Unfit for office

MY READER will be well aware that I am no fan of Jeremy Corbyn, especially when he talks of Ireland and his past links with key members of the Provisional IRA. He claims the numerous times he was photographed with Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, often in the Commons, at his invitation, were all part of his contribution to the “peace process”. Pardon? Speaker Betty Boothroyd was incensed that at the height of the troubles, Corbyn brought the leaders of the IRA into the very heart of the British democracy they were intent on destroying. The IRA were no friends of peace; they prided themselves as being “at war” with the British state. In truth they murdered the innocents. The tools of their trade were not peace and love, they were the bullet and the bomb. They had as much in common with “peace” as Genghis Khan had with the Pope. So, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised that on his first official visit to Northern Ireland as Labour leader, Corbyn has chosen to speak about the sensitive subject of the Irish border at Queen’s University, Belfast, the scene of the IRA’s brutal murder of an innocent lecturer.

I make no complaint about Corbyn’s commitment to republicanism, it’s his attitude to the most violent incarnation of Irish Republicanism that appals me. Peace came to Northern Ireland through the efforts of moderate democrats like Unionist David Trimble and the nationalist John Hume. The IRA were on the verge of defeat. It had damned all to do with Jeremy Corbyn befriending the men of violence. He was an apologist for the IRA back then and he remains so to this day. To put it bluntly, he is unfit for office. He’s a disgrace.