Tony Blair’s Secret Talks To The IRA

“REVEALED: Blair’s offer to meet masked IRA leaders,” begins the Guardian.

“Tony Blair offered to take the unprecedented step of holding secret masked meetings with the IRA as he fought to save the Northern Ireland peace process from collapse,” continues the piece.

It is one claim made by former No. 10 chief of staff Jonathan Powell, whose book is, coincidentally, serialised in the Guardian all this week. It also forms the basis of the paper’s lead leader piece. Book reviews are rarely so newsworthy.

But what of the story and news that Blair wanted to sit down for a face to balaclava chat with, well, who knows?

It could be anyone beneath the mask. Tony could be talking with the man who used to do the BBC voice for Gerry Adams, Coronation Street’s ‘Big’ Jim McDonald or just about any Northern Irishman looking for work.
And surely to keep things fair, Tony should also wear a mask, something like Zoro’s in pink.

Tony might sound a little higher pitched than normal, have more forthright views, the hips may be wider than they appear on TV but that really is Tony beneath the mask and not, say, Cherie Blair, Rory Bremner or Euan looking for some work experience. So says his security adviser, dressed as Robin.

It’s all sensational stuff. And it would have been great had Tony actually met the IRA’s eight-strong Army Council.

Imagine what the Guardian would have done with that scoop? Unless , of coruse Tony did meet with the IRA in secret…

Anorak

Posted: 17th, March 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Politicians, The Blairs Comments (2) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink