The Northern Secretary has urged all the pro-Good Friday Agreement political parties to abandon partisan politics and move forward. Speaking this evening after separate meetings with David Trimble and Gerry Adams, Peter Mandelson said that the parties had to think, not only of their own constituencies, but to put themselves in other people's shoes and see what each other needs. He said that everybody was going to have to take risks. Mr Mandelson said that, whatever way forward is found, it is not going to be perfect from anyone's point of view.
The SDLP has welcomed comments from David Trimble in which the Ulster Unionist leader said that his party did not want to see the Good Friday Agreement renegotiated. However, speaking after talks with the Northern Secretary, Sinn Féin have complained that Republicans face a British government rather than an Unionist veto on restoring the political institutions in the North.
David Trimble emerged from his hour of talks with the Northern Secretary to say that the priority was now to devise a process that would get all the parties talking. He criticised Sinn Féin for hinting that they might walk away from the Good Friday Agreement, saying that, for now, Unionists wanted to see it implemented in full.
That drew a guarded welcome from Mark Durkan of the SDLP who sounded a warning nonetheless about the danger of Ulster Unionist hardliners broadening the terms of reference of any review of the agreement. Earlier, Sinn Féin had a lengthy session with Peter Mandelson, which ended with little progress being reported.
Party negotiator, Gerry Kelly, complained about "a British government veto", which is a clear signal that the rift with Peter Mandelson is far from being healed. The Northern Secretary will likely now have further meetings with the other parties before reflecting on what he has heard and deciding whether to have a formal review of this extremely difficult situation.
