General British politics discussion thread

The evidence from Penny Mordaunt on messages she could no longer find from Johnson looks sinister:

Something like NSO Pegasus (which might be capable of remotely deleting messages like this) being deployed against government ministers and MPs would not surprise me, but would be pretty shocking if confirmed. Or should be pretty shocking if true, but who knows - maybe it wouldn't even make the news.

She should be in trouble for that but it's beside the point. Still shouldn't prohibit an investigation by telling her to fork out 40k

Not too many towns in Northamptonshire that Northampton can look down on, but Wellingborough is one. An absolute run down neglected kip full of knuckle dragging Sun and Daily Mail readers. If I recall correctly Labour actually came 3rd behind Tories and UKIP at one point so If they can pull this one off it would truly be Armageddon for the Conservatives.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the Irish government taking the UK Government to court about an internal UK matter, namely a legacy issue (prosecutions) from the Northern Ireland Troubles which finished in about 1998 - right?

If that's all correct then how (and why) can the Dublin government take the UK Government to court over an internal UK issue from the past?

Why is Dublin getting involved?

The UK wants to draw a line in the sand for all the cold cases from the troubles because evidence is very scarce, people are old and it's time to move on, while the ROI government is saying what exactly???

Keep tracking down IRA, INLA, UDA, and UFF terroris whilst also going after army and police veterans?

That's my uninformed read of the story so far. So please enlighten me with the bits I'm missing.

What's going on

It's also a worrying precedent that a country is looking to drop cases where its soldiers have murdered its own citizens (regardless of political outlook, the UK army technically killed British citizens).

Any country where its army has killed its own citizens should surely be having an open and public investigation into the matter instead of looking to bury it and seal off all legal paths, especially a first world.democracy that is one.of the most influential countries on the world stage.

On that point alone, I fully support the ROI gov drawing attention to this issue.

That those identified as potential murderers stand trial.

In some cases they are barely in their 50s so the idea that its all doddery old men that Mercer et al have pushed isn't true

The Belfast Agreement is decidedly NOT an internal UK matter.

Please don’t speak for me (and everyone else). I Certainly do not support those who would be going to prison and I know lots of people who have suffered great loss through the troubles. I see no point in continuing to attempt to get prosecutions on these issues. (the most recent of which is now a quarter of a century ago., with many over half a century ago).

I accept that there was fairly unanimous opposition to this bill from the representatives of victims groups on all sides in Northern Ireland, but I do think the Dublin governments involvement has thrown a hand grenade into the middle of that.

there is deep wonder in some communities up here way ROI is so het up about this legacy bill, but had no issues about terrorists receiving letters of comfort to ensure they would not be charged with any crime - of course, these were Republican terrorists only, so maybe that had something to do with it.

I think Dublin involvement in this issue should also shine a spotlight on how many people in their jurisdiction have been investigated and charged with the thousands of cross-border initiated attacks on communities in Northern Ireland over the same period .

I smell a rat

Please actually write out what you're accusing me of here rather than hiding it in weasel words, thanks

I did ask a question about a Baroness PPE in the House of Lords (who's all over the news), but my post/question hasts been deleted, so it seems I must stick with this Legacy topic !!!

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So, apparently Mr Varadkar's move will take No:10 to court over the Troubles legacy Bill, which was aimed at dropping the outstanding killing investigations during the Troubles. A double edged sword apparently, as if Varadkar is successful in the courts, all perpetrators from all sides will be hunted & apprehended, including security forces, Republican terrorists, and Loyalist Terrorists ... All sides will be looking over their shoulders to see who might have been involved in something from between 25 to 50 years ago!

Thank you Sky News, I think?

Others can answer that, although I could say many players or witnesses from the past are dead, including Charles Haughey.

I wanted to embark on a lighter scandal involving ppe during Covid, but I'll go elsewhere with that one .....

Troubles Legacy / Courts

Hope the court challenge doesn't backfire on Varadkar. Bad timing too of you ask me, what with Stormont being down and the issue with post Brexit sea border.