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ON THE RECORD
ANDREW MACKAY INTERVIEW
RECORDED FROM TRANSMISSION BBC-1 DATE: 31.5.98
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JOHN HUMPHRYS: Mr Mackay, good afternoon. Would you
have done it?
ANDREW MACKAY: No, I would not. I think the
invitation's decidedly premature. The simple proof is that Sinn Fein/IRA
have not yet decommissioned one single weapon, or handed in any explosives.
They haven't even said that the armed struggle is finished for all time. Once
that's happened then their political leaders can get invitations of this sort.
But at this stage, I just think it is invidious for Prince Charles and it's
potentially very embarrassing for him.
HUMPHRYS: On the other hand, they are on board the
peace train aren't they? I mean, without them it would have been impossible to
get this far.
MACKAY: Yes, well, I'm pleased the ceasefire is
holding. I'm pleased that Sinn Fein/IRA seem to have signed up to the Belfast
agreement. Let's hope this continues. Let's make further progress, have
decommissioning which we must have before prisoners can be released, or Sinn
Fein members can become ministers in the Assembly. Let them renounce violence
once and for all and then they can take their place in the democratic family,
but this is decidedly premature. Can I just say to Mo Mowlam: If you are
totally satisfied that they are fit and proper people to come to Hillsborough
and to the garden party on Wednesday, why are you then saying on television
this morning that you will make sure they don't shake hands with Prince
Charles. It seems very odd to invite people to a party and then say the royal
host shouldn't actualy meet them.
HUMPHRYS: So should the invitation be withdrawn?
MACKAY: I think it should not have been issued.
HUMPHRYS: But it has been.
MACKAY: It's probably almost too late to
withdraw it now, but it looks to me as if it's going to be a real farce. I've
some experience of garden parties. As a Minister in the last government in the
Whips' Office, I helped to handle them at Buckingham Palace and know what it's
like at Hillsborough as well. And I think it'll be a terrific farce with Mo
trying to fend them off and they trying to shake hands with Prince Charles to
make it a propaganda coup for the Republicans, and I think it's going to be
very regrettable. And I'm just sad that Prince Charles and the royal family
have been dragged into all this.
HUMPHRYS: But, it's a bit of lame response, isn't
it, to say: Well, I think it's probably too late now. I mean if you feel as
strongly about it as you apparently do, why don't you just say: well, withdraw
the invitation. People are going to be upset, Prince Charles is going to be
upset - withdraw it.
MACKAY: Well, I would be quite happy to have it
withdrawn, but the simple truth is the invitation's now been issued, a
mistake has been made by the Government. They've put Prince Charles into a
very invidious and very embarrassing position, and I'm not quite sure how
they're going to get out of it now.
HUMPHRYS: Well, isn't the likelihood that neither
Mr McGuinness nor Mr Adams will actually go. They are both Republicans after
all.
MACKAY: I'm not so sure they won't go. They
are extremely good at public relations. We've seen this when they've hijacked
events with the Prime Minister in Downing Street and elsewhere, and made them
into great propaganda coups for the Republican movement. I would think they
are licking their lips and thinking here's another great opportunity.
HUMPHRYS: But you could argue that Mo Mowlam has
made the best of a bad job. I mean she said this morning that she sort of had
to invite them in a way because the other political leaders were being invited.
But she said as you pointed out: I won't introduce them - I'm going to be the
person who takes the Prince around. I shall make sure that he doesn't get
introduced to Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness. Well, that's fair enough
isn't it?
MACKAY: But why on earth invite somebody to a
party and then say: you're not a fit and proper person to be introduced to the
royal host. Well, that's admitting they shouldn't have been invited.
HUMPHRYS: Can I just interrupt you for a second
because I have just heard this second that they've both said they won't go
because Prince Charles is the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, or some part of
it.
MACKAY: Well, that at least avoids the
embarrassing incident, but I think all this could have been avoided by not
issuing the invitation in the first place. Invitations should only be issued
when they have substantially decommissioned their arms and explosives, and when
they have renounced violence for all time, then we welcome into the democratic
club. Nothing would please me more than for Republicans to become true
democrats. They're moving slowly in the right direction, but it's very very
early days yet.
HUMPHRYS: But as it turns out they have behaved
perhaps, rather diplomatically by saying we won't go. They've saved
embarrassment.
MACKAY: Well, they've certainly saved
embarrassment for Prince Charles and embarrassment for Mo Mowlam. I mean we
want to avoid this, we're just running now into the election time for the
Assembly. We're all hoping that we have sensible politicians elected to that
Assembly, who'll make the Assembly work. The simple truth is that an
invitation like this puts the fear of God into the Unionist community, and the
danger is that they will react by actually electing Unionist politicians who
will be there to wreck or disrupt the Assembly, which will not be in the
interests of a lasting settlement. So I just hope that this incident can be
quickly put behind us, and we can get on with the Assembly elections and the
right people get elected to the Assembly who have the interests of Northern
Ireland at heart.
HUMPHRYS: Andrew Mackay, thanks very much indeed.
MACKAY: Thank you.
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