I second the notion to deploy troops to Northern Ireland as proposed by the honorable Lord Cameron.
-Jeremy McCoy
-Jeremy McCoy
Written response from the Home Secretary to the intervention of Lord Cameron
Lord Cameron,
It is with great interest that I have been apprised of your intervention yesterday in the House of Lords regarding our Government’s policy toward the situation in Northern Ireland and the content of the Police Reform Act of 1972.
While in disagreement with some of your proposal, I must commend you for this intervention which does honour to the House of Lords and bring great credibility to this institution, which some would have rather seen abolished.
The disposition banning the use of armored cars and other military equipment in the police forces is aimed at keeping an appropriate level of proportional response and avoid escalation of conflicts by the actions of police forces. It is of tantamount importance that our citizenry be not led to see their police forces as militarized, thereby prompting the sentiment that they themselves need to arm up to face them.
The Act gave careful consideration to balance on one hand the safety of our police officers and on the other hand, the need to avoid escalation. Your Lordship will recall that while the RUC had access to firearms and armored cars, those were not initially used in Northern Ireland. At once, when they were put in service, their use led to an escalation of the conflict and to loss of life.
As regards bringing greater accountability and responsibility to our chiefs of police, surely Your Lordship will recall the instances where in Londonderry, elements of the Royal Ulster Constabulary dropped their impartiality as upholders of the law and encourage the Protestant population to fire on the Catholic crowd with slingshots. It is high time that our police chief reassert control over their police forces and be reminded that they hold a responsibility for the actions of their men.
Not surprisingly, I strongly disagree with your Lordship over the dispositions related to the Stormont Parliament. Far from reeling back from your accusations of my forgetting of my constituents, I must say that the needs of my constituents are at the very forefront of this situation. A careful analysis of the recent events underlines the fact that the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the B-Specials are not appeasing forces. For years, the Parliament of Stormont has ignored the necessity to ensure greater representation of Catholics in the police forces, leading to these police forces being seen, and sometimes acting, as the tools of the Protestant majority.
The dispositions of the police reform act, which are temporary in their nature, given that I myself and our government are strong supporters of Parliamentary Sovereignty, are aimed at defusing tensions while proper reform of Northern Ireland can be carried off. I believe that in these trying moments, the Parliament of Westminster is draped in uncontested legitimacy in the eyes of all Northern Irishmen than the Stormont Parliament, hence the temporary dispositions.
The introduction in Northern Ireland of a thoroughly neutral police force will certainly be seen as a positive gesture, given that these police officers will not be seen as taking the party of one community or the other. After all, the rest of Britain has not been party to the legislation and system reproached by Catholics against Stormont.
It is not the position of this government to further provide material for IRA propaganda. We believe that our moderation is in keeping with the desires of Northern Irishmen, which will naturally turn away from the IRA and deny it support. We send a strong signal that both sides must back down, avoid violence and bloodshed, and resume our daily existence under the rule of law, while we debate solutions democratically, as Britons always do.
Best regards,
Lochlan G. Fitzpatrick
Home Secretary
I second the notion to deploy troops to Northern Ireland as proposed by the honorable Lord Cameron.
-Jeremy McCoy
Cornwall Council Unitary Authority Act 1973
Section I
I. The Cornwall County Council shall be abolished with the passing of this Act.
Section II
I. The Cornwall County Council is here-forth replaced by the Cornwall Council.
Section III
I. The Cornwall Council is established as a unicameral, unitary authority of local government in Cornwall.
II. The Cornwall Council will hold elections on every fourth year with the passing of this act in accordance with local elections.
III. The Cornwall Council, replacing the previous 82 councillors on Cornwall County Council and the 249 on the six district councils, shall be represented by 123 elected members.
IV. The Cornwall Council, in accordance with the Local Government Reform Act, shall use Single Transferable Vote to elect council members.
Northern Ireland Pacification Act
Preamble
In order to uphold law and order in the province of Northern Ireland, and provide the necessary assistance to the Government of Northern Ireland to achieve such aims, the following shall be enacted:
I. It is hereby declared that Northern Ireland is an integral part of Her Majesty's dominions and of the United Kingdom:
(b) Neither Northern Ireland nor any part of it shall be partitioned, annexed or released from the United Kingdom against the majority will of the people of Northern Ireland.
II. The Governments of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland shall co-operate to ensure the return of order and stability to Northern Ireland:
(a) The Government of the United Kingdom shall commit itself never to suspend the Government of Ireland Act (1920), the Northern Irish Government, the Northern Irish Parliament or the Royal Ulster Constabulary, or to undertake any such action that would undermine or prorogue the political autonomy of Northern Ireland and its policing capacity;
(b) The Government of the United Kingdom shall suspend diplomatic relations with any foreign State which does not recognise the integrity of Northern Ireland as a constituent part of the United Kingdom, and shall not re-establish relations until such recognition has been offered.
III. An embargo shall be imposed on the export and trade of military arms to and within Northern Ireland:
(a) The embargo shall be enforced by the Royal Ulster Constabulary;
(b) Violation of the embargo shall be regarded as an act of treason and prosecuted accordingly.
