What Northern Ireland Doesn't Want?

Image from the BBC

Since I've been back in Northern Ireland I've spent one or two (ok maybe more) nights enjoying the night live in Belfast. I think I've already spent more nights out in Belfast this year than I did during my five years back here, one advantage of a more reasonably timed last train (or possibly a wider variety of places to crash in Belfast).

There is even from those days a decade ago a lot of change to the city. Even more architecture beauty has sprung up giving the City a modern face. Even more brand names now have outlets in the city centre, I could as easily be shopping in Edinburgh or Livingston as Belfast. Indeed Wagamama is coming to Victoria Square in November, me and Mícheál are already salivating at the prospect.

It is a very different place from when I was growing up, or is it?

Mícheál posted in the early hours about another bomb blast in Derry. With the unfortunate advantage of a few extra years I remember the the 70s vividly.

I remember going shopping through the barricades, hindering ease of access for the old or infirm to our town and city centres. Once we got to those shops having to be searched upon entry.

My father's school, RBAI at the time, looked down Wellington Place often hearing, sometimes seeing, bombs going off. Pupils were sometimes being told not to take a certain route to the train home because of an incident blocking their way. Once at the station or on the train there may have been a suspect device on the tracks that delayed your return, while relatives sat at home waiting anxiously watching the news to see if you were ahead of behind the incident.

Then when you driving around there were restrictions in place. Roads blocked off or the police with their army escorts carrying out spot checks. Acting on a tip off of terrorist activity in the area, trying to flush out their men.

These are all things we don't want to go back to. After years of unrest the people of Northern Ireland are enjoying their peace. There are cross-community projects of all sorts going on across the province. There is hope.

But then there is the dissident republicans. Who instead of seeing the economic, social and well being benefits of the peace that has been largely in place still want more. They plant bombs which destroy livelihoods, re-open emotional scars, even lead to physical injury or death.

As Mícheál said in his heading enough is enough.

Nine Years Ago a Moment Changed The World

At this time nine years ago I was sitting in a office in Edinburgh. Behind me was the Firth of Forth and the flight path into Edinburgh Airport at that time.

A friend of mine was on a plane about to land at Philadelphia Airport. The previous morning, his last in New York, he'd gone to observation deck on the South Tower of World Trade Centre to take some panoramic pictures. The last of these had a time stamp of 10:28 and at that time the following day the Tower in the fore ground was collapsing to the ground, the one he was standing on was already gone.

There was stunned disbelief and for the first time in the Internet age we were waiting for friends, people we often hadn't met in real life but whom we considered friends, to log on and tell us they were OK.

During the 2002 Superbowl U2 were the halftime show. During their last song Where the Streets Have No Name behind them scrolled the names of the 2,977 innocent victims on this day nine years ago. It is a right a fitting tribute to those that either fell from the sky, or where killed in their place of work, or the members of the FDNY, NYPD or the Port Authority Police who had embarked on a evacuation and rescue operation.

Especially poignant are the lines:

I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear
Without a trace
I want to take sheltered from the poison rain
Where the streets have no name

Eta Declare Ceasefire

Sitting here in Northern Ireland seems the right place to be to read about the fact the the Basque separatist terror group Eta have declared a 'ceasefire' via a video statement.

Like the IRA here they are putting their hopes in democracy from now on to gain their independence. Founded in 1959 their move today to seek a democratic solution by declaring a ceasefire, which it is not clear if is temporary or permanent, must be looked at as a major step from the North Eastern Region and indeed the whole of Spain. In the historical context the first IRA ceasefire turned out to be a temporary measure, but the actions since then have lead to Sinn Féin having an active role in the politics of Northern Ireland, currently having the Deputy First Minister.

In their declaration the three masked spokesmen said:

"Eta confirms its commitment to finding a democratic solution to the conflict.

"In its commitment to a democratic process to decide freely and democratically our future, through dialogue and negotiations, Eta is prepared today as yesterday to agree to the minimum democratic conditions necessary to put in motion a democratic process, if the Spanish government is willing.

"We call on all Basque citizens to continue in the struggle, each in their own field, with whatever degree of commitment they have, so that we can all cast down the wall of denial and make irreversible moves forward on the road to freedom."

Like the IRA, Eta's demand for a Basque nation extends beyond the boundaries of one administrative area and nation. They territorial claims stretch from the Basque administrative region eastwards along the Pyrenees and into France, and somewhat southeasterly into Northern Spain.

I do hope that these negotiations do end in a lasting peace. The previous attempt attempts at peace talks ended in a bomb killing two at Madrid airport in 2006.

Kelly to Lead Talks with the Real IRA

While it may once have been strange to think of Sinn Féin as the arbitrators with terrorists in Northern Ireland, it is not something that after the last three years I'm apprehensive about.

Since they took over co-leadership of the power-sharing executive with the DUP they have proven over and over that there has been a sea change in their outlook and way to working and co-operating for the betterment of Northern Ireland. Therefore it seems natural that after a week of bombs that went off, bombs that failed to go off and bomb scares that Gerry Kelly will lead a delegation in talks with the 32-County Sovereignty Movement the political wing of the Real IRA. Kelly said:

"We have been very clear that we are prepared to talk with these groups, and that they have the absolute right to disagree with the Sinn Fein strategy."

adding

"These small groups have the ability to do damage; two or three people can do a lot of damage if they go undetected and they have the expertise."

