Not going back to the "Bad old days"

My return to the Army has seen me return to Northern Ireland after a 11 year absence, and the change to Belfast and the remainder of the province in that time is very noticeable and the biggest surprise to me as an ex soldier was the pace of that change.


Anywhere you went in Northern Ireland and anyone you spoke to could not see a return to the " Bad old days".


You can then imagine how surprised and shocked most people over here are by the events of the last week. Rumours of activity by dissident republicans has never gone away and over the last few weeks that talk had increased and the events of the last week can see that that talk was justifiable.


But will the events of the last 6 days see us slip back into that endless daily story of terrorist atrocities. I for one do not believe so, if anything the events since the murder of the policeman have shown that the dissidents are now entering the 'Last chance saloon'. The wave of demonstrations all over Ireland has certainly not only shown the world that the people of Ireland do not want to see a return to the troubles but it has also shown Republican politicians especially those in Sinn Fein that there can be no return to the 'Long War'.


My Regiment lost a large number of soldiers in the conflict, all murdered by the IRA, not only in Ulster as we also saw our band callously blown up in London and because of that it is hard for many of my former comrades to see the likes of Adams and McGuinness as elected leaders of Northern Ireland . I am sure that there are many in Ulster (and not only protestants) who feel the same. But in the end it is the sight of Peter Robinson and McGuinness sitting together in Stormont and the likes of Alex Maskey at the funeral today and Tom Hartley as the Sinn Fein Lord Mayor of Belfast attending the peace march during the week that gives us hope.


It does show that the leaders of Sinn Fein see that peace is the only answer and that they also do not want to see a return to the "Bad old days".


But though the majority of people in both the North and the South of Ireland want to see the peace kept, the dissidents have a larger support than many would want us to believe, they can call on many ex PIRA members who have vast terrorist experience and they also have the support of many other nationalists in areas such as South Armagh and Fermanagh, even in Derry and West Belfast - the political homes of McGuinness and Adams there will be support for the 'Real' IRA but it will be test for Sinn Fein leaders if they can keep that support suppressed and stop other ex PIRA members 'jumping ship'.


But I hope that they can achieve that as I would hate to see Ireland return to what is was like at the end of the 20th Century.

Peter Hain- Deputy in waiting?

Peter Hain arrived in Ipswich last night for an evening with the Ipswich labour Party. It started with a question and answer session with over 100 local members and then we adjourned to a local curry house for a meal and some much needed fund raising. Peter was the second of the deputy hopefuls to reach Ipswich as we have already hosted Harriet Harman- though she turned up with no voice- but her husband helped her through that misfortune.
Peter had no problem and over an hour was spent answering questions from party members. Peter started first with a short speech, which highlighted the way he had found himself in the party- coming from South Africa and through his participation as one on the leading lights in the anti-apartheid movement. He spoke of his time in the Northern Ireland Office and his hope that on Monday he would be able to announce that agreement had been reached between Paisley and Adams. he then spoke on his push for deputy leader and also highlighting on what we should be proud of in what the party has achieved over the last two terms. he kept it short, but oozed confidence and also managed some moments of humour, saying that Northern Ireland Secretary must be the only job where you spend Saturday in Washington celebrating St Patrick's day with George Bush then having the company of Ian Paisley 48 hours later!
The questions - in summary- he answered a question on Trident- stating that though he had once supported CND, whilst the likes of Iran tried to build a nuclear weapon we still needed our own Nuclear arsenal. Faith Schools- did not support them and in his time in N Ireland he had found some success in opening non faith schools- though he wished we never had Faith schools he knew that we could also not just get rid of them. He spoke of the lack of social housing and though it had been right to focus on education and the NHS, we should of and hopefully we will in future spend more on the building of affordable homes and social housing. he answered a question on the Catholic Church and gay adoption, mentioning that there had been less conflict with the Catholic Church in N Ireland on that matter. He was then asked to name his 'Green' credentials-he mentioned the green policies he had implemented in Ulster and that he felt he was the 'most' green of all the deputy hopefuls.
He then answered a number of questions on what he saw as the role of the deputy leader- in short- a link between the PM, cabinet and the grassroots, the person who could have a private word with the PM (who he thought would be Gordon - un -opposed) and tell him some home truths-if needed! He thought the deputy leader had to be part of the cabinet and an MP- but maybe he did not need the burden of a post where he had a considerable financial budget.
He was not sure what the position of the Chairman of the party was - chosen by the PM - as now- elected by the NEC or by party members.
Peter then summarized- he stood for trust and commitment- he believed the party needed to re-new itself. To go forward, his strengths included his thirst for campaigning. He also sated that he had at times been a lone voice in that he thought we should have concentrated on the Lib Dem threat as much as the Tories, we may have then keep such seats as Cambridge- this went down well with Ipswich members as we have seen how the local Lib Dem's have jumped in bed with the Tories. We must re-new as he said you could see the Conservatives have regained that feeling that they have that god given right to govern. They were dangerous and needed to be stopped- they only have one concrete policy and that is to take us back to old Tory values.

Has he my vote? I still would like to know more about the other candidates, I will seek the opinions of others who attended yesterday at our campaign session tomorrow night. But at present he is my choice. One good thing about this election for deputy- it has got the party hierarchy out meeting members and has reinvigorated the political debate within branches. Just hope that when they are the campaign trail for deputy in April that branches use the opportunity to get them out on the doorstep campaigning for local candidates.

Pete- an eight out of ten performance.