…because, fundamentally, the IRA will not give up its option to have
another try at uniting Ireland by force. There is also the fact, plain to
everyone, that elections now would display even more of the polarization
effect–the “flight to extremes”–that I noted on this site two years ago,
that scares and angers respectable politicians in Britian and, more
especially, Ireland. And so another chapter is added to the manual that
British governments have been writing for the past 34 (or 87, or 837,
depending on your point of view) years–the one titled “How NOT to Deal with
a Terrorist Movement.”