Sinn Fein pair prepare for blackballing by Commons

Sinn Fein's new MPs, Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, will today present themselves at Westminster as Irish equivalents of Black Rod, ceremonially demanding entrance in the certain knowledge that they will be turned away.

The Speaker, Betty Boothroyd, has already decreed that the pair should not be given access to any of the facilities of Parliament on the grounds that they will not take the oath of allegiance to the Queen.

The two men, who are MPs for West Belfast and Mid-Ulster, are expected to be allowed into the building, but then they will formally refuse to take the oath. What happens next depends on the arcane intricacies of parliamentary procedure.

However, Ms Boothroyd's ruling will not come into force until after the Queen's Speech debate ends on Tuesday.

Although Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness could be fined pounds 500 and barred if they try to sit in the Commons, speak or vote without taking the oath, they are still entitled to look around.

At the weekend Mr Adams denounced the Speaker's edict as "insulting and discriminatory", and did not rule out the possibility of legal action. He declared: "Once again the British are not ruling the waves but waiving the rules."

A large majority of MPs in all parties strongly support the decision to exclude the pair, and much of the media will view today's exercise as empty propaganda. But it will play better outside Britain, since sections of Irish and American opinion may be more sympathetic to the argument that the republican mandate should be recognised.

While this encounter may capture headlines, much work is going on behind the scenes for the meeting between Sinn Fein and officials which was sanctioned by Tony Blair last week.

Officials telephoned Sinn Fein on Saturday to begin making arrangements for the meeting, which may take place this week. Also on Saturday Sinn Fein held its first meeting for months with Irish officials. The pace is therefore quickening as the governments seek a second IRA ceasefire.

Martin McGuinness said yesterday: "What we have to do is establish ... whether or not we are going to have on offer a real and meaningful and credible process of peace negotiations, and if we can establish that then we might have a case to put persuasively to the IRA. We will be in a position at that stage ... to put that to the IRA. Whether or not the IRA will accept that is another matter altogether."

Baroness Thatcher yesterday attacked Tony Blair's decision to reopen talks without conditions. In her first real criticism of Mr Blair, she said: "I do not like it ... You do not talk to people who support violence without getting an undertaking from them that that violence will cease."

Speaking in Phoenix, Arizona, she said: "The people in Northern Ireland vote ... to stay with Britain. The IRA try to terrorise them out of that decision. They must never succeed."