A metric for critical thinking on policy matters.
The King, Charles III, is Head of The British State.
Occupying Government of The United Kingdom Power are the current Conservative Majority. They can do whatever they like. To all intents and purposes, they and their sponsors are a hyper-dominant influence on the machinery of State.
They exercise a dominant control of the Legislature.
Untouchable. Johnson jumped ship before he was planked. A tactical move.
No scandal can now impede the canoe this State and it's Government are furiously paddling us all up shit creek. 'Refugees in small boats are criminals, it's an invasion'. So they claim. And it is a lie. We all know this. They will never admit - to publicly admit to deliberate harm causation, to be held accountable is to cede power, and that they will never, ever do. Brace yourselves. For more deliberate cruelty.
Oh, yes, this week the memories associated with Windrush Generation of Immigrants to England, 75 years ago. 'Hostile Environment' has a history, a continuity.
There's a pattern emerging.
The Northern Ireland legacy Bill reveals this too.
#mindblown
Deliberate cruelty. Prove me wrong. Please.
Ireland’s deputy premier, Micheál Martin, said the interstate case would argue that the provisions of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act 2023 were incompatible with the UK’s obligations under the European convention on human rights.
The act received royal assent in September despite widespread opposition from political parties, victims’ organisations in Northern Ireland and the Irish government.
Aspects of the law include a limited form of immunity from prosecution for Troubles-related offences for those who cooperate with the new Independent Commission for Reconciliation and Information Recovery (ICRIR).
The new act will also halt future civil cases and legacy inquests.
A number of Troubles victims and family members are supporting a legal challenge against aspects of the act at Belfast high court.
Martin said: “This decision was taken after much thought and careful consideration. I regret that we find ourselves in a position where such a choice had to be made.
“However, the decision by the British government not to proceed with the 2014 Stormont House agreement and instead pursue legislation unilaterally, without effective engagement with the legitimate concerns that we, and many others, raised left us with few options.
“The British government removed the political option, and has left us only this legal avenue.”
I had no idea.
Buried in my own little rabbit hole. I had no idea. So I peeked out into another rabbit hole. I learned a lot.
On Thursday I view two documentaries on The Troubles, the civil war in Northern Ireland that Wass maintained for 30 years and more.
I was looking for video of Patrick Kielty, who has been selected as the new presenter for RTE flagship Saturday Night Light Entertainment Talk Show, The Late Late Show. He's a stand up comedian by trade, and well respected for his work in maintaining a healing space among the divided of Northern Ireland. His father was shot dead when he was a teenager.
He is a Survivor, he is one of the real lived experience of this social experience people, this subject in the real.
He made a documentary 'My dad, The Peace Deal, and Me' which drew the threads of on his own experience, and through meeting others, listening to their version of events, on all sides, calm in spite of disagreements. Honest, moving.
So many people suffered so much avoidable harm.
The second film I watched was the story of Father Alex Reid, who created a flow of communication between the warring parties, a vital effort in bringing peace to Northern Ireland.
So many people suffered so much avoidable harm.
So many people: How does one count the impact across an entire population, who will need full support to recover over time, from the continuing multi-generational cycle of trauma, and who deserve it. No question. So many generous ordinary persons, citizens, families, communities who want a healthy resolution. Impeded by a State that is opposed to that. Clearly.
The Lords debate on recent Govt. Amendments to this Bill is interesting, it can be read here. Tinkering with the engine, adjusting some of the fairing, but the engine is a dirty, polluting harmful thing.
The Irish Foreign Office published a letter by Micheál Martin, which requests, in clear language, that the British Government cease work on the NITLARB.
Amnesty International had this to say about it.
In short, there has been an imperfect and tortoiseian paced State and Civil Society healing and recovery process underway across the Northern Ireland population, for decades. Civic organisations, Community Voluntary networks, health care provision, stability in education, building on proven process, driven by Survivors presenting the evidence of what works to bring recovery, peace, stability of relationships, community. It's not a rapid process. It could and really should be strengthened and accelerated.. how long must people harmed in the last 40 years remain short of justice, accountability and reparations. Is there a plan to delay as older survivors pass on? Is it that dark?
The State is not hearing, the State refusing to see the evidence, and the State is never mentioning this body of work, lived experience in post war resolution of harms caused cannot pass the three monkey gate.
The British Government is well beyond dragging it's heels, on upholding the Human Rights of the citizens of Northern Ireland, The United Kingdom and those of Irish citizens who have been adversely harmed by war violence. Citizens, who in good faith, who seek not revenge but justice, accountability, closure, resolution, towards a renewed social solidarity in line with the understanding, born of the lived experience, a body of evidence of how to live well, together.
This is nothing a democratic State should fear or impede.
But it does.
The implementation of work to repair, in the aftermath of a protracted state of war and daily violence, is always a matter of learning more through direct lived experience. The solutions are found in the intentions of the Survivors, in meeting the un-met needs of the Survivor population, a demographic who wish sincerely to end the cycles of violence in their own lifetimes.
Accountability for harms caused is part of that process. It has to be. Evidence, justice, accountability and prevention, for decent human beings harmed during decades of violence, all of it avoidable. Peace is more than the absence of War.
For this British State, the approach, this dynamic is all ends with the eventual inevitable passing of the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Bill.
70 Plus Majority. They can do what they like.
And their proposal?
No more public criminal liability for those who caused harm, disabling and murdering, wounding and terrorising, especially if the purported defendants were working for the British State - their confession will be archived, they will receive immunity from prosecution. Their Crimes will be noted. Survivors will be 'compensated'.
Survivors can add their stories, and record the impacts upon their lives of the harms they endured: 'impact statements' to the national archive. Thus the impact is duly recorded, filed and archived. That way the Survivor population can contribute to and write their history, bringing to light the complexity of the situation. Presumably to lead to greater understanding, that would prevent future outbreaks of political violence. Make NI Safe Again!
Guardian Article on Irish Government legal challenge to the NIT Bill.
It's a kind of weird 'show and tell' vs 'show and tell' where the criminals are the winners, and so too are the survivors - except it's not that - it is an attack on the entire Survivor Population adversely afflicted by British State Militarised Politicised Violence."
We're ALL Winners?
Nobody wins in war.
Peace is more than the absence of War.
Honesty all 'round. Honesty is the best policy!
Fine.
Kindest regards
Corneilius
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