The Spectator

END THE CHARADE

End the charade: for Sinn Fein, politics is the continuation of war by other means

A coalition with Sinn Fein was never likely to be straightforward for more normal, democratic parties. Only someone culpably naive could have expected it to play by a set of rules that is not of its own making. Sinn Fein is a minority group dedicated to dissimulation, conspiracy and infiltration according to the true and trusted principles first laid down by Lenin, with a definite and non-negotiable goal: the unification of Ireland, whether Ireland wants it or not. Power-sharing for Sinn Fein was always but a stepping-stone towards an irreversible change in sovereignty and towards total power. Its possession of a list of serving prison officers in Northern Ireland is a chilling indication of its probable intentions. This is how ethnic cleansing starts.

For all Mr Blair’s rhetoric, he has hitherto been about as morally and intellectually equipped to deal with Sinn Fein as a rabbit is to deal with a hyena. Lacking true principle, his political bravery has obeyed an inverse square law: his courage is in inverse proportion to the square of the distance from Britain of the problem with which he happens to be dealing. Beyond the confines of Britain and the European Union, he is firm, Churchillian and uncompromising; nearer home, he is not so much a compromiser as an appeaser. Indeed, his record so far is that of Churchill, Chamberlain and PZtain rolled into one.

Of course, he will not be the first politician of recent times to have foundered on the Irish question. This is because there is a circle to be squared, which is an impossible feat: he is faced by a province in which the majority of the population wish to remain part of the United Kingdom, but a substantial minority do not, and a smaller minority is prepared to resort to violence.

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