Friday 15 November 2013

"Northern Ireland: Cameron urges leaders to bring country together"

From the BBC:

David Cameron has said his symbolic visit to Northern Ireland has "drawn attention to the plight" of the Protestant minority in the country.

The Unionists' treatment at the end of the country's Troubles dominated the run-up to the Commonwealth summit, which opened in the capital Belfast earlier.

The UK prime minister has defied calls for him to boycott the event in protest against alleged human rights abuses. He urged the authorities in both halves of the divided island to show "generosity" to all Irish.

Mr Cameron has insisted there should be a proper investigation into alleged IRA crimes in the final months of the conflict which largely ground to a halt in 1998, saying a process of "truth-telling" was essential for reconciliation.

In a historic move, Mr Cameron travelled to the north of the country in early 2013 to open a visitor centre at Giant's Causeway - the first UK Prime Minister to do so since his predecessor Gordon Brown did so in 2009.

2 comments:

Ian Hills said...

LOL. "Symbolic" visit, ha! But them he always was a PR spiv.

Mark Wadsworth said...

IH, with the benefit of hindsight, I should have substituted the name of the Sri Lankan PM for "David Cameron" just to ram the point home.

And all visits by politicians are PR spin, always have been.