Member

Shortly after the Good Friday agreement, I was asked to be one of the historical advisers on the Bloody Sunday tribunal. I was happy to accept that. You could take the view that such an iconic case, where it appeared that the British Army had had a very bad day and behaved badly, required that inquiry. Indeed, you could also argue that the speech of the then Prime Minister—the noble Lord, Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton—at the time, which I think reflected the influence of the noble Lord, Lord Caine, was a relatively dignified way of bringing closure to a horrible human tragedy. However, when we agreed to have the Bloody Sunday inquiry, Parliament voted to provide £11.5 million; that was what Parliament’s vote was for. In the end, it was actually £191 million; that was the official figure given. Important newspaper discussions happened at the time arguing that the real figure was £220 million.