That is the thing when you are dealing with a cell of guerrilla activity. They don't have to do a lot, because they can't because there are few enough of them. However, if they hit a high profile target and can co-ordinate attacks with other cells they have the ability to cause damage, injury or death. The 200lb explosion that went off in Derry on Tuesday could have had a major impact throwing Northern Ireland back to the bad old days of fear and suspicion.

But if we are to move forward as was eventually done with Sinn Féin dialogue is a stepping stone along the way. Many of us hoped for the day that the Republicans would be working alongside the rest of Northern Ireland on a peace; though many of us doubted we would see it happen. Now that it is we need to let them talk to the next level of extremist feeling.

It may well be no longer a case of "Ourselves alone" and more a case of "We're all in this together".

New Northern Irish Terror

The first car bomb to go off in Northern Ireland in over a decade was detonated outside Newry Court House last night. The timing just after the agreement to devolve policing and justice to the Assembly speaks volumes as local Sinn Fein councillor Conor Murphy said:

"The fact that we're in the process of devolving policing and justice powers and there's an attack on a courthouse will not be lost on people.

"These people are trying to drag us backwards and ensure we have the British army back on the streets."

There was also only a 5 minute warning given by the dissident republicans who planted the bomb. Police were still evacuating the area when the blast occurred. It was "a cowardly action by those who want to drag Northern Ireland back to the past" said DUP Assembly member Willie Irwin, and it is a past that most Northern Irish people don't want to revisit.

My friends are the generation with children who grew up there not knowing the daily occurrence of bombs going off or suspect cars being detonated. Their children have grown up without the stringent security and armed checks getting carried out in certain areas. If even parties from the two extremes of the political divide have realised that they have to work together to make peace, justice and the police work within local frameworks, they did so because that is the mood of the people.

Many of those that I mentioned indeed moved back after a certain amount of security was secured in Northern Ireland. Some of us myself included found ourselves elsewhere when someone we loved wouldn't be in Northern Ireland because of the threat that they feared. So therefore the lesson of history is clear, it would seem, peace is good for the people, retention of your own and bringing in of others. Terrorism isn't and many will merely flee from both sides of the community.

More on Mikey Hicks - The 'Terror Supsect' Boy Scout

Newsy.com emailed me following my blog post on the 8 year old 'terror supsect' Mikey Hicks, here is their summary of the news from around the world in different media.

Mikey, the Terror Suspect

The danger of watch-lists is just that they are just lists. Words after words after words. Names upon name upon name.

There is the name Michael Hicks not on the US no-fly list but on the list of selectee's who are treated to extra security and full body pat downs anytime they fly. It has happened to Michael 'Mikey' Hicks for the past 6 years. So who is this wanten terror suspect?


Here you are. This American boy scout, son of a US Navy veteran has been subject to tight security and full body pat downs since he was 2!

Compare his plight with that of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who was the Christmas day underpants bomber. Mr Abdulmutallab was on the 550,000-name Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database, but not the 2,500 name no fly list nor the 13,500 name list that Mikey finds himself on and subject to every time he flies.

His mother is campaigning to sort out her sons listing saying:

"You could have seen that he was 2; that he was 3, 4 or 5. Now it’s scary because he’s 8. What happens when he is 16?"

It is quite a point of course. From about that sort of age I started to travel alone. I wasn't on any list, as far as I know, but obviously things were intense. If you notice at Heathrow airport, even to this day the Belfast departure gate is way off to the edge of the complex. When I was sixteen we didn't even check in hold luggage the normal way at check in, our went with us to the gate. Thankfully the IRA didn't employ suicide bombing techniques or heaven knows what would have happened.

Every time I went through either an airport or ferry terminal I made sure I had my photographic ID on me to just travel to another part of the UK. I invariably got stopped, young man travelling alone. It was a part of my student live, but it happened to all of us. We weren't singled out, we all got the same treatment and knew nothing else.

Young Mikey here may end up knowing nothing else, but he will also know that he is somehow erroneously being singled out. Who knows how that will make him feel as he gets older and starts to understand what is going on.

We need to be vigilant that is certain, but we should be so heavy-handed that it encroaches on a person's individual freedoms to this degree when it is so clearly wrong. The problem is also that these edicts that individual names are suspect leads to a lack of common sense from the people at the far end of the chain from those who set up these lists, the people who actually implement their requirements.

Giuliani Rewritting History of War on Terror

I'm going to change topic for this post. I'm heading a little further West.

During his failed Presidential nomination Rudy Giuliani the former Mayor of New York didn't stop reminded the people of America that he was there during the 9/11 attacks on his city. It was his claim to being the man to deal with the big questions.

Today however, he is getting so caught up in Republican rhetoric against Barack Obama that he is trying to turn the attempted Christmas Day attack against the President. On Good Morning America this morning he claimed, "we had no domestic attacks under Bush — we've had one under Obama."

Now as I and the rest of the world seem to recall in a school room in Florida President Bush was alerted to the fact that there was a potential incident going on in New York. I checked, my memory wasn't failing me. YouTube backed it up.




