No regrets for Trimble
David Trimble today said that he had no regrets about his support for the Good Friday Agreement, but blamed the failure of the Republicans to implement the agreement for his downfall.
Mr Trimble resigned as leader of the Ulster Unionists after the party’s disastrous general election results in which it lost five seats – including his own.
In his first public statement since his defeat, Mr Trimble said he had “no regrets at all about involving ourselves in that negotiation [Good Friday Agreement]” or any regrets about “the fundamentals of the agreement”.
He said that the UUP had lost ground as the “result of the fact that the agreement was not fully implemented”, which he blamed on the Republicans for not committing fully to only political means.
However, he also said that the now-biggest unionist party the DUP were “incapable” of agreement.
Mr Trimble also warned the new Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain that a re-think of the Government’s tactics on Northern Ireland was needed.
He said: “I have to tell him [Peter Hain] that he will be a failure as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he continues on the approach that he outlined on radio this morning, because he is still making the same mistake that the government has made over the course of the last number of years.
“He might also like to ask himself what other unionist leader is going to make an effort to implement the Agreement when they see what has happened to the one leader who did unambiguously endeavour to do so.”
Mr Hain arrived in Belfast this afternoon for his first official engagements as Northern Ireland Secretary.
He said: “Northern Ireland remains a priority and the Good Friday Agreement continues to provide the way forward. There remain the two outstanding issues of ending paramilitary activity and criminality, and securing unionist participation in shared government. With effort and goodwill on all sides, I have no doubt that these issues can be resolved.”
