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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

The Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill has certainly been well named. The ““miscellaneous provisions”” seem to be a smokescreen to hide what the Bill is really about. Its main thrust, and the Government’s main motivation in introducing it at this time, is to deal with policing and justice under devolution. The hon. Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Lidington) admitted tonight that it is all very well to talk about having Sinn Fein on the Policing Board, and about its members taking part in policing and justice, but there should be no place on the Policing Board for anyone associated with terrorism and with the crime that follows hard on the heels of the terrorist organisations, whether they are the UVF’s nominee, who is now on the Policing Board, or not. Of course, if that had happened to be a DUP man, he would have been kicked off. He would not have seen daylight. He would not have been allowed to eat his bread. I myself, even while a Member of this House, was not permitted to enter Downing street for two years. I was looked upon as a leper and was not allowed in through the door. It did not do me any harm—actually, it did me good. But I am used to the knocks of the House. I am a democrat and I believe that, in the end, democracy will win this battle. There is another thing that I must say, which is that we cannot have in the Government of Northern Ireland those who are still in terrorist organisations, and in fact control, run and dictate those terrorist organisations. I did not lock the door at Stormont. I had nothing to do with it. Who brought down Stormont? The representatives of the Government and the Secretary of State—he brought down the Stormont Administration. They are the people who brought Stormont down. Why did they do it? Because the terrorist activities of Sinn Fein were quite open and people saw what it was doing. I never voted for the Executive when I was at Stormont—neither did my party and neither did many others—but others voted for them, including the Social Democratic and Labour party. They voted into power those who were active in terrorist work and they sat down with them. They talk about excluding people. It is a terrible thing to be excluded. The Minister got up and said that those people will not be excluded. I hope he gets up now and says that we will not be excluded either. Let us be very fair about it—we were excluded, but we did not argue about that. In fact, we were referred to as Ministers who should not be allowed to be Ministers, but under the terms of the agreement the law said that we could be Ministers. Still people tried to exclude us, but what good did it do? Did it convert Sinn Fein? Did the leopard change its spots or the Ethiopian his skin? Not likely. They became more and more aggressive, and, even today, Sinn Fein has only one word to say, which is that the Democratic Unionist party is calling the shots and keeping it out of government. The majority of people in Northern Ireland, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, do not want terrorists in the Government of Northern Ireland. That is the opinion of the vast majority of people, and the House needs to learn that. We cannot tolerate terrorists in any Government of Northern Ireland. Of course, if the Bill goes through, the Government seem to think that eventually we could have a Sinn Feiner as the head of the police and the head of the Department. They are arguing now that we could have two people involved—this matter of having twos is popular. We could have a Sinn Feiner and someone else in charge of the police. I wonder when Sinn Fein and the IRA will come with their millions of pounds that they stole from the Northern bank. When will they put that on the table and say, ““We are going to finish with our terrorism.””? We do not see repentance, and it should be a repentance not to be repented of, but it has not come. Therefore, the Bill looks away into the distant future. It is nothing to do with today, tomorrow, next week or Christmas. Does anybody believe that, with the standing of Sinn Fein today in Northern Ireland, it will give up its violence and its terrorism? The House, in its wisdom, set up independent commissions. Those independent commissions have met and looked at the situation. They have told in their reports that terrorism is not over. I heard the Secretary of State at the Dispatch Box today telling us it was all settled and all over. It is not all over. The Government’s own commissions said that the police had informed them that the IRA still had guns. We were told all the guns were gone, but no one could say that all the guns were gone because no one knew how many guns it had. There was no inventory and no proper challenge. We wanted something that could be seen and that people could depend on. That did not come about. The clergymen who were involved admitted to my party when they met us that they had been brought to the place not by the British Government—they were not appointed by the British Government—but by the IRA. One of them then said that the IRA never was engaged in violence anyway, such is the credibility of the people who were supposed to verify whether the arms were done away with. Now we have this Bill. I have sat as a Member of the House for a long time, and I have heard Government after Government—Tory and Labour—say, ““We would like to pass legislation, but there is a lack of parliamentary time.”” How is it that we are getting time tonight for something that cannot and will not be accomplished by passing the Bill? The House can pass as many Bills as it likes. That will not accomplish the doing away with terrorism, nor will it alter the fact that there will not be devolution in Northern Ireland until the terrorists are exiled—put out of business. We need to recognise that. We are called here to waste our time and to argue about points that are not really in the debating Chamber, because they are not going to be dealt with. SDLP Members are worrying about the election of a First Minister and a Deputy First Minister. They need not worry in any way whatever. They can enjoy 17 March and even drink green beer, because that is not going to come about. Here we are in the House, which is the signal to the world of democracy, and parliamentary democracy at that. We have been called here by the Government to hear their spokesman going on and on in a long speech, but this is like a canary in a cage: plenty of activity, but no progress. There cannot be progress until the House opens its eyes wide and says, ““We cannot have terrorists in the Government of any part of this United Kingdom.”” When the Government and the House come to do that, there will be a move—a move in the right direction for democracy. I hope it comes sooner rather than later, but I think it will be later—maybe much later, after we have done what we are doing in the House tonight.