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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

I rise to support the new clause. It is difficult to overestimate the degree of anger and outright antagonism that exists within my community towards the 50:50 arrangement. The term ““50:50”” is, as my hon. Friend the Member for Belfast, East (Mr. Robinson) has suggested, a misnomer, because we are actually seeing a minority of Protestants being recruited. More Catholics than Protestants are now being recruited to the police in Northern Ireland, but people use the term ““50:50”” as a kind of shorthand for that. It is difficult to overestimate the degree of anguish that exists in my community as a result of this arrangement. It is not, as the hon. Member for South Down (Mr. McGrady) suggested, a minor aberration. Several thousand people have now received a letter thanking them for applying to join the police, and telling them that, although they are suitably qualified to be a police officer, the bottom line is that, because of the 50:50 scenario, they have been unsuccessful in this tranche of applications because they are of the wrong religion.