Burying the Body

Strangers become friends

No-one ever liked the name ‘Body’. I once urged that it we called it by its Irish name Comlacht.

Today the British Irish Parliamentary Body has metamorphosed into the British Irish Parliamentary Assembly.

It was launched in 1990 and the first plenary session was a meeting of strangers. Large delegations from the British and Irish Parliaments meet in Westminster.

Today we met as old friends. We know each other well. The gulf of suspicion and misunderstanding that separated us in 1990 has gone. The Assembly now has parliamentarians from the devolved parliaments and assemblies and the Channel Isles. The body has been a wonderful instrument for building trust and confidence in an atmosphere of mutual respect. It’s impossible to believe hostile myths about fellow parliamentarians when you have shared a meal or a pint or two with them.

The body has played a large part in breaking down the barriers in the North.  Last year for the first time ever we had a plenary meeting in Belfast. Ulster unionists have addressed our meeting. The ‘Body’ was a catalyst for the peace process. Today Peter Hain took over as the British co-chairman from Paul Murphy who has taken over from Peter as Secretary of State for Wales.

In future we will no longer spend hours talking about the crisis in Ulster. The future is the environment. We are small islands with a population of about 65 million in a world of billions of people. We have so much in common. The seas washed around our shores and their energy is wasted. If the force of the Bristol Channel and the Alderney race could be harnessed it would remove the need for 5 nuclear power stations.  It’s not high technology. Simple tidal current turbines working on both tides could produce energy that is clean, carbon free and eternal. The assembly could be a force for pushing the merits of marine power.

The ‘Body’ is no more. Long live the Assembly.