The Republicans are full of negative campaigning. They don't seem to ask what Jesus would have done about healthcare. Reading my new testament not once does he ask "Do you have insurance?" before performing a healing miracle. Yet they insist that the man who was accused of mixing with sinners and prostitutes would have condemned then to Katrina, or Asia to the Tsunami that hit.

Now they are even deleting history to try and point the finger at a Democrat. Hardly being truthful and certainly not WWJD.

Life's Meant to Begin Afresh at Forty

The Times carries an article today looking back over the 40 years since the Troubles, which was the phase Northern Ireland entered in this week in 1969. The battle of the Bogside had occurred in the area just below the City walls in August, so the Times is looking at a tale of a city (and of course a nation) divided. The tale of the divides of Northern Ireland's northern city is often visually displayed more easily than Belfast because if the course of the River Foyle, but from my personal experience of the last 40 years that is only part of the story.

Northern Ireland's second city used to be known to all and sundry by the shortened version Derry. The football team, which is unique in having won the Irish League (Northern) and League of Ireland (Republic) titles is called Derry City. It was the team my father grew up supporting taking the short walk to their ground without having to cross the Foyle. But one side of the conflict objected to the word London incorporated in the official title by the Guilds men who traded with and from the capital of England. So the other side became more precious about the name (at least in public). Local DJ Gerry Anderson came up with the comedic solution of calling the place Stroke City (short for Londonderry/Derry City).

The city already was somewhat divided even when the troubles started. The western shore of the Foyle the Cityside was largely, though not exclusively Catholic. Across the bridges was where the Protestants had expanded the city into new builds, and the Waterside was to become a safe haven for them. Indeed names were important and woe betide the unfortunate given a name that was even remotely associated too heavily with one side. Trust me trying to point out that Patrick brought Christianity not Catholicism to all Ireland doesn't help.

However, at some point in the 1910s my Grandmother's family had moved in from the countryside into a two up two down terrace in the Fountain area of the City. It's just to the south of the city walls and there she was to remain until she could no longer live in the house by herself in her late 80s. Now it's the remaining protestant enclave on the Cityside of the city. It is the other side of the walled city from the infamous Bogside area, just up the hill from the hands across the divide statue. The conditions in the 1960s weren't much better on this side. Even in the 1990s a trip to the toilet in my Grandmother's house involved going out into the yard.

The City truly was divided quite sharply a walk along the walls over the Bogside leads from my Father's and Grandparents' church First Derry past his first first primary school to the Apprentice Boys Hall. All of which are right there on the wall. The Church was so often a target for petrol bombs it was constantly boarded up and the stained glass lost all its lustre. For me I know the divides, I've walked along those boundary lines demarcating territory. I also know that there are more similarities that many people want to let on.

It is sad that on this the 40th anniversary, slightly longer than I've been alive, that the Real IRA are using violence and terror once more. As Patrick Kealty said the other day on the Michael McIntyre roadshow from Belfast "It's hard to explain that the Real IRA aren't the 'real' IRA. The Real IRA are doing the new bombing but the 'real' IRA are in Government."

With the discovery of a massive 600 pound discovered yesterday for which the Real IRA are the chief suspects its a shame. They say life is supposed to begin at forty, it's not meant to repeat itself. For those of my generation from Northern Ireland that is all we would hope for as our fortieth birthdays come and go. We like the new era of co-operation, we want it to stay for our children. We've seen a peace, given it a chance and want it to continue.

What a Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday morning it was revealed that Gordon Brown had vetoed attempts to force Libya to make compensation to IRA victims of Libyan supplied Semtex. Yesterday evening in Berlin he said:

"I desperately care about the impact of all IRA atrocities on the victims, their families and communities.

"The Libyans have refused to accept a treaty or normal intergovernmental agreement on this issue.

"As a result, our judgement has been that the course more likely to bring results is to support the families and their lawyers in their legal representations to the Libyan authorities.

"We will appoint dedicated officers in the Foreign Office and our Embassy in Tripoli who will accompany the campaign group to meetings with the Libyan government to negotiate compensation, the first of which will be in the next few weeks."

It was greeted by opposition MPs as a U-Turn. William Hague the shadow Foreign Secretary said:

"The Prime Minister's announcement is a stunning admission that the Government has failed to support the families of the victims of IRA terrorism in their pursuit of compensation from Libya. This U-turn comes only after today’s reports that Gordon Brown was personally involved in a decision not to engage Libya on this issue. The British Government should have provided active support as a matter of course, not as a result of public pressure. But Gordon Brown and the Government he leads have long lost their moral compass."

Jeffrey Donaldson of the DUP added:

"We have forced a U-turn, it's not every day you can say that.

"We will work with his government to put the case to the Libyans.

"It is essential now that the government delivers what the Prime Minister has promised."

And the Lib Dem Foreign Affairs Spokesman Ed Davey said:

"We have got a prime minister who no longer appears to be in control. The government looks pretty weak."

