Northern Ireland

Pat Finucane

I see that David Cameron stood up today in 'Westmonster' and apologised for the farce which followed the murder of the solicitor Pat Finucane.  An enquiry led by Desmond Lorenz de Silva has long since been described as a 'disgrace' and many more adjectives.

I am always concerned when a politician calls for an 'independent enquiry' because I suspect that someone from the legal profession will be hand picked to ensure that nobody who belongs to the Political Class will be indicted. 

I served in Northern Ireland both in the seventies and the eighties and it always amazed me how close we were to the protestant community even though we should have been neutral. I personally witnessed a British Staff Sergeant almost attacked because he 'forgot' to stand up for the National Anthem at the end of a social evening in the Sergeant's Mess of the local UDA!

It was an unreal situation but there was little doubt in my mind that we, the British Army, sided with the protestant community even though we always knew they could cut up rough if we did not adhere to the official policy.  Don't get me wrong I liked them but I was working undercover and they were not the target.  I always thought that they were capable of a violence that would probably exceed that of the IRA...which says it all!

So can we trust 'independent inquiries'? In my opinion none of the Political Class and that includes politicians, the judiciary and the police will ever be 'independent'. They all have agendas and so we cannot trust them.  The inquiry into the death of Pat Finucane proves just that!  

The millions spent on the Leveson Inquiry also proves it. He has jogged off to Australia leaving behind him an unsolved mess. The only winners are always the lawyers.  It is time that this ceased.