BRITAIN:BRITISH PRIME Minister Gordon Brown has assured DUP MP Nigel Dodds that he "values" the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and says he "will work to make that Union strong".
This clarification of Mr Brown's position followed a wave of unionist indignation at the absence of any meaningful reference to Northern Ireland in a newspaper article in which the prime minister celebrated the Union of England, Scotland and Wales and urged unionists to be "resolute" in resisting the forces of nationalism.
In the House of Commons yesterday Mr Dodds quoted Mr Brown's Daily Telegrapharticle approvingly, while noting that he had referred only to the English, Scottish and Welsh and their capacity also to be "proud to be British".
Would Mr Brown now take the opportunity to follow the example of his predecessor Tony Blair and say that he also valued the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, asked Mr Dodds.
The prime minister replied: "Not only do I value the Union, but I will work to make that Union strong."
Mr Brown also told Mr Dodds that if he checked the Daily Telegraphwebsite, which ran the prime minister's submitted article in full, he would see "that Northern Ireland was included, and not excluded".
DUP sources have indicated that the party is likely to follow-up Mr Brown's reply to Mr Dodds in an effort to explore the prime minister's thinking about ways in which the unity of the United Kingdom might be further strengthened.
With Northern Ireland seemingly excluded from various measures by which the Labour government thinks to encourage a greater sense of "Britishness", the issue has also assumed greater urgency for the DUP's emerging new leadership in the light of the growing debate about Scottish independence, or at least increased powers for the Holyrood parliament.
The political ground has shifted further in Scotland this week with the appointment of Prof Sir Kenneth Calman as chairman of the new "cross-party, cross-border" commission - supported by the pro-Union Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties - to review the 1998 devolution settlement.