David Cameron
Did David Cameron intend to link Northern Ireland to Libya? In an attempt to reassure the Muslim world that military action against Libya is inspired by a simple desire to save lives, the prime minister harked back to a landmark declaration by the British government on Northern Ireland.
This is what Cameron said in Downing Street on Thursday at a press conference with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan:
Let me be clear to anyone watching in the Islamic or the Arab world. Britain has no selfish or strategic oroil-related interest in what is happening in Libya. Our interest has been to try and help save civilian life.
The prime minister's claim that Britain has "no selfish or strategic or oil-related interest" in Libya is very similar to the wording in the Anglo-IrishDowning Street Declaration of 1993 on Northern Ireland. This was designed to offer reassurances to nationalists and republicans about British intentions. Article 4 of the declaration, launched by John Majorand his then Irish counterpart Albert Reynolds, says:
The Prime Minister, on behalf of the British Government...reiterates, on behalf of the British Government, that they have no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland.
The declaration alarmed Unionists who believed it showed the British government was neutral on whether Northern Ireland should remain within the United Kingdom. But it was balanced by the principle of consent. This said that Northern Ireland's constitutional future would be decided by the people of Northern Ireland and not by the British or Irish governments.
Cameron, an ardent Unionist, will be horrified by any suggestion that a formal British declaration of its relationship with Northern Ireland should apply to Britain's relationship with Libya. His words do show, however, that the three elements of the 1993 declaration – no selfish strategic or economic interest – are very much on his mind. This is for a simple reason. Cameron has always felt deeply uncomfortable that a Tory government was willing to tolerate an arm's length relationship with the one part of the United Kingdom outside Great Britain, even if the declaration was instrumental in persuading the IRA to declare a ceasefire in 1994.
The future prime minister made clear his distaste for the declaration when he addressed the Ulster Unionists' annual conference in 2008 as he set the seal on a deal between the two parties. Declaring that he wanted the most talented people from all corners of the UK in a government led by him, Cameron told the conference:
It's in my own selfish and strategic interests, too.
I blogged on Cameron's speech in which he also made clear he would not be indifferent about Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom:
I will never be neutral when it comes to expressing my support for the Union.
This all highlights an often overlooked aspect of Cameron. He is a traditional Tory Unionist. That didn't quite work at the election last year when the Tory-Unionist alliance failed to win a single seat. The prime minister will be hoping that Unionists are a little more understanding of his repetition of a sensitive declaration about their place within the UK.
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