MP'S VENT ANGER AT RUSHING THROUGH OF BILL
MP's anger at rushing through of bill
By Bernard PURCELL London Editor
THE House of Commons was recalled yesterday for just the seventeenth time in fifty years as Prime Minister Tony Blair rushed through a series of anti-terrorist measures aimed not just at the Real IRA but also Arab extremists.
A fuller chamber than is usual for North business listened in uncharacteristic silence to the Prime Minister's scornful rejection of the Real IRA's attempt to explode the Good Friday Agreement with the Omagh bomb.
A particular hush descended on the House as the Ulster Unionist MP for Omagh Willie Thompson recalled how a burst water main washed shattered body parts down the street of his home town.
But despite the unanimous revulsion at the events of August 15 and a clear desire to imprison those who gave the order and those who carried it out, several MPs expressed resentment that they were being used to "rubber stamp" rushed legislation.
Although the British government had worked hard to choreograph the debate to precisely coincide with the Dail's deliberations, actual discussion of the Bill was delayed as angry MPs unsuccessfully sought more time, by forcing a vote, to consider the new measures.
The Bill will become law today after speedy examination by the House of Lords.
SDLP leader John Hume, who told the House that he will always recall the faces of several child victims as they lay in their coffins, said he had not had enough time to read the bill and given the concerns of civil rights groups he would abstain.
His remarks prompted unlikely unity between DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley, maverick Tory, Alan Clark, former NI secretary Peter Brooke, Labour's Tony Benn and several other senior MPs -with an estimated 200 years of parliamentary service between them - as they vented their anger at their treatment by the government.
Labour backbencher Robert Marshall Andrews, a distinguished QC elected to the Commons for the first time last year, said the bill was the worst drafted legislation he had ever read.
Labour MP Chris Mullin, whose investigative work reopened the case of the Birmingham Six a decade ago, made no specific reference to the most famous casualty of rushed emergency legislation.
Mr Mullin said: "If we get this wrong, we shall end up creating a political base for a tiny isolated sect that at the moment has no political base. That's what has happened in the past and we must avoid that in the future."
He asked Mr Blair to consider accepting two amendments tabled by him to ensure there was "credible evidence, capable of belief in court".
To achieve this, he asked that the RUC take audio recordings of interviews with suspects and that a solicitor be present during interviews.
"Will you make this Bill conditional on that happening? Because you will find that if you do, all the mainly bogus objections raised to these matters will melt away like the snow on a volcano if they are a condition of being allowed to go out and arrest people in the way that the Bill proposes."
The Prime Minister said his concerns were "perfectly reasonable" but he stressed that the peace process, the Good Friday Agreement and the closer than ever before co-operation with the Irish government meant the situation now was very different.
"We are dealing with a very, very, small group of people who really have no base and support, but who do have the capacity as we've seen, to engage in the most appalling acts of terror."
Audio-recording was now the law and to deal with points of the European Convention on Human Rights, it was now a condition that people have to see a solicitor, said Mr Blair.
"We don't believe it is right to amend the legislation in that way, but we are acutely conscious of the need to steer a path between carefully targeted action and action that could result in a miscarriage of justice.
"We obviously don't want to do that and that is why we have been so careful in framing the legislation in the way that we have."
The Prime Minister said that the Government's view was that the legislation was "in line with the European Convention on Human Rights".
Mr Blair added: "We believe it is a targeted and judicious response to the acts of terrorism with which we are faced."
Mr Blair said decommissioning is an integral part of the Agreement.
By Bernard PURCELL London Editor
THE House of Commons was recalled yesterday for just the seventeenth time in fifty years as Prime Minister Tony Blair rushed through a series of anti-terrorist measures aimed not just at the Real IRA but also Arab extremists.
A fuller chamber than is usual for North business listened in uncharacteristic silence to the Prime Minister's scornful rejection of the Real IRA's attempt to explode the Good Friday Agreement with the Omagh bomb.
A particular hush descended on the House as the Ulster Unionist MP for Omagh Willie Thompson recalled how a burst water main washed shattered body parts down the street of his home town.
But despite the unanimous revulsion at the events of August 15 and a clear desire to imprison those who gave the order and those who carried it out, several MPs expressed resentment that they were being used to "rubber stamp" rushed legislation.
Although the British government had worked hard to choreograph the debate to precisely coincide with the Dail's deliberations, actual discussion of the Bill was delayed as angry MPs unsuccessfully sought more time, by forcing a vote, to consider the new measures.
The Bill will become law today after speedy examination by the House of Lords.
SDLP leader John Hume, who told the House that he will always recall the faces of several child victims as they lay in their coffins, said he had not had enough time to read the bill and given the concerns of civil rights groups he would abstain.
His remarks prompted unlikely unity between DUP leader Rev Ian Paisley, maverick Tory, Alan Clark, former NI secretary Peter Brooke, Labour's Tony Benn and several other senior MPs -with an estimated 200 years of parliamentary service between them - as they vented their anger at their treatment by the government.
Labour backbencher Robert Marshall Andrews, a distinguished QC elected to the Commons for the first time last year, said the bill was the worst drafted legislation he had ever read.
Labour MP Chris Mullin, whose investigative work reopened the case of the Birmingham Six a decade ago, made no specific reference to the most famous casualty of rushed emergency legislation.
Mr Mullin said: "If we get this wrong, we shall end up creating a political base for a tiny isolated sect that at the moment has no political base. That's what has happened in the past and we must avoid that in the future."
He asked Mr Blair to consider accepting two amendments tabled by him to ensure there was "credible evidence, capable of belief in court".
To achieve this, he asked that the RUC take audio recordings of interviews with suspects and that a solicitor be present during interviews.
"Will you make this Bill conditional on that happening? Because you will find that if you do, all the mainly bogus objections raised to these matters will melt away like the snow on a volcano if they are a condition of being allowed to go out and arrest people in the way that the Bill proposes."
The Prime Minister said his concerns were "perfectly reasonable" but he stressed that the peace process, the Good Friday Agreement and the closer than ever before co-operation with the Irish government meant the situation now was very different.
"We are dealing with a very, very, small group of people who really have no base and support, but who do have the capacity as we've seen, to engage in the most appalling acts of terror."
Audio-recording was now the law and to deal with points of the European Convention on Human Rights, it was now a condition that people have to see a solicitor, said Mr Blair.
"We don't believe it is right to amend the legislation in that way, but we are acutely conscious of the need to steer a path between carefully targeted action and action that could result in a miscarriage of justice.
"We obviously don't want to do that and that is why we have been so careful in framing the legislation in the way that we have."
The Prime Minister said that the Government's view was that the legislation was "in line with the European Convention on Human Rights".
Mr Blair added: "We believe it is a targeted and judicious response to the acts of terrorism with which we are faced."
Mr Blair said decommissioning is an integral part of the Agreement.
Further Information
Publisher: IRISH INDEPENDENT
Ref: II/218
Published Date: 03-Sep-98
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