Halt hounding of soldiers
THIS WEEK’S farcical trial of two former paratroopers accused of killing IRA commander Joe McCann more than 50 years ago has to be the last betrayal of our soldiers. The very last. Which means the tyrannical witchhunts of the 200 other vets who served in Northern Ireland and are under the threat of prosecution must be halted now.
Never again can we be allowed to hound and destroy the lives of soldiers who laid theirs on the line for this country. Especially not after 200 suspected terrorists were given immunity letters by Tony Blair’s government (they were charmingly called ‘comfort letters’) saying they would never be prosecuted for any atrocity they’d committed during The Troubles.
This week’s trial of the 70 and 71-year-old vets collapsed on a technicality but it should never have been brought.
What a stain on this country that it has actively looked for reasons to prosecute its own soldiers who in Ireland were fighting a bloody sectarian war with terrorists who were trying to kill them on a daily basis. What kind of country lets terrorists off scotfree while simultaneously trying to criminalise its own soldiers who were just doing their job?
More than 700 British military personnel were killed by terrorists in Northern Ireland. Yet I heard one left-wing presenter this week asking if soldiers shouldn’t be held to higher standards than terrorists.
How bloody dare he. Does he expect them to be targeted for death and do nothing? This is a man who sits in a safe, warm studio every day. No clue what it’s like for men on the frontline having to make decisions he’ll never have to. No clue about life under the daily (terrifying) threat of the bomb and the bullet. Just looking for reasons to demonise and do down our military.
The men in the dock this week weren’t accused of killing an innocent – it was Joe McCann, the vile monster believed to be responsible for the deaths of 15 soldiers and many more innocents. And in retaliation for his death the IRA shot five soldiers in the following three days.
Those vets had served their country for 20 years and their reward is to have spent their retirement tortured by the nightmare that their final years would be behind bars.
Shame on this government for putting them through that. During his 2019 election campaign Boris said: “We need to end the unfair trials of people who served their Queen and country when no new evidence has been produced.”
Well, he hasn’t. And he must ignore the protest from Sinn Fein at government plans to exempt British veterans from future prosecutions (they weren’t screaming when those letters of comfort were issued) and get on with doing what’s right by our soldiers.
We can’t give soldiers guns and then criminalise them for using them in the line of duty.
Immunity is the least they deserve. That, and our undying gratitude.
MEGHAN says her new children’s book – which looks like it’s written by a three-yearold – was inspired by Prince Harry’s bond with their son Archie.
No, it wasn’t. Like everything else she does it was inspired by her need to make shedloads of money.
And if Meghan cares so much about relationships between fathers and sons it’s a pity she didn’t set more store by the one between Harry and his dad which is now completely shattered thanks to that Oprah interview.
IT’S WIDELY predicted Sadiq Khan will be re-elected Mayor for the second time by people who clearly don’t give a stuff about London.
In his time as Mayor 114 teenagers have been knifed to death, the city’s transport network is on its knees and his promises of affordable housing were just hot air.
The only notable thing he’s done is to increase his own staffing costs by an incredible 82 per cent.
Khan cares more about woke agendas and sucking up to foreign dignitaries than the people he represents yet still he’s likely to be elected .
Those people will have the London they deserve.
The rest of us deserve better.
ALCOHOLIC Kelly Osbourne has described her relapse back into boozing as a bit of a “setback”.
She went from drinking nothing to three bottles of champagne and 24 cans of alcopops a day which I’d say isn’t so much a setback – more a humdinging, catastrophic annihilatory, deathdefying plunge from the wagon.