Transcript:
This was followed by a difficult meeting with the UUP team. Empey was particularly insistent that, unless the Irish were prepared to consider radical change, not only in strand 2, the process was going nowhere. Unionist annoyance with hardline Irish public statements in previous days was very clear. The Prime Minister underlined the need to meet the Irish fear that there would never be any North-South implementation bodies because of Unionist sabotage. Trimble suggested (for the first but not last time) that the Irish actually wanted to damage the UUP politically, but that the UUP were nevertheless ready to talk to the Irish if they were ready to make serious change. Maginnis stressed UUP difficulties over policing, decommissioning and security. It was left that we would talk to the Irish again about the text. (By prior agreement with the Irish, we did not give the UUP the new Strand 2 text at this stage for fear of simply triggering further Unionist demands).
Notes:
- The UUP is the Ulster Unionist Party.
- ‘Empey’ is Reg Empey, a UUP politician (he was later the leader of the UUP).
- ‘Maginnis’ is Ken Maginnis, another UUP politician.