are either responsible or accountable. Criteria which John Major now meets.  

 The writer in my 'Report on the Frameworks', published prior to the Belfast Agreement, forecast the following: "It is now certain that whether Unionists sign up to an agreement or not, the Government will offer in a referendum a settlement package containing the Framework Documents as its central core".  

 The truth of that forecast has now been endorsed by John Major.  

 New Labour and David Trimble, in their efforts to persuade the pro-Union people that there is no alternative to the Belfast Agreement, have repeatedly asserted that there is no Plan B, but this is untrue. A Plan B is in position already, designed to come into operation after an Executive is first formed and then collapses as unworkable.  

 The details are set out in Paragraph 47 of the Frameworks. Its success depends upon the Ulster Unionists being foolish enough to form an Executive. The paragraph provides:"In the event that devolved institutions in Northern Ireland cease to operate and direct rule from Westminster was re-introduced, the British Government agrees that other arrangements would be made to implement the commitment to provide co-operation at all levels between the people North and South representing both traditions in Ireland as agreed in the Joint Declaration and to ensure that the co- operation that had been developed through the North/ South Body be maintained."So, even if the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive collapse as unworkable, 'the dynamic and expanding' North/South bodies (if they have been brought into existence by the formation of an Executive) will remain alive and kicking.  

 Under the Belfast Agreement, the North/South implementation bodies and the North/South ministerial council only come into being when an Executive is formed. These bodies derive their authority not from any agreement among Northern Ireland's political parties, but from two international treaties made between the British and Irish Governments.  

 If the institutions are brought into being, their existence will not be terminated by the collapse of the Assembly or the Executive. They can only be terminated by the agreement of the two governments, who may continue them in one form or another to fulfill Plan B and ensure that the co- operation achieved by such institutions will continue.  

 The present government has turned spin and deception into an art form. In July, Tony Blair came to Belfast with the primary intention of luring the Ulster Unionists into forming an Executive against some promise of future IRA decommissioning. Such a formation would have had all the consequences already mentioned.  

 In an effort both to reassure and deceive the Unionists, Dr Mowlam told the Commons on July 13, 1999, that the Northern Ireland Bill provided for the automatic and immediate suspension of the operation of the institutions established under the Agreement if either decommissioning or devolution commitments were not met.  

 She said the North/South ministerial council would cease to function under the terms of a supplementary treaty between the two governments. The Draft Treaty was said to be available in the House of Commons Library. None of this was accurate.  

 The Commons Library had no such draft left in it. A copy has, however, been obtained from the Northern Ireland Office web site. This confirms that no such Treaty has been agreed with the Irish Government.  

 The document is in the form of a letter from the Secretary of State to the Minister for Foreign Affairs for Ireland. The letter encloses a draft treaty for Irish acceptance. To date, the Irish government has not so responded. The letter itself states:"If the foregoing is acceptable to your government... your reply to that effect shall constitute an Agreement between our two governments in this matter."What this letter confirms is that the existing Treaties authorising these all-Ireland bodies do not provide for their termination or suspension and that they will survive the collapse of any executive unless the Irish Government agrees to a supplementary Treaty providing otherwise.  

 So far that Government has shown a marked reluctance to do so; perhaps on the basis of what they have they hold.  

 David Trimble continues to alarm the pro-union people with the claim that, if the Agreement fails, something nastier is lurking the woodpile. But if the Executive is formed and then proves unworkable, the situation for the majority would be worse than the Agreement's failure.  

 In the present circumstances, for the Ulster Unionist leader to contemplate forming an Executive without decommissioning having first taken place would be a complete catastrophe for the Union. With the all-Ireland bodies in place, republicans would not care if the Assembly collapsed the next day. Their wish list would be complete with the Agreement having little left to offer them.  

 Unionists must now realise that, if this Labour Government could safely impose joint authority without the consent of the pro-Union majority, it would have done so already.  

 The Government fully appreciates that what is undemocratically imposed provides the basis for all justifiable opposition. But that which it can persuade Unionists to agree to is gone from them for ever.