Part of the debate – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 13 Rhagfyr 1973.
For the simple reason that I did not write the White Paper. They did. If they want to give promises, then they should stand by them. I did not ask for that promise. If they do not want to stand by that promise, then let them tell the world that they have changed their minds. Let us not have all this talk about sending out invitations. If Her Majesty's loyal Opposition had been promised something in a White Paper on the lines that they would be attending a conference, they would have been fighting hard to be there. They would not let the Government off the hook. They were denying elected representatives the right to be there. That was the folly committed by the British Government.
Of course we are opposed to the White Paper. The hon. Member for Belfast, North (Mr. Stratton Mills) said that we should have taken part in the first talks and that something different might have happened had we attended those talks. But what did we fight an election for? It would have been dishonest for anybody to have said that they rejected the Executive and then to change their minds and surrender their principles.
The trouble about the talks on the Executive is that they were not only talks about the Executive but concerned policing, the Council of Ireland and other matters. When we asked the Secretary of State to meet us and talk on those matters, we were told "No, you cannot do so."
The hon. Member for Leeds, South has said that he would like to see a proper Opposition in the Assembly in a constitutional situation. But what contribution did he make to the 264,000 voters and their wishes? Did he say "It is in the White Paper that these people should have a say"? If he had said that it would have helped the situation. If some of the other minority leaders had said, "We are in the same position as these Loyalists", we would have stood for their rights to be there. But there was complete silence. The noble Alliance Party was conspicuous by its silence.
Mr. Faulkner did not want the Loyalists to be there, because they would keep an eye on him. He did not want an eye kept on what was going on. The Southern Irish Government could not have gone into the Sunningdale talks to sacrifice their own Constitution because the Southern Constitution says that the matter must be submitted to a plebiscite. Mr. Cosgrave has a majority of two. The Fianna Fail are breathing down his neck. Mr. Cosgrave could not go into those talks and say "We are giving up Articles 2 and 3." Mr. Faulkner told the country that he would get the situation changed, but that did not happen. We heard what Dr. Fitzgerald said when he arrived home. His words on returning from Sunningdale were "The Constitution is not negotiable".
The Loyalists received an amazing declaration which I have read with great care. The Southern Irish Government said this
The Irish Government accepted and solemnly declared that there could be no change in the status of Northern Ireland "—
there was no definition whatever of what the "status" would be—
until a majority of the people of Northern Ireland desired a change in that status.
It is wonderful that in this day and age Dublin agrees that the majority should rule. The Prime Minister said that it was extraordinary. Mr. Bradford said that it was revolutionary. Mr. Faulkner said that it was dramatic. I must pay tribute to the hon. Member for Belfast, West. He said modestly "We have got all we asked for."
Is not it strange that the British Government's declaration was different? The British Government solemnly declared that it was, and would remain, their policy to support the wishes of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland. Then they defined what they thought was the present status of Northern Ireland. They said that it was part of the United Kingdom. However, that was not written into the declaration of the Southern Government. They kept away from that because they had Articles 2 and 3 of their Constitution staring them in the face.
Article 2 says that the Government of the South controls the whole island of Ireland, all the islands off the shore and the territorial seas. Article 3 says that the laws passed by the Southern Government shall have the like area and extent of application.