Opinion

Tom Kelly: Karen Bradley's comments were not a gaffe but a reflection of a mindset shared by other MPs

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly

Tom Kelly is an Irish News columnist with a background in politics and public relations. He is also a former member of the Policing Board.

Secretary of State Karen Bradley has faced calls for her to resign
Secretary of State Karen Bradley has faced calls for her to resign Secretary of State Karen Bradley has faced calls for her to resign

Karen Bradley, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, is perhaps the most ineffectual, ineffective and mostly invisible holder of her post since Francis Pym in the 1970s. Though in fairness the title of worst ever secretary of state is a hotly contested race.

Bradley appears earnest in a jolly hockey sticks kind of way. She reminds this writer of the hapless police sergeant Ruby Gates played by Joyce Grenfell in the St Trinian’s movies.

When Bradley revealed in The House magazine that she didn’t know that people here voted along constitutional lines it was a stupid but honest remark. The level of ignorance in the House of Commons on Northern Ireland is staggering. Unfortunately for Bradley the matter exposed her utter naivety.

Bradley’s alleged gaffe wasn’t a gaffe. It was not an off the cuff remark carelessly made in a bar. It was made at the despatch box. If a minister cannot display competence in a set piece like Northern Ireland question time then he/she should not be there. However, intelligence and competence have never been essential criteria for a career in politics.

Many British commentators have previously said that Bradley lacked the ability to warrant a cabinet post and that her abiding suitability for high office has been determined by her loyalty to the prime minister.

And when a prime minister has her party benches filled with as many backstabbing quislings as Mrs May, it is little wonder that unwavering loyalty is a valued commodity.

But loyalty isn’t enough when you have lost the confidence of those you are supposed to be serving. Karen Bradley had only a very tenuous grip when it came to winning the confidence from the political parties or the public.

To state that killings carried out by members of the security forces ‘were not crimes’ and that they were the actions of ‘people acting under orders and instructions, fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way’ is grossly insulting and insensitive to the families of victims in Derry, Belfast and elsewhere in Northern Ireland.

But again, it was no gaffe. Bradley’s mindset is very much like that of many MPs in the House of Commons. Some do not regard any killings by security forces as unlawful.

This is despite the overwhelming, independent and verifiable proof that some of the killings by security forces were indeed unlawful.

Bradley’s comments that some of the killings were carried out in a ‘dignified and appropriate’ way goes way beyond crass and cruel. There is nothing dignified or appropriate about firing on an unarmed priest tending to the wounded; or shooting a teenage girl in the back or mowing down innocent civilians fleeing from trouble.

The secretary of state forgot that unlawful killings are just that - unlawful. And it doesn’t matter whether the person doing the killing wears a balaclava or a military beret. There are too many apologists for the wrongdoings of the British Army and other security personnel masquerading as politicians on the benches of Westminster. They are myopic on the subject.

Of course, no one should lose sight of the fact that it was the IRA (and other paramilitaries ) who did most of the killings during the Troubles and that many of their victims have never received any form of justice. However the fact that so few terrorist murderers were not brought before the courts is not the fault of victims. They were let down by those investigating the murders and those who decided whether there was enough evidence to prosecute. So when evidence and proof does exist it is only right that prosecutions follow.

And whilst we are at it, let’s burst another myth. There isn’t a disproportionate focus on the wrongdoing of security personnel from the Troubles. From 1969 to 1998, over 300,000 British troops served in Northern Ireland. Those allegedly guilty of unlawful murders is less than a fraction of one per cent of that number.

Whilst there is no mechanism to hold paramilitaries to account for the past (apart from new evidence emerging), the persistence and perseverance of the families of innocent victims did find a way to get to the truth via inquiries.

And instead of the successive British governments accepting the facts about unlawful killings and collusion - they have thwarted the process of truth recovery by all means fair and foul for thirty years.

Karen Bradley is a tragic figure and the DUP neck-brace on this government limits affects her ability to be impartial but it’s not an excuse for her inadequacies.