DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Stop this merciless battle in opposition to our veterans
Tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday, when the nation pauses to pay a grateful tribute to those who fought and died for this country.
On this most solemn of days, we remember that the debt we owe our military heroes is as immeasurable as ever.
Standing in for Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs this week, David Lammy was quick to associate himself with such sentiments. ‘We will never forget those who fought to defend our freedom,’ he intoned.
Yet his words were nothing more than cynical platitudes. For this week of all weeks, Labour has opened up a new front in the witch-hunt against British troops who served bravely in Northern Ireland.
To their eternal shame, ministers have resurrected plans for an inquest into the events at Loughgall, County Armagh, in May 1987. Yet what happened is not in question.
A heavily armed IRA gang sought to carry out mass murder by driving a digger loaded with explosives into a remote police station.
But SAS troops lying in wait courageously fought back. Eight terrorists were killed in what is regarded as the most successful anti-paramilitary operation of The Troubles.
Multiple inquiries have exonerated the soldiers. But four decades on, the veterans – all in their 70s and 80s – face the ordeal of being hauled before the courts to explain their actions. If a coroner rules the deaths were unlawful (based, controversially, on human rights law that did not exist at the time), they could even be prosecuted.
Standing in for Sir Keir Starmer at PMQs this week, David Lammy was quick to associate himself with such sentiments. ‘We will never forget those who fought to defend our freedom,’ he intoned. Yet his words were nothing more than cynical platitudes (FILE PHOTO)
But what choice did the SAS have? Confronted by machine gun-wielding IRA men with a burning hatred for the British Army, should the soldiers have cheerily gestured for them to stop? We all know how bloodily that would have ended.
So why is the Government dragging the heroes of that day into court 38 years later?
This perversion of justice is pandering to Irish Nationalist lobbying which seeks to portray the IRA as victims and the Army as villains. The Left has long loathed the British military. And we should not forget Attorney General Lord Hermer represented former Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in court.
The eagerness by parts of the British state to punish the soldiers it deployed to protect this country stands in stark contrast to the treatment meted out to former terrorists who were secretly given letters granting them immunity from prosecution.
When the Government is seeking to boost Armed Forces recruitment, allowing such ‘lawfare’ to be used as a weapon against ex-servicemen is counter-productive and has deep repercussions for the safety of the UK.
Who would now sign up to wear the uniform – or dare to pull a trigger to defend us?
At the Cenotaph tomorrow, Labour ministers will soberly honour those who served our country. If they sincerely meant it, they would stop the SAS betrayal.
Cabinet of sleaze
How long it seems since Sir Keir pledged to clean up politics and run a government free from cronyism and impropriety.
He has since lost a number of ministers over wrongdoing – tax-dodging, phone fraud, corruption allegations and more. His Chancellor also broke the law by renting out her house without a licence.
Now Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has breached ethics rules by failing to declare donations from a media executive she later appointed as the new football regulator.
Yet having spent years castigating the Tories for similar offences, the PM has quickly forgiven her. So much for restoring integrity. You can barely swing a cat in his Cabinet without hitting a rule-breaker.
