A former British government minister today accused the Blair administration of "appeasing" the IRA.
Ex-sports minister Ms Kate Hoey said the British government was operating a "dangerous double standard" which allowed it to accept in Northern Ireland behaviour which it would not tolerate in Britain.
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She claimed Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair had failed to stick to promises made to the unionist community that the release of paramilitary prisoners and the admission of Sinn Féin to Northern Ireland's executive was dependent on the decommissioning of arms.
"The government's 'double standards' on Northern Ireland led to it tolerating arms being held by terrorists when it would not allow sportsmen to own them after Dunblane," said Ms Hoey, in an article in the Daily Telegraph.
She compared the IRA to London's Jamaican gangsters, saying: "We claim to be tough on crime, but demoralise the RUC at the behest of the paramilitaries. Would we dream of making the Metropolitan Police accommodate the Yardies?"
And she said that Britain had opposed "ethnic cleansing" and "racial hatred" in the Balkans, but allowed republicans to practise them in Northern Ireland. Ms Hoey said: "The government has been playing a complex game of appeasement with republicans."
PA