Savillle Reports: Establishment Reacts.

The Saville  Inquiry  which concluded that none of the 14 dead was carrying a gun, no warnings were given, no soldiers were under threat and the troops were the first to open fire, has produced the usual outburst from the establishment

First there is the “Only Britain would have allowed the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday” as quoted by Cristina Odone in the Telegraph.

Yes after nearly forty years the truth which I (and many others) long suspected has been told. Odone fails to acknowledge that the original Widgery Inquiry was nothing more that a whitewash and many suspect that report was interfered with by the government of the day. It took years of campaigning to get another enquiry and this was only granted to avoid having Tony Blair make a public apology. Odone is talking poppycock and. It’s a bit like praising someone for a deathbed confession, it may clear thing up but it does not exonerate you

Then there’s the “If the victims of Bloody Sunday deserved a public inquiry, so do those of the Brighton bombs” espoused by Norman Tebbit also in the Telegraph
I have sympathy for Tebbit he and his wife were victims of the Brighton Bomb but the perpetrators of Bloody Sunday (the Army) were our representatives and as such purported to have acted legally on our behalf for our protection They did not do so

Then there is the response of General Sir Michael Rose “It wasn't Blair who brought peace to Ulster but brave British soldiers about to be branded as criminals” in the Mail

No one questions the bravery of soldiers and we must understand the pressures they are under. but they can and do believe criminally at times, and in this case the army including the Top Brass tried to cover things up and are still trying do even after Saville’s report. That is why we have war crime tribunals and trials in the Hague this should not be restricted to the vanquished.

There may have been mitigation on behalf of the soldiers who opened fire on that day, they may well have been frightened and confused with what was happening but understanding this does not excuse their actions or the cover up. That why there should have not been armed troops confronting civilians.If this had happened in another country then the cries from all sides in the House of Commons would have been deafening.

The establishment would serve us all by accepting the truth and not look as Odone did for grains of comfort or attempt to besmirch the very idea that a great injustice was committed on that day.

Bloody Sunday is a stain on the History of these Islands that will never wash way.