I have been on the search for Frank Millar’s interview (subscription only) with Peter Robinson in last Wednesday’s Irish Times. Finally my paper copy arrived on Saturday morning, so that I have now managed to track it down on the web.
Although Millar is the London Editor of the Irish Times, he was also for many years a leading member of the UUP. It’s clear that, at times, Robinson treats this as a conversation between two political rivals, rather than between an ‘impartial’ journalist and a politician. This important piece is the first hint of a ‘plan B’. It may also presage the final leg of the DUP’s assent from fringe loyalist protest party to key a leadership role in mainstream politics.
Robinson starts with his objection to the current form of agreement:
“The Belfast Agreement was fundamentally flawed. The core principle was that instead of confronting terrorism you actually elevated terrorists, gentrified their leaders, accommodated their wrongdoing and rewarded their evil. That’s the antithesis of the policy that I pursue.”
“And having been an opponent of David Trimble on the Belfast Agreement, it would only be my enemies who would attempt to associate me with it.”
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