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Northern Ireland (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

The new clause is key to the likelihood of devolution being successfully implemented in Northern Ireland and to whatever devolved Government we set up being sustainable in the long run. It surprises me that there has already been resistance to it from the Government. Without a commitment by all those involved in the devolved Assembly in Northern Ireland, and in the Executive within it, to supporting the police and upholding the rule of law, we can be sure that it will not be long before a crisis hits the Assembly and it collapses again. We have already experienced that. The previous Assembly stumbled from one crisis to another, and it was quite clear why that was happening. Periodically, one of the parties involved in the Executive showed that it did not support the police not only through its words but through its activities. It is unthinkable that we could have a workable Executive in which there was no commitment to upholding the rule of law and supporting the police. My party and I share some of the reservations that have been expressed about the wording of the new clause. Of course it is possible for someone to take a pledge to uphold the rule of law and then totally disregard it, or say that their interpretation of it was different. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 required Ministers to be committed to ““exclusively peaceful”” means. The Sinn Fein Members signed up to that, while at the same time running a spy ring from their office. Members of their party were also engaged in gun running and, on a regular basis, extortion, criminality and murder were being carried out by the very people with whom they were associated.