On 19 March, the British sent Sinn Fein a position paper which contained their basis for entering into talks. Paragraph seven said: The British Government does not have, and will not adopt, any prior objective of ‘ending of partition’. The British Government cannot enter a talks process, or expect others to do so, with the purpose of achieving a pre-determined outcome, whether the ‘ending of partition’ or anything else. It has accepted that the eventual outcome of such a process could be a united Ireland, but this can only be on the basis of the consent of the people of Northern Ireland…
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