Lawyers representing the victims of 138 families had already approached Mr Brown about the possibility of Government assistance in taking their claims forward to be told that it would have been "inappropriate". Yesterday after a fair bit of international* as well as national scrutiny the Prime Minister promised a "dedicated" team of officials at his press conference prior to meeting the German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In what would appear to be a volte-face brought about at the end of a hard two weeks of Libyan diplomacy stories leaking out to the press, the focus is slowly shifting unto just what has the British government been up to, if all this isn't about the oil deals already secured by BP and Shell, why is it only in reaction to being uncovered that the Prime Minister and his Ministers are prepared to come clean about the facts?

*This blog managed to attract worldwide attention and readers from 45 of the states in the US.

Oil Be There For You*

There are 2,500 families of the victims of the IRA's Libyan supplied Semtex.But the latest news over Westminster's 'special relationship' with Libya is that Gordon Brown vetoed attempts to force Libya to pay compensation as it would affect Trade Talks.

Lawyers for the victims are wanting the government to get a US-style scheme of compensation which has paid out $2.7 billion (£1.6 billion) to their 270 victims on Pan-Am flight 103. The latest revelation coming hot on the heels of Jack Straw's admission that oil deals with Libya were partially a factor in the talks about Megrahi. However, Gordon Brown in his silence breaking statement Wednesday appears to tell a different tale from his Justice Secretary when he said:

"On our part there was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to influence Scottish ministers, no private assurances by me to Colonel Gaddafi

"As I told Colonel Gaddafi at the only meeting with him I have had, a decision on Megrahi was the sole responsibility of the Scottish Government. So when I met him I could not give him comfort or any assurance at all about [al-Megrahi's] fate."

Too much is unravelling, there is something going on behind the scenes that is trying not to look out for those UK citizens affected by Libya sponsored terrorism down the years. Just want stance is the Government taking with our seemingly new best friends (with oil)? There are mixed messages coming from Westminster which are making Iain Grey the leader in Scotland look more and more out of the loop and ridiculous as he attacks Kenny MacAskill. It also seems to be that questions need to be asked of Brown and Straw rather than finger wagging at the Scottish Justice Minister.

None of this affects my previous thoughts on the rightness of the decision at the time, although there does now appear to be even greater subterfuge into the points leading up to that. The unfairness of the treatment of the terrorists over the victims and their families, the deals that were going on behind the scenes. Just what does the Prime Minister et al know that has yet to come out.

*The title of course is a take on a title of the Rembrandts' song used in the title sequence of Friends.

Joyce Tells Gordon Get a Grip....On Defence

Eric Joyce has chosen the 70th Anniversary of the declaration of War on Hitler's Germany to resign as the parliamentary private secretary to Defence Minister Bob Ainsworth. In his

he tells the Prime Minster to get a grip. Not actually in those words but he concludes saying:

"I believe the next election is ours to win, thanks greatly to your personal great economic success. But we cannot win unless we grip defence. Above all, Labour must remember that service folk and their families are our people. We say that we honour them for their risk, bravery and sacrifice and we must at literally all costs continue to show by our actions that we mean it."

His letter is a strong rebuke on the war senior members of his own party are attacking senior military personnel while keeping those very experienced voices silent.

"Behind the hand attacks by any Labour figure on senior service personnel are now, to the public, indistinguishable from attacks on the services themselves. Conversely, in my view we should allow our service personnel greater latitude to voice their views on matters which make distinctions between defence and politics pointless."

No doubt the man who resigned his commission as a Major just 10 years ago has like that other former soldier 70 years ago kept his ear to the ground with his former colleagues. Like Churchill he is saying that something needs to be done, something that he feels cannot be done despite his experience from inside the MoD at the moment.

He also says that he does not think that "the public will accept for much longer that our losses can be justified by simply referring to the risk of greater terrorism on our streets." Going on to talk about the uncertainty about British forces continued deployment in Afghanistan.

However, he does note that a British withdrawal leaving the USA to fight on alone "would mean the end of NATO as a meaningful proposition" all the while acknowledging the proud tradition of British forces punching well above their weight.

It is an interesting time to go, although he said that the decision was made some weeks ago. The choice of today seventy years on from when Neville Chamberlain announced to the nation, "I have to tell you now that no such undertaking (withdrawal from Poland) has been received and consequently this country is now at war with Germany," can surely not have been overlooked by a military man.

Consequence? I think not. I mean the man is a mature* Sandhurst Graduate and was commissioned into the Royal Army Educational Corps.

Update: Subrosa has asked me to point on a couple of occasions in the comments to point out that Eric started as a private in the Black Watch at 18 before leaving to get a degree at 21, entering Sandhurst and becoming a mature 'cadet' at 27. As this does point out that he know live in the ranks, officers' mess and the difficulties being a mature officer cadet can bring, I have decided to add the detail, as it shows the mans possibly unique grasp of Army matters even further from the current green benches.

Back to the Simple Life: A Guide for Americans to Boycott Scotland

So the Americans wish to boycott Scotland and all that means after the release of al-Megrahi last week, let me help you out.

First turn off the TV right now, as that was invented by John Logie Baird a Scot. You're just going to have to find other things to do with your time. But you're not going to be able to arrange it by telephone as that was invented by Alexander Graham Bell another Scot.

