Starmer’s Tsar Attacks “Two-Tier” Plans to Prosecute Northern Ireland Veterans While Ex-IRA Terrorists Remain Immune
Keir Starmer’s Northern Ireland veterans’ tsar has said plans to axe a law protecting Troubles veterans from prosecution are “immoral” and “two-tier justice” since former IRA terrorists will keep their own legal protections and avoid prosecution. The Telegraph has the story.
David Johnstone, the Veterans’ Commissioner for Northern Ireland, said that repealing the Legacy Act would lead to “vexatious lawfare” against former soldiers.
He told the Telegraph that up to 70 former soldiers would be forced into the dock “for doing their jobs” fighting the IRA on behalf of the British government.
Mr Johnstone, a former Army reservist, was appointed by Hilary Benn, the Northern Ireland Secretary, in January to act as an independent voice for veterans.
He has demanded that the Government abandons its plan, claiming that it would lead to a situation where former IRA terrorists had legal protections not afforded to veterans.
The high-profile intervention will be another blow to Labour’s legislative agenda, as the proposals face mounting opposition and protests by the Armed Forces community.
Parliament will hold a debate next month after a petition demanding protections for veterans against Troubles prosecutions garnered more than 145,000 signatures.
The 2023 Legacy Act put an end to fresh historical inquests into deaths that occurred in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, as well as civil actions.
It created the Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery, which would review deaths and serious injuries that occurred during the conflict.
However, Labour pledged in its manifesto to scrap the legislation, which it said was unpopular with Irish political parties and victims’ groups as well as being incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
The plans to repeal the legislation have caused alarm among veterans, who are worried that they will be forced into legal proceedings for actions they took decades ago.
Worth reading in full.
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Nothing like upsetting the Armed Forces community. All intended to reduce staff numbers and kill recruitment. Meanwhile Kneel has an immie army in waiting.
We’re still here dot dot dot
Odd.
We know that IRA members committed crimes including indiscriminate murder (eg bombings) but the government says they cannot be prosecuted. Some suspect that members of the military committed crimes but the government does not want them to keep the same protection from prosecution.
I suppose the military should be held to a higher standard than the IRA scum.
WHAT???!!!
Those who wish ill to the UK have long wanted to glorify the IRA and prosecute the armed forces and police. That includes many Labour Party people, many journalists and numerous lawyers.
no wonder military recruitment is so low.
Were the ROE (rules of engagement) broken at the time?
Exactly this.
If they were I don’t have any problem with an inquiry reaching this conclusion.
If it goes any further and individual soldiers are named then prosecuted the same should happen with terrorists.
I’m not sure if I’d support prosecutions for both sides.
The entire concept of prosecuting any of the combatants is ludicrous, violating the general principle that “proceedings for crimes must be commenced within SIX MONTHS of the criminal act”.
Why don’t we go back to ALL WARS and prosecute all the DESCENDANTS of any member of the British Armed Forces who “broke the rules of engagement”?
Just think of all the money the lawyers & judges would make! And the “reparations”— like IRA Terrorist Gerry Adams is already reaping.
And let’s make sure to enforce the treasonous new “Rules of Engagement” that were imposed upon our own troops in the Afghanistan War, in which they were not allowed to shoot at the enemy unless they were fired upon first.
That way we can ensure our own defeat, and become Good Little Global Slaves.
😒
As I understand it the madleft thinks in purely abstract terms and magical incantations that have no contact with reality. Thus the IRA indiscriminate murderers were freedom fighters with an agenda of liberation (and how wonderful the words freedom and liberation sound), whereas British soldiers defending the people from the IRA were colonial oppressors (and how terrible the words colonial and oppressor sound).
This is all nonsense politics, designed to rile people up. Do you feel riled up reading this headline?. Bit dismayed, the DS is becoming an echo chamber of Indignant outrage over minutia.
For the record, the British parliament has voted for assisted suicide and abortion at full term the week before last and this week, a MSM media article piece carries a headline telling us Reform will abolish the very Bill that their elected MP’s voted for.
Still, indignant outrage is always a seller.
Just look at the government’s response to that petition. It starts: “The last Government’s Legacy Act was wrong and was found to be unlawful…”
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/725716
So they are seriously saying that an Act of Parliament is unlawful. They are, in other words, denying the sovereignty of Parliament and claiming there is a higher authority that can override it.
Similar of course to the gratuitous surrender of the Chagos Islands based on the decision of a foreign court.
This goes to the heart of the struggle to protect our Nation State, and says a lot about those currently leading it.
Well done to David Johnstone for staunchly defending true Justice!
Appointing him as Veterans Commissioner for Northern Ireland is the most sensible thing Hilary Benn has ever done.
And the “Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery” should also be abolished, because it is completely controlled by Catholic Maryolaters pushing their endless vindictive revenge and hatred for the whole Protestant Reformation, following the Vatican’s 500-year attempt to destroy Protestantism and drag the world back into crawling on their knees before statues of The Impostor Goddess.
That will certainly give recruitment a boost.