Peter and the Army Council
With the IMC about to tell us that IRA Army Council poses no threat, Peter Robinson made it clear outside Police Headquarters this morning that such an assessment was not sufficient. Expect the British and Irish governments to accentuate the positive when the IMC report is published tomorrow. However the DUP leader is still looking for the removal of the Army Council, not its effective retirement.
It's a strange bit of choreography. Given that the British and Irish governments control the sources of intelligence one must assume they know the status of the IRA Army Council before asking the IMC to report on it. So they would have had a good idea that the assessment would fall short of the DUP's bottom line. Perhaps they hope it will inch things forward, but, barring some surprising finding, I can't see tomorrow's report making much difference to the current deadlock.
I'm 
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~02~RS~)
CommentsSign in
You need to sign in to contribute to this page. If you're new to BBC Blogs, creating your membership is quick and easy.
"It's a strange bit of choreography."
Perhaps it isn't choreography. Perhaps its just a party sticking to its bottom line.
Complain about this comment
The sentence about choreography refers to the content of the paragraph it is contained in i.e. the governments telling the IMC to tell them what they told it.
Complain about this comment
Tomorrow's report will only please our maverick MEP. What is the point in this latest report? Will the deadlock ever be broken?
Complain about this comment
there was no point to the report Stormontspy
It is of course good if the IRA council is not organising terrorist attacks. but as long as it still exists then it will always be a threat.
If SF/IRA are totally committed to peaceful means why do they need to cling onto to their terror council? Ask them this question because I do not believe they have ever answered it
Also can we please stop calling it an "army council". it is not an army. it is an illegal terrorist organisation
Complain about this comment
The IRA are a defeated bunch of hoodlums, they have given their guns over to inspectors appointed by the London government and they are struggling to come to terms with their end.
The council is the last edifice of their shameful history and it should be consigned to the bin immediately. Peter Robinson is right to stick to his position as it the position of honour and decency
Complain about this comment
I fail to see what the issue is here. Looking at this objectively, I would of course far rather that the IRA were out of existence completely. That said, given the state of where it is now in comparison with where the multitude of loyalist paramilitaries are along the path to decommissioning and disbandment, I find it very disappointing that more political effort is not being made in this direction.
Sinn Fein is at Stormont just as is the PUP. Let's get rid of all the guns, of course yes, but shouldn't there be much more emphasis now on getting loyalist paramilitaries to wrap up and close down their organisations before the decommissioning commission itself finishes?
Just think of all the weaponry that must still be out there... what a sign of political bravery and leadership getting this to happen would be.
Complain about this comment
A logical point patrick_78, but not the main point.
You see the collection of scumbags, murderers, drug dealers, idiots, wannabees (that's you Jackie McDonald), psychos and scroungers that make up the ranks of the loyalist paramilitaries are not asking to run the country. Nobody will vote for them.
They are an irrelevance. The SoS should proceed with his threat to close down the decommissioning body and throw the lot of them in jail for breaching the agreement.
It's time to be realistic about the loyalists. They are, and theirs is, a lost cause.
Complain about this comment
why was the same thing not said of the Republicans then?
why where the PIRA allowed to threaten their way into government?
I am in no way defending the loyalist terrorists. But seeing as people in this country are so insistant on supporting terrorists in their government why not complete the set and get the loyalist murderers into stormont too?
A government full of murderers. what a democracy that would be eh?!!
Complain about this comment
They didn't threaten their way into government, they got voted in.
Why should we let loyalists in? Nobody voted for them.
I for one wouldn't be happy for them to be part of the executive just because some Allisterite thinks it's logical.
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS