When Tony told Gordon, while they were having dinner with John on 6 November 2003, that he (Tony) was going to relinquish the Labour leadership in 2004, he (Tony) said, ‘I know I must leave, but I need your help to get through the next year.’ According to Robert Peston, the author who reports these words, Tony then spent that period plotting how to go back on this promise. What Peston does not note is the similarity of Tony’s phrasing to the famous message that the IRA, allegedly through Martin McGuinness, gave to British intelligence in 1993: ‘The conflict is over, but we need your advice on how to bring it to a close.’ It is an interesting echo, whether conscious or not, because the IRA’s message, like Tony’s to Gordon, remains murky. Was it really given or was it, as Sinn Fein now allege, concocted by the British? Did McGuinness really say anything, and if so, what did he mean? Judging by the IRA’s involvement in the biggest bank robbery in British history the other day, and its continuing refusal to give up arms, the conflict still isn’t over.
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