Just who's handling who here?

Sinn Fein expels British spy

A link to the Scotsman's take on the latest Northern Ireland fiasco - news that broke too late for this morning's print editions.

The last time Britain's Labour party were elected into office it was under the leadership of the late Harold Wilson. Like Blair, he too retired whilst still in office (one presumes Blair intends keeping his word on this of course!) but sensibly only told the Queen about his departure date. It was only some time after his exit from the political stage that we learned that the British Intelligence services had been involved in a campaign to de-stabilise his government for reasons of their own.

This latest news has a peculiar and slighty familiar stink about it. The peace process in so far as the Northern Ireland assembly is concerned fell apart a while back because of spying allegations against Sinn Fein. Now we find that the spy in question was a UK special branch operative. In other words, Sinn Fein themselves did nothing to justify the dissolution of the fledgling parliament.

Blair's government, whatever its other faults, can hardly be said to have engaged in any activity designed to hinder conciliation in the long-standing troubles. Thanks largely to the impartial attitude of the late Mo Mowlan and possibly the presence of catholicism in Blair's own marriage, it could rather be said to have made unprecedented progress in resolving the issues. For this reason, I can hardly believe they would have had knowledge of any agenda to subvert the process.

So the question is - exactly who was handling this agent and why? The thought of powers in Whitehall and beyond that can bypass the authority of government is bad enough. The possibility that they could be driven by a religious bias is more disturbing still.

Later.