Quote:
Originally Posted by billybunter
Sinn Féin are the second biggest party in the north of Ireland. They have a mandate and wide support.
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While no doubt SF are frightfully well seen by many on both sides of the border in Hibernia, here in Britannia their popularity is right up there with syphilis biscuits. It is inevitable and unsurprising that a meeting between HMQ and Martin McGuinness, for so many years the thinly disguised spokesman of the IRA's Army Council, does not enhance the popularity and prestige of the monarchy among the majority of its own British subjects. There are still plenty of hard feelings on this side of the Irish Sea also.
Having said this much, I am mildly intrigued that Mr McGuinness has sunk his own feelings sufficiently that
he is willing to meet
her. It might not necessarily be the happiest moment of his life either. He is, after all, a republican. By meeting her, he is conceding (no doubt with a lot of concealed resentment) that she is the head of state and he has a duty to acknowledge her.
Perhaps he will emulate Tony Banks? Some of us will remember when Tony Banks MP was made a Privy Counsellor and swore his oath of allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen with his fingers crossed behind his back.
