Bloody Sunday soldier to be charged with murder

steddyeddy wrote: »

I'm going to have to say I'm loosing a lot of respect for Britain as a country since this Bloody Sunday debacle. The amount of people in England defending them is unreal.

Britain got its respect back for me around 1997/1998, although I'm no fan of Tony Blair, that Labour administration was a breath of fresh air.

It lost it with Brexit. I've never seen a population so clueless, so ignorant, and they are actually PROUD of this ignorance.

I say this to the British of today on the forums, and on social media:

Look lads, the world does'nt give a damn that your Grandad was in the Normandy Landings. Its 75 effing years ago mate, and the world has moved on and is looking to a brighter and better future. Thanks, but that sacrifice was your Grandad's sacrifice, NOT yours, and you have no right to be riding around on the coat tails of his achievements. He risked death, you did'nt.

As for Northern Ireland, I'm not from it, I can't judge it beyond arcane theories. Its for the people of Northern Ireland to decide what happens to Northern Ireland, and its safer for a lot of us to stay the hell away from it, because of its volatile nature.

Its no wonder that the most dreaded office when cabinet seats were being assigned in the British Cabinet was:

"Secretary of State to Northern Ireland".

(You can almost see the wailing, the weeping, the gnashing of teeth).

Now - closure is needed. Soldier F is a distraction, a token 'throw under the bus' soldier, an expendable commodity. Having read through all the reports of Bloody Sunday, he HAS to go down. Whether thats sufficient is another matter entirely. Having observed the fractured chaotic nature of Northern Irish politics and discourse over the decades, I'm afraid it won't be. Indeed, the risk is that it could do much more harming than healing.

Deleted User wrote: »

I hope to God they stay asleep!

Considering the appalling lack of ministerial knowledge (or, indeed, interest) in Northern Ireland displayed during the Brexit debate, together with their idealistic defence of soldiers, I fear there is a very real risk to the peace process.

Don't we all?

The thing is, that Unionism still exists. Is it is militant as before? Is it potentially as violent?
Nationalism - I get the distinct impression that the Nationalist segment have 'calmed' a lot over the past two decades and are'nt as 'bolshie' as before.

The Republic of Ireland is a completely different type of social and economic identity to that of 1921 when partition commenced, to that of 1969 when the troubles commenced, and even that of the 1995 ceasefire, and that of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Bloody Sunday is a ticking bomb of pain that the British establishment did'nt know how to diffuse no matter how much we wanted them to find people accountable. I think a 'waiting game' took place.

Both the Catholic and Protestant communities are much less marginalised than before, although the peace walls still stand, the reality is that partition has done grave harm to the province. It is unable to compete economically, it is heavily dependent on state sector employment, and nobody, North, South, British or Irish quite knows how to solve it.

Its a Palestinian type puzzle, where if you aim to please everybody, you'll end up annoying everyone. Anywhere else, you could safely shrug your shoulders and say something slightly daft and insensitive like 'thats politics'. In Northern Ireland - its a different matter entirely - lives get lost with that type of nonsense.

- Whats different now? Technology. The Provisional IRA was secretive and incredibly well organised, to a point it was almost inpenetrable. The UK security services are also 'razor sharp', far more so than their American counterparts, and possibly only Israel's MOSSAD can compete in terms of Pound per person capability.