Logic of the madhouse takes hold in Ulster
Northern Ireland’s Consultative Group on the Past is expected to recommend this week that the families of every “victim” of the Troubles should receive compensation of £12,000. At first blush the proposal, apart from unnecessarily feeding the compensation culture, sounds uncontroversial. Except that the group appears to have decided that the definition of victims should include families of para-militaries killed while trying to inflict carnage on their innocent fellow citizens.
Reconciliation is all well and good but this is the logic of the madhouse. As Colin Parry, whose 12-year-old son Tim was killed by an IRA bomb in Warrington, put it: “The idea that somebody who sets out to kill is a victim as much as I am . . . is offensive.” Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s first minister, spoke for many when he said: “Terrorists died carrying out their evil and wicked deeds while innocent men, women and children were wiped out by merciless gangsters.”
Irish nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, predictably, take a different view. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein said the report “should be studied” while Alex Attwood of the SDLP said “people should reserve judgment”. But no amount of reflection will turn this into a sensible idea and it should be ditched with extreme prejudice.
Even the notion of £12,000 a family for genuine victims of the Troubles is badly flawed. Those who have lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists do not want a government cheque. Does £12,000 cover the cost of grief and the suffering of the lives of survivors? Many will regard it as an insult. What they want, if anything, is genuine remorse and assurance that this will never happen again.
Related Links
* Fury at cash for terror relatives
The end of the Troubles was a cause for celebration but the mopping-up process has been a shocking waste of public money. The Bloody Sunday inquiry, costed by Tony Blair in 1998 at £10m, has been a spectacular junket for lawyers. When it finally reports next year there will be little change from £200m. Three separate inquiries into the murders of Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill and Billy Wright have already cost more than £70m. The Historical Enquiries Team, set up by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to investigate more than 3,000 unsolved murders, has a budget of £34m.
Of course it is right that crimes should be investigated, but much of what is happening in Northern Ireland risks opening old wounds rather than healing them. The £12,000 compensation scheme falls squarely into that category.
The people of Northern Ireland want lasting peace and reconciliation and an escape from the fear of the bomb and the assassin’s bullet. But they acknowledge that the passage of time and a desire to live together harmoniously, without reliving historical grievances, will be the best means to achieve that end.
At least the Consultative Group is expected to come up with one proposal that we have no hesitation in endorsing. It will say there should be no more public inquiries into matters arising out of the Troubles. Amen to that.
DATE:2009/01/25 23:02
URL:http://
Northern Ireland’s Consultative Group on the Past is expected to recommend this week that the families of every “victim” of the Troubles should receive compensation of £12,000. At first blush the proposal, apart from unnecessarily feeding the compensation culture, sounds uncontroversial. Except that the group appears to have decided that the definition of victims should include families of para-militaries killed while trying to inflict carnage on their innocent fellow citizens.
Reconciliation is all well and good but this is the logic of the madhouse. As Colin Parry, whose 12-year-old son Tim was killed by an IRA bomb in Warrington, put it: “The idea that somebody who sets out to kill is a victim as much as I am . . . is offensive.” Peter Robinson, Northern Ireland’s first minister, spoke for many when he said: “Terrorists died carrying out their evil and wicked deeds while innocent men, women and children were wiped out by merciless gangsters.”
Irish nationalist parties in Northern Ireland, predictably, take a different view. Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein said the report “should be studied” while Alex Attwood of the SDLP said “people should reserve judgment”. But no amount of reflection will turn this into a sensible idea and it should be ditched with extreme prejudice.
Even the notion of £12,000 a family for genuine victims of the Troubles is badly flawed. Those who have lost loved ones at the hands of terrorists do not want a government cheque. Does £12,000 cover the cost of grief and the suffering of the lives of survivors? Many will regard it as an insult. What they want, if anything, is genuine remorse and assurance that this will never happen again.
Related Links
* Fury at cash for terror relatives
The end of the Troubles was a cause for celebration but the mopping-up process has been a shocking waste of public money. The Bloody Sunday inquiry, costed by Tony Blair in 1998 at £10m, has been a spectacular junket for lawyers. When it finally reports next year there will be little change from £200m. Three separate inquiries into the murders of Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill and Billy Wright have already cost more than £70m. The Historical Enquiries Team, set up by the Police Service of Northern Ireland to investigate more than 3,000 unsolved murders, has a budget of £34m.
Of course it is right that crimes should be investigated, but much of what is happening in Northern Ireland risks opening old wounds rather than healing them. The £12,000 compensation scheme falls squarely into that category.
The people of Northern Ireland want lasting peace and reconciliation and an escape from the fear of the bomb and the assassin’s bullet. But they acknowledge that the passage of time and a desire to live together harmoniously, without reliving historical grievances, will be the best means to achieve that end.
At least the Consultative Group is expected to come up with one proposal that we have no hesitation in endorsing. It will say there should be no more public inquiries into matters arising out of the Troubles. Amen to that.
DATE:2009/01/25 23:02
URL:http://
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
タイムずマラソン 更新情報
-
最新のトピック
-
最新のイベント
-
まだ何もありません
-
-
最新のアンケート
-
まだ何もありません
-
タイムずマラソンのメンバーはこんなコミュニティにも参加しています
人気コミュニティランキング
- 1位
- 音楽が無いと生きていけない
- 196578人
- 2位
- 食べ物写真をつい撮ってしまう人
- 20123人
- 3位
- 写真を撮るのが好き
- 209682人