Julie Hambleton’s letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson

DEAR Prime Minister,

At what point did your government lose all sight of its moral, ethical and judicial backbone?

According to media reports, the Government are preparing legislation to address crimes committed during The Troubles, which would “allow people who were involved in the conflict to testify about what happened without fear of prosecution, giving closure to families of those who were killed”.

Tell me, Prime Minister, if one of your loved ones was blown up beyond recognition, where you were only able to identify your son or daughter by their fingernails because their face had been burned so severely from the blast and little of their remains were left intact, would you be so quick to agree to such obscene legislation being implemented?

You would do everything in your power to find the murderers and bring them to justice, which is exactly what we campaign for every day.

Can you imagine how many more innocent souls the IRA would have murdered if they had known that in the future, no matter how many thousands they killed and injured, it would not matter because they would be pardoned, granted an amnesty and let off scot-free?

How is this considered to be a deterrent for any future terrorist organisations?

What your government is proposing is that no matter what city terrorists decide to wreak death and destruction upon, do not worry because the British government will let you walk away free without any fear of retribution of prosecution.

To add insult to injury, your government has taken it upon themselves to try and get this legislation through ‘under the radar’, where you have not even had the basic common decency to discuss this with the victims’ families and survivors of the horrendous atrocities that were committed against so many across Northern Ireland, England and beyond.

Please tell me, what is it about the lives and mass deaths of our loved ones that you appear to not have the courage to face the families to discuss such abhorrent ideas with?

Our sister, Maxine Hambleton was blown up alongside 20 other innocent souls, in the Birmingham Pub Bombings 1974. Our mother had difficulty trying to identify her young, intelligent, beautiful daughter because her injuries from the blast was so severe there was not much left to identify.

Yet, your government want to allow the cowards who committed this heinous crime to walk free and one of your team is pontificating that by allowing the murderers to admit their crimes this will bring us ‘‘closure’’.

Before any decision for any legislation is discussed regarding The Troubles, such ideas must be discussed with the families impacted directly, because it is clear your government have no idea of how The Troubles has affected so many people and will continue to do so, until truth, justice and accountability is seen to be done.