In a piece we’ll come back to several times today, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz draws some revealing thoughts on the peace process from the leader of the UUP David Trimble:
“If you are going to have a stable political structure, then you are going to have [to have] some way in which that 30-40 percent [his estimate of the proportion of Nationalist voters in NI] becomes involved and participant. You can tolerate a situation where a small percentage completely withdraws from participation in society, but when you get to that sort of percentage, if they wish to disrupt and cause problems, they can do so.
“It is much better to have a decent structure within the society, to find some way of ameliorating and encouraging people to participate. So it was in our interest – and we keep saying that in meetings – to make Northern Ireland work. It is not in our interest for Northern Ireland to appear to be a failed political entity, or something that does not work.”
Thanks to the inestimable Newshound for this one!
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