were regional talk to the Provisional IRA.' Atkins: 'I don't know..' of the majority at conference that La national presence in order to take advantage HUMPHREY Atkins is possibly not Thatcher's favourite minister. Along with the media, she has had her time cut out trying to disguise the fact that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland is a complete idiot.
This task was not assisted by a press conference given by Atkins at Stormont Castle in Belfast on 20 November, the day when the government presented its Green Paper proposing a conference on the North of Ireland; yet another British "solution' to its war which has already ground to a halt.
Atkins was asked the following questions by a reporter from An Phoblacht/ AP/RN: 'If you could come down to earth one minute, Mr Atkins. Given the likelihood of the conference flopping, what with the apathy among the parties etc., and the intractability of the situation, as was the case in Zimbabwe, will the British government consider instigating Lancaster House-type talks with the equivalent of the Patriotic Front in Ireland - the IRA?"
Atkins: 'Because I don't talk to, eh, terrorists...' AP/RN: 'But that's how the Tory Party and the British media have referred to the Patriotic Front. And indeed Mr Whitelaw, your cabinet colleague, spoke to the Republican Movement in June 1972, and in fact flew them into England Atkins: •Yes. But look... first of all I am dealing with Northern Ireland and not Africa, and secondly this is 1979 and I am sitting here and I am not going to AP/RN: 'Well it wasn't Africans Mr Whitelaw flew into England for the Atkins: I am sorry, I just don't mind what happened in 1972, we are in 1979 now, and I have given you the answer to your question — No.' A reporter from the Cork Examiner then said: 'Excuse me sir. What is the difference between the Patriotic Front and the IRA?"
There was widespread laughter as Atkins continued: 'I am the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, you see, and I don't know anything about the lunlues oppor-