Monday, March 12, 2007

Running Scared

Amazing- not only are there "dissident" Nationalist terrorist groups still active in Northern Ireland but the IRA remains active and still armed- after lying about destroying their arms. Despite this the British government continues their appeasement of Sinn Fein/IRA by speeding ahead with the removal of Army bases, watch towers on the border and even removing security measures from police stations (most here resemble barricaded fortresses because of the tendency of the IRA to bomb them). So we're removing all of our security features in the country and opening up our borders to incursion in the hope that Blair's legacy will include peace here. And all the while no similar demands are placed on the terrorists who caused these security measures to be implemented in the first place.

The problem is, there is no peace- the terrorists have simply halted their attacks, using the threat of a return to violence as a weapon to draw more and more compromises from the British government. This policy of appeasement means that we have a "power sharing" executive- no matter what the votes of the majority, our government has to include Sinn Fein/IRA in positions of power. An executive that put terrorists in our local government. Martin McGuiness, a self-confessed member of the IRA, was once Minister of Education. The previous executive failed due to IRA spying in the corridors of power. A new executive is due to come into effect on March 26- and if local politicians can't agree to it, the executive will be closed and rule will continue from London. The thing is, the agreement would have been made long ago if Sinn Fein/IRA had disarmed as they were supposed to and signed up to issues like policing (yep, the same group that once targeted and murdered policemen is to enter government).

The politics of fear and appeasement stink. And "Great" Britain's leadership trembles in fear at the IRA.

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