The Spectator's Notes

14 March 2009

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

Why are people surprised that two soldiers and a policemen have been murdered in Northern Ireland? One of the key parts of the ‘peace process’ was the Patten report on policing. This recommended the disbandment of the RUC. The part of the RUC which caused most offence to republicans was the Special Branch. As a result, almost its entire body of expertise has been destroyed, and many of its individual former members brought under suspicion of loyalist ‘collusion’ by the authorities. So the new Police Service of Northern Ireland (the word ‘force’ is not permitted, of course) knows terrifyingly little about the activities of dissident republicans. This is why the Chief Constable belatedly realised that he had to call in the Special Reconnaissance Regiment, and why the republicans felt free to strike. The security forces are now more ignorant about the terrorist situation on the ground than they have ever been.

It is inherent in the ideology of the ‘peace process’ that Sinn Fein has never had to admit the evil of killing security forces in order to take part in government. That is why Gerry Adams speaks as he does. It is not just that he is cold and unfeeling, though he is. It is also that he maintains the view that the killing was necessary. His argument against such murders today is strategic, not moral: the best way of achieving a United Ireland at this point is by using peaceful methods, but violence remains, in principle, justified. The dissidents are spoiling his plan and questioning his right to run the nationalist community. To use a favourite Adams word, there is ‘logic’ in the new attacks. The young hotheads know from Adams’s own example that, if you kill enough people, the British government will eventually talk to you and give you power. For them, these murders are a macabre but rational investment in the future, the same investment that Adams himself made more than 30 years ago.

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Language police

March 15th, 2009 2:13pm Report this comment

It's perfectly possible that Adams' vanity is overwhelming and that he inhabits a world of callous self-importance -- but I don't see that the phrase 'not just' proves it. Substitute the equivalent 'not only' ('... not only pizza delivery men ...') and you have a sober factual claim, maybe true, maybe false (the former more likely in my view), but not inherently self-important.

WSM

April 9th, 2009 9:18am Report this comment

Re: "Rumour reaches me that the City editor of the Guardian has taken to hoarding household supplies against the day of financial collapse which he sees coming."

A quick google suggests the City editor of the Guardian is Julia Finch, who is a "she".

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