---

Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

When I heard the hon. Member for Belfast, South (Dr. McDonnell) say earlier that the SDLP stood for stability, democracy and peace, I turned to one of my hon. Friends and asked what the ““L”” in SDLP stood for. I suspect that it now stands for ““lunacy””, because it would have been pure lunacy at the time to pursue a policy that reduced the RUC—now the PSNI—to just a small number of serving officers. The hon. Member for Foyle (Mark Durkan) will know that the police commanders in his own constituency are crying out for more resources to cope with the level of crime in Londonderry, where there are more attacks on young people every week than in most other places in Northern Ireland, and where there are still no-go areas—