IRA urged to decommission

Will the IRA decommission this time?

The Sinn Fein President, Gerry Adams, says he has urged the IRA to make a ground-breaking move on weapons decommissioning.

Mr Adams says he and chief negotiator Martin McGuinness, told the IRA that such a move would help resolve the crisis facing the devolved government, which is threatened with collapse.

In a speech to party activists, Mr Adams said he was under no illusions about the difficulties the request would present, saying the IRA was not an organisation that bows to pressure, or which moves on British or Unionist terms.

It is a time for clear heads and brave hearts. The IRA must stand out as an example of a people's army, in touch with the people, responsive to their needs and enjoying their genuine allegiance and support.

Gerry Adams

We spoke to the Democratic Unionist Party's Ian Paisley Junior, and to the Ulster Unionists' Lady Sylvia Hermon, who told us that her party was "cautious, but cautiously optimistic"

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How is this unhappy episode going down among the rank and file of the Labour party? Our reporter Becky Milligan has been gathering opinion from MPs.

And as the Cabinet office minister Lord MacDonald has to explain to the House of Lords why he gave apparently false information about the number of political advisers in the Labour government, we speak to the Conservative party chairman David Davis, who told us this was just another example of the government's obsession with spin.

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