The form of the British veto in Northern Ireland may have changed but it was still a veto, Mr Caoimhghin O Caolain TD (SF) said yesterday .
Addressing a Sinn Fein meeting in Ballinamore, Co Leitrim, he said it was clear before the suspension of the Northern institutions that David Trimble was confident that if his deadline on the decommissioning issue was not met than the British government would suspend the institutions and "soften David's landing".
"It cannot be emphasised enough that this crisis is not about decommissioning. It is about the refusal of the unionist leadership to act as a leadership and to lead their people towards real change and a new political dispensation," he added.
"The best indicator of that is the unionist leadership's reaction to the Patten report on policing. Having brought about the collapse of the institutions, Mr Trimble returned to the Ulster Unionist Council to receive yet more preconditions on his participation in an executive with Sinn Fein. These preconditions centre around the RUC. The clear unionist intent is to ensure that the Patten report's recommendations are not implemented."