Yes America you are actually going to have to go around and visit people. But you can't go by car as the pneumatic tyre was invented by Scot John Dunlop and the tarmac technique of paving most roads was developed by another John Loudon McAdam.

If you get ill we can't prescribe you penicillin as Alexander Fleming discovered that. Also ultrasound, Ian Donald, and MRI Scans, John Mallard, are also out. If I were you I'd opt for the Obama health plan if you're doing away with the Scottish influence.

As for McDonalds well with a name like that it's bound to be Scottish.

Where the Mockery Really Lies

Well my post on the release of al-Megrahi caused a little bit of a reaction over the weekend. Including this from an American reader (I've deleted the expletives):

"As an American I would just like to say.....You release a convicted murderer and then you blog about how the people in the states just don't understand how compassionate you are? F*** all of you highlander, lowlander, gaelic-wanna be, kilt-wearing, eurotrash. Thank God my ancestors left your stinking s***-hole of an island!"

As Callum replied in the comments 'Thanks for your constructive comment Lincoln County. Not showing a lot of compassion with your blatant racism are ya?'. Then today I have Jack McConnell the former Labour First Minister saying that the majority of Scotland is against the decision that the Justice Minister made. I'm not too sure on that, yes there is a vocal section against the decision, there is another vocal section against the way it was made. But the former is largely from Labour, with support from the Tories. So by accusing the Nats of politicising the release decision he appears to be also doing so in his attack.

There is also a letter today from former FBI director Robert Mueller in which he calls the release a 'mockery to justice'. I'm sorry I beg to differ, al-Megrahi was not given a release based on a judicial decision over the legal ramifications of his case. On regular occasions these appeals were quite rightly turned down. However, there is a situation where medical evidence can be taken into account for the grounds of a compassionate release in the dying days of someone with time still to serve.

The former head of the FBI has decided to take this occasion to break his own pledge of never 'comment on the actions of other prosecutors' to break his silence, concluding by saying.

"You have given the family members of those who died continued grief and frustration. You have given those who sought to assure that the persons responsible would be held accountable the back of your hand. You have given Megrahi a ''jubilant welcome'' in Tripoli, according to the reporting. Where, I ask, is the justice?"

Of course the neature of his return to Libya was outside our control beyond teh request for it to be low key. But as I did say on Friday there was no comment of the type of the start of that concluding paragraph, it's on the the back of the letter from seven US Senators, including Ted Kennedy. However, Kennedy is only recently a convert to the case that terrorist should serve out their sentence and not be shown compassion. Up until then he was largely supported of the Irish Republicans in Massachusetts for his own political gain. Indeed it was only after 9/11 when Gerry Adams and Martin Maginness were actually moving towards democracy over violence Kennedy actually distanced himself from their cause.

So of course there was no outcry about a mockery of justice from America about early release of Northern Ireland Terrorists who had killed in total more than that fateful night, many of whom showed no remorse. Indeed when Mo Mowlam stalled the release programme in 1999 when the IRA had broken the terms on arms procurement it was the Americans who spoke to urge her to carry on. Of course the Northern Ireland release programme was the right thing to do in the light of the peace process just as al-Megrahi's is right in terms of his own imminent death.

But of course the Americans, either collectively or on occasion the odd individual, this week are showing signs of selective memory over justice as far as killing by terrorism is concerned. That sadly is what is the real mockery, not the actions taken impartially on medical evidence by the Scottish Justice Minister

MacAskill Makes Sound Judgement in Face of Emmotive Opposition

On the 12 December 1988 I was about 5 minutes further towards London Waterloo than the Clapham Rail disaster occurred.

On the Saturday of that week the 17th me and a friend were driving past Lockerbie on the then A74 at about 7pm. Wednesday the next week Pan Am Flight 103 came crashing out of the sky there.

Also that Christmas while I was home I was out for a run, came in showered, went down to watch the news and saw a bomb had gone off in the last hour along my route of that night.

December that year was a memorable one for that young student at the end of his first term of tertiary education. Being raised in Northern Ireland of course I was also used to seeing the families of victims of terrorism on TV all the time. Therefore the reactions to the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate got me thinking back to those more troubled times.

On the TV those families had one of two reactions, there was either bitter anger or a forgiving compassionate response. I long knew which type of person I'd far rather spend more time with. The latter weren't hurting any less than the former but showed compassion, maturity, not wishing to escalate what was often a volatile situation any further.

If like many other times this year there was a story about a terminally ill prisoner being given compassionate release from prison, it may have made the front page of a local paper, but a column inch, if that, in the national's other news section. It is because of who it is and the nature and extent of the crime that this got this attention.

I was mischievous earlier about Kenny MacAskill sounding more like a Kirk Minister than a Government one. But unlike Daniel Hannan's playing to an American audience and forgetting the home viewers reaction, MacAskill was playing to both. He attempted to appease both sides with the promise that the decision was hard come by.That he eulogised about a higher power and a greater inescapable sentence being imposed, but it failed to quell the anger of some of the American families.

There were issues with the handling of the build up but the resultant outcome was the right one. America can shout and scream all it wants to but they have a legal system lacking compassion. In reality they have an Old Testament legality overlooking the New Testament, there an eye for an eye still holds true, here we believe in re-education and reintegration.

