In setting preconditions for negotiations with “junior” doctors over their long-running and increasingly acrimonious pay dispute, the government seems to have forgotten one of the primary lessons of the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Namely, if you set preconditions, these become the main point of contention rather than the substance, and usually prevent even beginning the very talks needed to resolve disputes.
People said to Tony Blair’s government that bringing peace to Northern Ireland was nigh impossible after more than seven centuries of conflict. Yet it was achieved. People said to me that getting Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness to become the joint heads of Stormont self-government would never happen. Yet it did. And one of the key reasons was that we persuaded both parties to talk rather than block talks from even starting.
