How Sinn Fein captured Northern Ireland’s police force

Policing any part of the United Kingdom is a difficult enough task these days. Policing the part of it where the national security threat is highest and the personal details of all officers and staff are now likely in the hands of terrorists after an embarrassing data breach is a whole other story. 

We are talking about Northern Ireland, where this week the Chief Constable inexplicably flip-flopped over a court decision that said the PSNI unlawfully disciplined two junior officers. At first Simon Byrne said he would accept the court’s decision, only to later this week say he would launch an appeal. But his volte face is merely the culmination of a series of preventable calamities that in any other jurisdiction would see senior leaders picking up their P45s.  

The court case – in the form of a judicial review – over the discipling of two officers is notable.