Back to the Northern Irish situation the peace dividend, after many Americans supported the IRA cause, has led to many of those who carried out killings to be released. Did we see a hoopla in the States about any of the IRA murderers being released early, not even on grounds of compassion due to imminent terminal disease? No, of course we didn't, but then these releases were also right in a different way.

The Americans are sadly,to an extent, largely, a selfish people, it is part of their inward lookingness. Their national champions in some sports after all are called World Champions. But some of the squawking about the shame to Scotland and the Scottish people shows the shame to the American people.

Back to those scenes on the TV in Northern Ireland and just over a year before Lockerbie one of the most emotive appearances for Gordon Wilson who held unto his dying daughter Marie's hand under the rubble of the Enniskillen Remembrance Day bomb. He was a victim physically and emotionally as someone present and as someone losing a dear one. His initial and lasting reaction was not to condemn those who had carried out the atrocity but to work for a lasting peace. After the release by Scotland of al-Megrahi some American statesmen are saying this will change how they deal with Libya. Why? How? Surely that is the wrong way to build a lasting peace. Libya are trying to get involved in the global fight against terrorism these days, steps have been made to a reconciliation, so why do Americans react this way?

A nation that shows compassion finds it easier to look past the past, one that hold grudges finds it harder to let it go. So while the triumphalism of al-Megrahi's return to Libyan soil was over the top so too has been the heightened of tension, deepening of old wounds that the American political class and media has stirred up.

MacAskill made a tough decision, but made a right one based on the medical evidence and leaving emotions out of it. If emotions cloud our rationale in making these sort of decisions we end up getting involved in trying to justify those actions with dubious facts (WMD in Iraq anyone?).

Labour Forced to see Commonsense Over Common Travel Area

Was it a clever way for Big Brother Labour to get hold of my biometric data once my passport comes up from renewal? We may never know.

The government wanted to shelf quietly their U-Turn over plans to make residents in the Common Travel Area that included Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man to produce a passport on coming over to the fourth component Great Britain. Yeah all of you who know how pedantic this Northern Irish man is will know when I say Great Britain I'm not including all of the United Kingdom. Labour had planned for me to have to present my passport to go from my house in Bathgate to visit my family in another part of the same UN, EU and IOC recognised country.

Thankfully the Lib Dem and Conservative amendment to the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Bill got rid of this ridiculous step back 80 years in time. But consider this as a British Citizen my catching a ferry to Belfast does not cross any borders, I'm not emigrating or immigrating anywhere. Of course by using the Airports and Ports of Ireland as a line of defence the Labour control freaks thought they had a way to control terrorist from entering the UK easier than by sealing up the UK-Ireland land border, which course they failed miserably to do when there was a real terrorist threat from over said border.

That one time teacher of mine Sammy Wilson MP had said:

"This Bill would have radically changed the United Kingdom's borders. In effect it would have placed a very tight border around Great Britain but would have left Northern Ireland exposed and isolated to those involved in international terrorism.

"From day one I told the Government that it was unwise, would be ineffective for the United Kingdom as a whole and treated Northern Ireland people as second-class citizens."

Of course all this brings back memories of travelling between Northern Ireland and Scotland by ferry to get to University. There as the troubles were on passengers were often asked for spot checks of photographic ID. So out popped all the Northern Irish Driving Licences, but back then the Great British ones didn't have photographic elements, so the English, Scots and Welsh were disadvantaged in travelling to Northern Ireland.

Justice for Omagh Victims

On the day of the Omagh bombing I was at Stormont. No I wasn't pulling some overtime, and besides the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment, where I worked at the time, was just off the estate. I was at the Northern Ireland Civil Service sports club playing in the semi-final of the Irish Junior Cup for bowls. There were enough civil servants on both teams and from the spectators to realise that there was a little bit too much activity, mainly arriving, at that time on a Saturday to be normal.

At the end of the game we learnt the full extent of what was going on around us. While in the warm summer's sun of that day eleven years ago we, like the people who were visiting Omagh, were making the most of what was seen as a start of a peaceful Northern Ireland. No criminal trial has been able to put away any of those accused of the attack by the Real IRA but yesterday the families of the victims got some justice as £1.6m in damages was awarded to the relatives of 29 people. While the monetary compensation may not be forthcoming in full from the accused in some small way it is the decision that they are accountable that is of some importance to the families.

The following Saturday at a different bowling green, we stood heads bowed as a mark of respect before delivering our first bowl. Like the victims of the previous weekend we were Protestant and Catholic merely, indeed more determined, to make the best that Northern Ireland was now offering.

Not So "Quick"-witted of the Yard

Less haste more heed may well be the lesson learnt by Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick today. This morning he exited a car in Downing Street carry plans for an anti-terrorism raid. This evening, after the top sheet was photographed clearly giving far too much information, 10 suspects were arrested in raids.

The obvious conclusion to be drawn was that Quick was entering Downing Street to brief on the plans that were captured. However, as the details on the agency photograph were zoomed across the world the raid and arrests were moved up in Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire. Evening raids of this sort are unusual so it is highly likely that as a result of the slow-wittedness and hasty exit of Quick from that car this operation was put under risk if it wasn't proceeded with immediately.