IV. At the discretion of the Northern Irish Government, a state of emergency may be declared in Northern Ireland:
(a) In such an occasion, the Northern Irish Government shall have the following prerogatives:
(i) to temporarily suspend the movements of goods and people across the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic;
(ii) to request the intervention of the British Army, which, during its deployment in Northern Ireland, shall fall under the command of the Northern Irish Government;
(iii) to detain and arrest without writ of habeas corpus any person suspected of treasonous activity for an indefinite period of time.
V. The Royal Ulster Constabulary shall be supported in its policing efforts:
(a) The use of armoured vehicles shall be authorised at the discretion of a sergeant or higher;
(b) The use of firearms shall be authorised at the discretion of a sergeant or higher;
(i) All officers shall be equipped with firearms so as to be ready for such authorisation.
Mr. Speaker,
Does the Prime Minister not realize that this United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has lost control of Londonderry to demagogues and terrorists? Should I also have to remind the Prime Minister and his supporters on this side of the House that the last time this House supported a Conservative Prime Minister in inaction against demagogues we laid the basis of the greatest massacre of our life time and the greatest failure of British Foreign Policy in living memory. Mr Speaker, I call upon the Prime Minister, nay, on this entire House, to return peace and order to Northern Ireland with the rightious and lawful force invested in us by a duty not only to the citizens of Northern Ireland, who now rightfully fear for their futures as these demagogues march unopposed to the streets of Londonderry, but to the Crown and the United Kingdom which is torn apart as Downing Street watches passively and ineffectively as it has done less than two score years ago.
Thornbloom
"Mr. Speaker,
The... Honourable Gentleman does not understand the circumstances we are currently met with. He speaks of chaos in Northern Ireland, but does not realize the relative silence of the region under our current policy direction. We have made a choice, we have, to avoid he escalation of conflict in Northern Ireland and to instead protect the current order, and because of this choice, the die has been cast - as long as this government stands, we will not succumb to base instinct and institute martial law in Northern Ireland."
Thornbloom scoffs at the Prime Minister's mistake regarding the fact that he is still Right Honourable
Mr. Speaker,
The Prime Minister equates a city which has declared itself free from the rule of both the Northern Ireland and that of the United Kingdom with relative silence; how can our allies feel anything but contempt for a United Kingdom fallen so far as to be incapable to deliver peace and order in the face of Marxists and Nationalist terrorists? How can this House respect the authority of a Prime Minister incapable in keeping the Kingdom united and the nation prosperous? Indeed, he has shown defiance, but against This House united in its resolve to maintain peace in the United Kingdom, he has shown stubborness, in declaring that the deaths of servants of the crown and civilians as acceptable offer to unsuccessful appeasement. Mr. Speaker, I can assure the Prime Minister, that unlike his Green Conservatives, we, veterans of the greatest war and tragedy of our life time and defenders of the Union, shall not succumb to Marxists and terrorists.
The Rt. Hon. David Thornbloom MP
The Railway Heritage Act
- A commission shall be established to designate specific rail lines with two hereby created official designations:
1) A Rail Line of Local & transportative importance
2) A Rail line of Historical Importance
The former is designed to denote a rail line that is of importance to a local community as a means of transportation and connection with the outside world. This may include, but is not limited to: rail lines that connect rural towns and villages, rail line required for transportation of goods from rural locations and rail lines that provide a backup service in-case of incapacity of road use.
The latter is designed to denote a rail line that has historical importance to the United Kingdom, and shall be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
Such lines that are designated with these official titles are not to be shut-down or ended, and in the case of clear unprofitability, rail operators can seek compensation from the government for ensuring these lines are continued. Such compensation will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
The Representation of the People act 1972
- The House of Commons Shall adopt the Alternative Vote (Also known as Instant Runoff voting or Preferential Voting) for usage in General elections for constituencies in the House of Commons.
The Highland Unitary Authority Act 1973
- The District councils present subservient to the Highland Regional council will be abolished and all their duties & powers will be emplaced upon the Upper tier Highland regional authority.
- Elections to the upper authority shall remain as-previously.
The House of Lords Casual Vacancy Solution Act
This act shall establish a codified set of rules for dealing with a casual vacancy in the House of Lords:
For Elected Peers: The next candidate from the political party to whom the peer came from and on the selected list provided by said political party (bar any legal reason why they cannot take their seat) shall fill the seat. Should the list provided be exhausted, the party in question will be given the ability to provide one candidate to fill the seat.
For Hereditary peer: The party has the choice of leaving the seat vacant until the next house of lords election., selecting a person with a peerage-qualificatory title whom declared themselves for the party electing, or selecting a person with said ability to sit in the House of Lords as a hereditary peer but has not declared for a party and has not stated their unwillingness to enter the house.
The Lords Spiritual shall be replaced at the discretion of the Church of England.
The University Representation Reform Act
- All university seats in the House of Commons will hereby be abolished
- 20 Peerages; called "University Peers" shall be created to represent the universities of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland: with 5 seats being awarded for each region respectively.
- Elections shall occur using the single Non-transferable voting system (also known as Limited voting), and shall occur every fourth year beginning in 1974.
- Franchisement for said elections shall be the same as for the previous university constituencies.
- Each University granted the royal charter may have enfranchised students, teachers and alumni.