The UK Unionist Party leader, Mr Robert McCartney, has warned that the Framework Documents are designed to dupe unionists into a united Ireland. Any solution to the conflict which countenanced an Irish dimension could not be tolerated, he also insisted. Mr McCartney has published a 16-page pamphlet on the documents which argues they are the blueprint for a united Ireland. They laid the groundwork and created all the necessary institutions which would lead to a united Ireland by degrees, according to Mr McCartney.
The pamphlet is one of three similar publications aimed at persuading the pro-Union people of Northern Ireland that any settlement following from the Stormont talks will be to the detriment of all unionists. He previously published a re port on consent - the UK Unionist Party said over 6,000 copies were sold - and plans to publish a third pamphlet, Nationalist Mythology and Protestant Guilt, in the new year, which will contend that the notion of unionist discrimination against nationalists during the Stormont government was greatly exaggerated.
Mr McCartney states that since 1921 British strategic policy was one of disengagement from all parts of Ireland, and the frameworks were yet another manifestation of that goal. The documents were designed to "sedate" unionists into gradually accepting Irish unification.
At the launch of the pamphlet in Belfast, Mr McCartney said the ultimate object of a North-South body was to "create a functionally, factually and economically united Ireland". Its aim was to make the transfer of formal legal sovereignty from the UK to the Republic a "mere formality".
The framework documents with their promise of North-South arrangements with executive powers represented the minimum solution Sinn Fein would accept and the maximum settlement unionists could obtain.
This formula which effectively followed an "immutable, Brits-out, all-Ireland, self-determination agenda" should be unacceptable to all unionists because it was contrary to their interests and because it was being determined by violent republicanism.
Mr McCartney was also critical of the British Labour government, saying that while Dr Mo Mowlam may have replaced Mr Kevin McNamara, there was no discernible change in the Labour policy of promoting a united Ireland by consent.
Under no circumstances could the nationalist desire for some form of executive link with the South, no matter how tenuous, be countenanced. "I have absolutely nothing to offer in that regard because I do not know any country in the western world that would offer that," he said.
"Why should I give any allegiance or any support to Ray Burke or Dick Spring or the present incumbent Andrews who are claiming to have an input into my governance when they don't contribute a single penny to any of the social structures. And moreover do not stand for election; they do not have the vote of a single person here and they come and go according to the votes in the Republic," Mr McCartney added.
When this reporter tried to explore the issue of nationalist allegiance, Mr McCartney appeared to take offence. He accused The Irish Times of bias against him and drew the press conference to a close, saying its sole purpose was to discuss his pamphlet.
He had one final comment on the issue, however. "Nationalism is a bankrupt ideology and most civilised people realise that nationalism has been the cause of more death and destruction, and Ireland appears to be the last place in Europe where this stupid, foolish, empty, irredentist claim is still being pursued."