Whether the police were ready to make these arrests at this time we will no doubt find out if the suspects are in fact held. If they were still gathering information in preparation for it and were maybe waiting for some final piece to slot into place before going in, may well mean that what they could take is what had to be taken.

In a bad few days for the police this failure to protect operationally sensitive data is just another sign that our "police state" is simply not competent to deal with such sensitive data. Whether that is their own operational plans or our DNA or whatever they want to keep neither the police nor this Government seem capable to handling things with the trust they would want, which we should be unwilling to give them anyway.

****Breaking News**** Channel 4 News have just announced that the officer seen beating and flooring Ian Tomlinson, shortly before he died of a heart attack when he wasn't protesting at G20, has voluntarily come forward.

****Breaking Comment**** Still on Channel 4 News Shami Chakrabarti is right that is doesn't look good. Brain Paddick whilst trying to defend the enquiry and the process is not coming across strong enough against the evidence from the three cameras that captured the final minutes of Ian Tomlinson's existance.

Time For Northern Ireland to Unite and Say No

'Ulster Says No!' was the slogan used by the Unionist groups across Northern Ireland at the start of the Anglo-Irish talks. Banners with that slogan or variations on the theme were displayed from the offices of Unionist controlled councils including Belfast City Hall.



Well the escalation of troubles and threats in Northern Ireland last night make this the opportune time to dust off that slogan. But this time instead of belonging to one community attempting to stand in the way of integration and steps towards harmony and reconciliation, it should be a united front. To have the leaders of both side in the community standing together saying no to the resurrection of violence. No to the reigniting of barricades and no to the threats of bombs across the province.



It is time for Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams to stand behind First Minister Peter Robinson and his Deputy Martin Maginnis as they stand together to say no. This no would be a positive no unlike that of the 80s which is why the figure heads of both sides from then, although taking a back seat now, need to stand there with the current heads of the Assembly.



Northern Ireland doesn't want the new generation to have to go through what I went through. We've moved on, seen improvements in our way and standards of life. This new threat of an escalation of attacks is going to take that new-found, long-awaited hope away. The generation who know little of that apart from what they read in history books should be allowed to only read about that history not live through a new chapter of it.



Time for the people of Northern Ireland in one united voice to say no.

Paddy Ashdown: The World Will Never be the Same

Yesterday evening Paddy Ashdown gave a lecture at Edinburgh University entitled The World will never be the Same.


There was poetry, a song, accents of Northern Ireland and Somerset, an Afghan war revisited, Bosnia and Herzagovina, China, Obama, India and Africa all visited. Plus the introduction of Ashdowns 3rd Law*. There was also a look at the cover (the inside is embargoed) of his new Autobiography A Fortunate Life which two lucky people will be winning a signed copy of. However, after retiring from the campus to a Indian meal with the man himself, some of the students, Fred Mackintosh and Simon Clarke, then moving on for a few drinks after Paddy had left I didn't get around to writing this up until now.

The Scotsman reporter who was present gave a brief overview. This is my recollections with the aid of my copious notes of what was said.

On the idle hill of summer,
Sleepy with the flow of streams,
Far I hear the steady drummer
Drumming like a noise in dreams.
Far and near and low and louder
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder,
Soldiers marching, all to die.

From On the Idle Hillside A.E. Houseman 1896

Paddy started by telling us that after periods of stability we often tend to end up in periods of conflict and blood. (Well actually he started with some light hearted banter about introductions but the crux of the matter was as stated). There is a shift of power from the West to the East that is coming. There are things in the economic instability in the West that mean a that the West cannot achieve a solution by themselves.


There is the beginning of a sea change of economic power. China will be going through the turmoil from being a Liberal Economy to being a liberal society. China has gone through such changes in the past and to ignore the possibility that they are capable of doing so again in disingenuous. India and others in Asia will also rise up as economic powers as the West lies helpless from its own excesses.


Some will say that the American economy has gone past its zenith and is in decline. But those that show resistance to change are those that have past their zenith. America over the past 40 years has shown that that they are still open to change but Europe is faltering on this score. For the next 10-15 years Paddy said he sees the USA as still being the most powerful nation in the world, but after then what?


We're moving away from the premise of having a single Super Power to having different centres growing, more in line with Europe’s 19th Century Concert of Power. When there five great powers who between them, mainly because of the UK, kept the peace more or less in tact. The European existence as a prime mover on the world stage is also something that is liable to be diluted as the new powers come to the fore. You only have to look at how the Obama regime started out with its foreign policy. Paddy said they looked across the Atlantic [sic] to Japan and Hillary went to China these are relationships that are seen as important to the USA now. Of Europe of course Britain is still the pre-eminent but what of the rest. They are losing their significance as Obama and America are looking at how best to effect the change that the world can believe in.

Of those emerging there is an assertive Russia, a rising China and a prospering India. Of these Russia's strength is also their biggest weakness. Paddy said that their criminality and acceptance of criminality was potentially their undoing. They also don't have the population to man their domain, let alone defend it and are heading back to be like the 19th century feudal Russia.

