| | Blair confronts IRA in Belfast
17 Oct 2002
The Prime Minister, Tony Blair, "confronted" the IRA in Belfast today following the suspension of Northern Ireland's power-sharing government earlier this week. Taking up position behind an army Land Rover and dressed in full military battledress, Mr Blair hailed all potential terrorists in the surrounding area and told them to "bloody well stop it".
Once his bodyguards had ensured the area was safe, Mr Blair then proceeded to wriggle along on his front, all the time looking around him for potential threats like "pipe bombs, snipers and dog turds", until he had almost left the airport he arrived at.
Despite Mr Blair's attempts to "fit in" in Belfast, though, military strategists from the Conservative Party have dismissed his approach. Ex-SAS man David Davis said that Mr Blair's movements were "all over the place", while Michael Portillo told of how he had left himself with an exposed rear. Sven Goran Eriksson has meanwhile offered Mr Blair a place in England's midfield.
This afternoon Mr Blair spoke to "a tough and challenging audience" consisting of invited businesspeople and, er, invited businesspeople, with the dual purposes of encouraging the IRA to disband and the promotion of his new self-defence video. "How not to get shot by hiring a load of gullible bodyguards" goes on general release in the UK and Washington DC next week.
This looks good...
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