Mickonchevin

Three former soldiers will appear at Belfast magistrates court on April 20th. One is charged with a killing that took place in May 1972. He is not accused of acting outside his orders. He is accused of acting within them. The distinction no longer appears to matter. This is the reality behind Labour's Northern Ireland Troubles Bill, a piece of legislation dressed in the language of reconciliation that functions, in practice, as an engine of persecution. The state that sent these men to Northern Ireland, that gave them their orders, that relied on their judgment in circumstances no minister has ever faced, is now the state that funds the machinery pursuing them through the courts half a century later. That is not a technicality. It is the central fact. Taxpayer money flows to the lawyers challenging the actions of soldiers whose actions were sanctioned by the taxpayer. The government calls this justice. General Sir Peter Wall, who commanded the British Army for four years, calls it something without moral backbone. He is right. The operational consequences are already visible. Elite soldiers are leaving the SAS and SBS rather than face the prospect of prosecution decades hence for missions carried out under government orders. The crisis has become sufficiently acute that reservists are being brought into the regular SAS to fill roles vacated by those walking out. Britain's most capable fighting force is being quietly hollowed out by a bill whose architects appear indifferent to the result. Seven former SAS commanders have warned that the legislation is doing the enemy's work, that operational secrets exposed through inquiries give hostile states a narrative of lawless troops. Moscow, Tehran and Beijing do not need to discredit British special forces. Westminster is doing it for them. The asymmetry at the heart of this legislation is not incidental. It is structural. IRA members were released under the Good Friday Agreement. Many destroyed evidence, stayed silent, or received letters guaranteeing they would not be pursued. Soldiers kept records, gave statements, and remained traceable. Decades later, only one group remains available for scrutiny. Not because they are more culpable, but because they are more reachable. The Coagh ambush of June 1991 illustrates the logic perfectly. Three IRA men were stopped by the SAS on their way to murder someone. A coroner ruled the force used was justified. Years later a family challenged that ruling, arguing the soldier should have paused after each shot to consider whether to fire the next one. A judge described that argument as ludicrous and utterly divorced from reality. The challenge continues, funded by legal aid, heard at the Court of Appeal just days ago. No verdict ends the process. The process is the punishment. Keir Starmer has said publicly he is absolutely confident there will be no vexatious prosecutions. Three soldiers will be in a Belfast court in sixteen days. His confidence has not reached them. The government insists its bill provides robust protections for veterans. General Sir Nick Parker, who oversaw the final operations in Northern Ireland, says ministers do not understand the duty of the state to stand by those who serve it. The duty to stand by those who serve is contractual, not sentimental. A soldier who follows orders in a war the state authorised cannot later be offered up as payment for political convenience. What is being constructed here is not a legacy process. It is a permanent legal industry, sustained by public money, targeting the most traceable participants in a conflict the state itself waged. The soldiers kept their records. That is now their liability. A serious country does not behave this way. This one, apparently, does. "Keir Starmer has said publicly he is absolutely confident there will be no vexatious prosecutions. Three soldiers will be in a Belfast court in sixteen days. His confidence has not reached them."

One Rotherham gang received over £600,000 in legal aid

The probation officer is probably a nonce. “A probation officer concluded he posed a low risk of re-offending and recommended he could be punished under a community order”

THIS IS SHOCKING!!! Grooming gang survivor reveals she was trafficked into the Houses of Parliament as a teenager and offered for sex to a high-profile politician. The Oldham victim (then just 16) was sneaked in pretending to be her abuser’s niece so the politician could “approve” her for himself and his friends. She was also raped by Greater Manchester Police officers, one showed her his warrant card before abusing her in a hotel, another in a police station interview room. GMP has now admitted “unacceptable failings” in how they handled her allegations involving politicians and cops. Whistleblower Maggie Oliver calls it deliberate concealment.

This is inspector Lee Bartram of a West Midlands police. He admitted making and distributing over 450 indecent images of children. Some of the pictures and videos were taken, while on duty. He walked from court with a 16 month suspended sentence

🚨NEW: Baroness Ayesha Hazarika, a Labour Peer nominated by Keir Starmer, was recorded joking about grooming gangs while appearing on a radio show

Tom Skinner’s men walking for mental health events - they look like West Ham fans in a post apocalyptic world searching for a football match that’s no longer being played

The real reason Karl Turner was thrown out of the Parliamentary Labour Party is that he took a strong, principled stand against the Government’s sinister plan to curb our right to trial by jury. Turner said: “If you oppose this Government, they will savagely attack you and brief against you.” He has described a sickening briefing war from Number 10, allegedly using his past mental health issues to undermine him. The Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East since 2010 and former Shadow Attorney General, says his opposition stems from personal experience. As a young man, he was charged and later acquitted of selling stolen antiques — but believes he would have been convicted had his case been heard by a judge alone. That experience led him to become a barrister. Turner has called the Labour Party “the nearest thing I’ve got to religion”, warning that the Prime Minister is taking it “almost to the point of no return”. Government sources claim his suspension relates in part to his “aggressive” conduct in the Commons chamber. God forbid an MP believes in something — especially our liberties — unlike this weak and directionless Government. Read more below 👇