Now as never before power is shifting not just laterally but also vertically. Out of the institutions. Unto the global space. But the global space is a lawless space we do not have the means in place to control what happens in that global space. Lawless spaces always help the powerful for a bit. Our multinationals have taken advantage of this but eventually the lawless space becomes more helpful to the destroyers. International terrorism, international criminality these are things that use the prosperous for their own devices then retreat back into that lawless space where they cannot be touched. As Paddy pointed out 89% of the funds that went to fund the 9/11 attacks had passed through the institutions that had offices housed in the Twin Towers.

We are heading to another time of change like in the middle of the 19th Century. The Liberals in Britain foresaw that and brought in the 1832 Reform Act to allow for that power shift in the UK. Unlike our European neighbours, this ended up resulting in the 1848 revolutions. Governance of that global space is the challenge of this age. We need to establish institutions to bring law to that global space. If we fail the consequences are going to be like nothing never seen before.

However, it may not happen through the UN institutions. Good though it has been in maintaining some semblance of peace over the last 50-60 years is it not good at taking executive and swift action. Treaty based organisations may be the way forward. Organisations like the World Trade Organisation working for trade, Kyoto working for the climate, the expansion to the G8 to the G20, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. All of these are treaty based organisations that have and are seeking to make a change.

(Personal comment here)

Next week as the G20 meets in London the anti-globalisation protestors are going to argue that the big businesses move into the global space, which Paddy has talked about, has been a bad thing. They are ignoring that fact that many of our issues are no longer confined to national boundaries and therefore there is a need to work across those arbitrarily draw lines in the sand. But more of that is a bit back to Paddy.

(Go on Paddy)

Not just is our power globalised but so are our problems too. In Africa Oxfam say 16m people currently live in uninhabitable space. They rely on aid from those of us who have to allow them to carry on existing in those spaces. However, with the credit crunch how much of that aid will be cut leading to starvation. If global warming continues the amount of habitable space in the region shrinks many more will come to rely on those limited sources of aid. Worldwide there is estimated to be 50m people living in uninhabitable space.

We are living in a completely interdependent world. Lehman Brothers collapses and the world economy spirals out of control as a result. We are more connected now than at any time in history both internally and externally.

The world now operates as a network. The structures we have created thus far are vertical but the reality is that our connectivity in networked and interlinked. This is why those structures we currently have in place have been unable to cope.

Twenty or thirty years ago when you were talking about defence you knew who to turn to the MoD. But now the defence minister has to be interconnected. He has to talk to the Dept. of Health about the threat of a pandemic being released, the Dept. of Agriculture about the security of our food, Industry about our companies and businesses being infiltrated, the Home Office because of our connection to so many through immigration. The capacity of our country to make us secure depends on everything being able to connect.

Paddy asked us if we knew of Lord Roberts of Kandahar. There were nothing but blank stares. Roberts was the man who in 1879, some 30 years after the massacre in Kabul, led the British force in to Afghanistan. It was one of the few successful campaigns by anyone into the Afghan lands. But in those 30 years the preparation had been laid, mainly through working to bring together the tribal forces in the Helmand provinces.

Accounts of his exploits don’t mention the importance of the poppy fields. They were there but they weren’t the issue. No was there mention the need to suppress of mad Jihadists living in caves in the southern hill country, though there was also one of those the Wali of Swat. Nor was there concern of collateral damage, though there was plenty of that two, it wouldn’t get reported back home for 6 weeks.

The important lesson from that parallel to today in its not what you do that matters but what you do with others. This Paddy said was Ashdown’s third law.

The age of unilateralism is over, George W. Bush tried it and we have seen where that left him. We have a need to reach out for new allies and some of those will be uncomfortable, but we need to work with them, make compromises and work for the common good. One of those we will need to work with is Iran. The key to the solution in Afghanistan is not our western allies but moderate Muslims. 25% of Afghanistan is of the Shia sect so we will need to get moderates from Iran the epicentre of Shi-ites. The phrase that we use that we are protecting our values ignores the facts that Christianity, Judaism and Islam share many of the same values.

"No man is an island, entire of itself; everyman is a piece of the continent, a
part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea,Europe is the less, as well
as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own
were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and
therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for
thee."

John Dunne from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions 1624

Paddy then moved on to talk a little about what he is currently doing in Northern Ireland. He’s working with Sinn Fein and the DUP and others in trying to resolve the contentious issue of parades. The thing about what is happening in Northern Ireland that is different from the Israeli/Palestinian issue and the fundamentalist Muslims and the West is that both parties have realised they have a shared destiny. There is something there they need to work at. Israel need to realise that and progress will not be made until they remove the occupation settlements from Palestinian territory which make it impossible for a Palestinian state to operate even if other things weren’t in its way. Cross all the main roads and access points is a mean of subverting that ability to reach for a shared destiny.

He finished he talk near the heart of Midlothian quoting the words of another great Liberal spoken not too far away in Dalkeith during his 1879 Midlothian Campaign.

"Remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan
among the winter snows, are as sacred in the eye of Almighty God as are your
own. Remember that He who has united you together as human beings in the same flesh and blood, has bound you by the law of mutual love, that that mutual love
is not limited by the shores of this island."

William Ewart Gladstone

*Nobody in questions afterwards dared ask about one and two.