Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Twitter
Yahoo!
TechnoratiGeorge W Bush calls on Northern Ireland to support devolution vote
As Northern Ireland prepared to vote on whether to transfer justice powers from London to Belfast, former US President George W Bush appealed to British allies of the Ulster Unionists (UUP) to persuade the pro-union party to support the deal. The UUP, which has an electoral pact with the Conservatives, said on Monday that it would vote "no" as the Northern Ireland Assembly pronounces on the transfer proposal on Tuesday afternoon.
Bush telephoned the leader of the British Conservative Party, David Cameron, to persuade him to talk his Ulster Unionist Party allies out of opposing the deal.
Following Bush's call Cameron spoke to UUP leader Sir Reg Empey, Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman Owen Paterson confirmed.
But as Paterson told BBC radio, "It doesn't matter how eminent the people are that put pressure on us or on the Ulster Unionist Party, we are not in a position to order the Ulster Unionist Party around."
Bush's intervention comes after similar appeals by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who spoke to Sir Empey and to Northern Ireland's First and Deputy First Ministers, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness, at the weekend.
However the UUP has shown no signs of reversing its position.
The UUP's opposition is unlikely to block the deal, which has enough support from the Sinn Fein and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to pass in Tuesday's vote.
However, there are fears that the transfer will ultimately prove unsustainable without support from all parties.
Under the deal, agreed last month, policing and justice powers would be transferred from Westminster to Belfast by 12 April, completing the devolution process first begun in 1998.
Comments
React to this article