Labour hypocrisy on terror exposed in Hain's attack on Tories

David Lidington MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, has defended Conservative opposition to the Northern Ireland Offences Bill after the cabinet minister he shadows - Peter Hain MP - had criticised the Tory position.  Mr Hain had used a interview with ePolitix.com (that appeared on Boxing Day) to say:

"I think we are entitled to expect more bi-partisan support from the opposition than we've got in recent times.  I hope there will be a fresh approach under the new Tory leadership.  I think it is a great shame that the bipartisan policy which helped deliver peace and stability, unparalleled peace and stability for Northern Ireland, should have been broken by the opposition in recent years."

Speaking on the Today programme, Mr Lidington responded vigorously:

“We continue to operate a bipartisan policy on Northern Ireland wherever possible, which sometimes involves giving the Government the benefit of the doubt... On this Bill we are looking at something that would allow people who have committed barbaric murders, things like the Enniskillen Poppy Day massacre, to go free without serving one day in prison, or even appearing themselves in court."

Mr Lidington branded Labour's proposed amnesty for 'on the run' terrorists as a one-sided concession to the IRA which, he suggested, continues to turn criminality on and off at will.  Mr Lidington noted that it was Labour which had pushed Northern Ireland bipartisanship past breaking point.   The Liberal Democrats, both Unionist parties and the nationalist SDLP have joined Tories in opposing a measure that did not appear in the Good Friday Agreement.

Tony Blair and Labour have enjoyed an opinion poll advantage when the public are asked who is most trusted with homeland security but Peter Hain's 'on the run ' bill is only the latest example of Labour's softness on Irish terror.  Charles Moore wrote this after the raid on the Northern Bank:

“Since the peace process began, the IRA has killed soldiers; it has broken into the Castlereagh headquarters of Special Branch, taking the names of informants; it has been involved in gun-running in Florida and terrorist instruction in Colombia; it has infiltrated the government buildings at Stormont, stealing confidential information and intercepting ministerial conversations. All the while, it has continued to organise crime, north and south of the border - armed robbery, cigarette smuggling, punishment beatings and the exiling of individuals whom it doesn't like. And now it grabs £26.5 million.”

Since the ‘appeasement process’ began Northern Ireland’s two moderate parties have been virtually “wiped out”. This is not the verdict of an opponent of the Good Friday Agreement but of Seamus Mallon, the recently retired SDLP MP and leading architect of the Agreement. Mr Mallon told The Daily Telegraph how Sinn Fein “damn well near lived in Downing Street” throughout the process. The nationalist electorate got the message that “these are the people we should support because they are the people doing the deals”.  At the same time that the moderate SDLP lost ground to the extremist Sinn Fein, David Trimble’s Ulster Unionists have lost votes to Ian Paisley’s hardline Democratic Unionist Party.

Comments

[Tory T]

I regard the whole Good Friday Agreement/Peace Process farce as one of the most shameful and damaging episodes in post-war British policy making.

Shameful because murderers (some of them psychopaths) have been pandered to rather than punished. We have spat in the face of justice - and in the faces of the victims of terrorism. What kind of politicians do that? Moral runts and appeasers.

And damaging because the whole world has seen that even the most stable and durable of democracies will change its policies in response to lobbying by bomb and bullet. Today's terrorists have absorbed the lesson.

Only if the entire leadership of the IRA was to be executed for its heinous crimes would justice truly be done.

[James Maskell]

Its hard to believe that Labour would actually try to justify this law. Its ridiculous. But there Hain is, trying to justify the law.

[Richard Allen]

I can honestly say that I would have quit the tory party in absolute disgust had we not voted against this abhorant piece of legislation.

[Michael McGowan]

Well done, David Lidington, but don't bank on the Tory Party actually sticking to its guns (excuse the pun) over this one. Since 1998, it has in essence played along (viz. the shameful role of Chris Patten) with every concession to the IRA by the Labour Party which is essentially a pro-Sinn Fein/IRA party.....with notable exceptions such as Kate Hoey. The late Mo Mowlam worshipped at the shrine of McGuinness and Adams. Peter Hain has been a staunch supporter of extreme Irish Republicanism for decades.

[Sean Fear]

Well done indeed to David Liddington. Hain knows that there is no moral justification for this rotten law.

[Richard Allen]

Actually Michael I think that the party will stick to it's guns on this issue. There was genuine fury on the conservative benches during the second reading debate. I have never heard 'aye' yelled as loud as it was at the start of the division on the reasoned ammendment that would have declined to give the bill it's second reading.

It is to Labour's eternal shame that Kate Hoey was the only labour MP to vote against the government on this issue.

Anyone who didn't see the debate should read the magnificent speech made by Peter Robinson (DUP).

[Sean Fear]

I'm surprised Frank Field didn't vote against the government on this one.

[Richard Allen]

I believe that Frank Field abstained on both the reasoned ammendment and the second reading votes.

[James Maskell]

Reading Field's comments in Parliament about the Bill he said "If someone is a white, murderous Protestant or Catholic terrorist, they might get closure, but we have another message for black Muslim terrorists if they attack us."

Maybe he disliked this Bill hugely (which he clearly did) but didnt want to vote with the Conservatives and the rest of the Opposition?

[malcolm]

I can only echo the comments above.I feel a very abusive letter to Hain would not go amiss.He is a disgrace to his country for sure but more than that,he is a disgrace as a man.

[Michael McGowan]

Apparently the tangerine-coloured MP for Neath is known in the Welsh Valleys as "Peter Vain". His rise to prominence, and his behaviour as Northern Ireland Secretary, illustrates, if evidence were needed, that the hard left still enjoys plenty of influence in New Labour circles.

[aileen]

I know that this is old potatoes but I've just discovered this site and thread. As someone who was active in the campaign against the OTR legislation I was very pleased with the support for our position from both the Tories and the LibDems and not for getting the SDLP. As I understand it Frank Field was not able to be there for the vote but he spoke against it. If he had been available to vote he would have voted against.

[Wallenstein]

>>I regard the whole Good Friday Agreement/Peace Process farce as one of the most shameful and damaging episodes in post-war British policy making.<<

Right on, Tory T.

I want to see the Tory Party giving the fullest possible support to loyal Ulster, which is now truly represented by the DUP.

It's time to return to the golden days of the 1980s when FCS were in the patriotic vanguard, supporting our loyalist brethren all the way.