Blair speech: reason for the Agreement

Tony Blair’s speech yesterday was long and detailed. He has clearly learned much from Clinton’s thorough-going research and sensitivity to multiple audiences. Rather than giving you the whole speech at once, we’ll look at different aspects of the speech throughout the day.

First, he reminds the audience of the reasons for the putting together the agreement in the first place:

“Enemies would become not just partners in progress but sit together in Government. People who used to advocate the murder of British Ministers and security services, would be working with them. The police, the criminal justice system, the entire apparatus of Government would be reformed beyond recognition. People would put all the intransigence and hatred of the past behind them and co-operate. Britain and Ireland would reach a new relationship. The North and South of the island of Ireland would have a new set of institutions to mark change and co-operation within a wider framework of relationships within these islands.”

The BBC have an edited version here.

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