The British government came under concerted Conservative, DUP and SDLP fire in the Commons last night over its decision to postpone elections to a new Northern Ireland Assembly, writes London Editor Frank Millar.
The Conservatives' Northern Ireland spokesman, Mr Quentin Davies, led the condemnation of the move, accusing ministers of treating the issue with "levity and high-handedness" and of presiding over "a lamentable shambles".
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, told the House the decision to postpone the election, scheduled for May 29th, had been taken "with a very heavy heart" in order to sustain the Belfast Agreement.
However, Mr Davies countered: "The government, if they postpone, will have exchanged a risk of things going wrong for a greater risk of things going wrong."
Repeating his view that the postponement would almost certainly prove counter-productive and produce precisely the kind of result the government feared in the first place, he insisted: "If the shelving of elections continues indefinitely, at a certain point that must clearly result in the end of devolution. In short, in order to avoid the risk of failure, the government will have brought about the certainty of failure."
Labour MPs joined in the attack as the government fast-tracked the latest postponement legislation through the Commons in preparation for the completion of its remaining stages today and tomorrow.
With the time available for debate yesterday further reduced by a government statement on Iraq, and the personal statement by Ms Clare Short following her resignation, Labour's Ms Gwyneth Dunwoody said: "Those who seek to curtail debate, whatever their reasons and whatever the so-called urgency, do democracy and the House of Commons very ill."
Her colleague, Mr Andrew Mackinlay, branded the move "a thundering disgrace". He said: "It is the ultimate example of where this House has been brought into disrepute by the charade of our law-making process. It is a shameful exercise."
SDLP MP Mr Eddie McGrady challenged the absence in the government's legislation of a firm date by which an election would be held in the autumn, and asked Mr Murphy if he was not granting "an unending veto to a party that does not wish to participate in elections."
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, insisted there "isn't a single word of truth" in the charge by DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson that he had first sought to have the elections postponed by a year, and then pressed for delay until the autumn.
In a rebuttal of Mr Davies's remarks, the former first minister asserted: "The reality is that to press for an election while the Assembly is suspended is to do the work of the republican movement." And he urged Mr Murphy to press ahead with the proposals from the British-Irish Joint Declaration for an international monitoring body which, he suggested, might be "the lever to bring the republican movement that bit further".
Mr Murphy told the House: "All those who say they support the agreement must ask themselves whether an election now would be a step toward its long-term success."
He added: "An election held now in the conditions created by the uncertainties surrounding the (IRA's) commitments would have simply polarised opinion further and made it much more difficult to get the institutions up and running again."
Although the IRA statement and subsequent clarifications of it by the Sinn Féin president had been "significant developments", he said they had not provided the absolute clarity required that there would be an "immediate, full and permanent cessation" of all paramilitary activities.
The former shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Mr Andrew Mackay, broke ranks with Mr Davies, saying Conservatives should support the Secretary of State in holding republicans to their obligations under the agreement.