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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

The hon. Gentleman’s party confirmed our worst fears about the Patten proposals, namely that their desire to please republicans—let us face it; that was their purpose—meant getting rid of experienced officers, thus leading to skills shortages, which had to be made up by recruiting officers from the mainland. No officer from England or Scotland would have been prepared to have their job decided on the basis of their religion, so the SDLP had to accept that 50:50 would not apply to recruiting people from England or Scotland because they would not have taken the insult of having their religion examined before they were found to be qualified for a job. However, paper-thin arguments continue to be made in favour of 50:50 discrimination.