Member

The hon. Member for North Down made the salient point that this is not just about somebody who may have had a terrorist past or conviction being approved by the Secretary of State to serve on the group, but that political support matters too. How outrageous is it that we still have people in political parties in Northern Ireland, and indeed across the United Kingdom, who glorify terror, and who stand over and eulogise terrorists, and who honour their name, their memory, and their sickening and bleak contribution to society and life in Northern Ireland? Yet in Northern Ireland we do not even enforce the same legislation about glorification, because apparently for successive Governments it is all just a bit too difficult. It should not be difficult, because what is right and what is wrong are pretty easy, fundamental concepts to understand. Children understand the difference between right and wrong, yet we wreck ourselves trying to placate the necessity of some to eulogise terrorism. I think that falls far short of what we as a society should expect.