Cenotaph wreath rules were changed to placate unionists, Blair-era files show | National Archives

Tony Blair’s government has changed the rules on party leaders in Cenotaph to keep trade unionists with the peace process of Northern Ireland.

The decision was taken to the commemoration market ceremony in 2004 to change the rules prepared in 1984, which meant that the leaders of the parties who won at least six seats in the previous general elections could be a wreath.

The former rules mean that David Timble, who won six seats in 2001 by the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), could participate, while his rival Ian Paisley could not do after winning five seats, the Democratic Union Party (DUP).

However, when Jeffrey Donaldson fled from UUP to Dup in 2003, the balance was reversed and the democratic trade unions complained that they were unjustly treated.

The articles published by the National Archives show that Paul Murphy, the Secretary of Northern Ireland at that time, wrote to his colleagues in the government: “Of course, this year, the DUP is not only the largest party of the DUP, but also because they have been well done well in euro elections).

“But now we are participating in an intense dialogue about the political future, where Dup and Uup are key players in Northern Ireland, Bla said Blair in a note where Blair is copied.

At that time, Constitutional Affairs Secretary Charlie Falconer expressed his concerns by saying that it could be a “negative reaction ğinde when they were limited to laying a common wreath by the North Irish parties of the Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties.

Paisley continued to put a wreath in Cenotaph for the first time, and at this point, a reflection of the status of the largest party in Northern Ireland, Timble joined.

Other files, Blair, the Chief of General Staff, as a part of a movement to get IRA as the peace process is hanging in balance, as a British in the British in the case of the “Securocrats” “Securocrats” to convince the brave and armored bases to rapidly demonstrate.

“As always, we do not have a B plan,” Jonathan Powell wrote to Blair in December 2002 at a time when he decided that the situation was “quite terrible öz after the first collapse of the North Ireland’s power -sharing manager, Sadık Paramiliter violence and IRA.

However, the files also show the high -betting activity of Blair administration negotiations with Irish Republicans, and discuss the return from the British security services.

“The only way to get IRA on the ship is to go to full normalization at a time. Probably the safest way to do it – we must make republicans responsible for the security of the police in places like South Armagni.

“Securocrats, all we can do is take a few small steps, the threat of the opponents, etc. shield and so on.