"This is the man who sympathised with violent Irish Republicanism in the 1980s, invited IRA representatives to the Commons a fortnight after the Brighton bombing in 1984 and, at a Troops Out meeting in 1987, stood for a minute’s silence to “honour” eight IRA terrorists killed in an SAS ambush. I wonder how many people are aware of his sympathies in this regard? I wonder how many have ever bothered to find out any of his political stances, and not just his leadership hype. In an interview on Channel 4 last month he said, "I spoke at a meeting about the Middle East crisis in Parliament and there were people there from Hezbollah and I said I welcomed our friends."
Is this the man we want to have influence over our dealings with murderous terrorist."
Not so nice, perhaps!
I've not seen him comment on the IRA situation, so anything I add will be conjecture.
His commentary on Hezbollah and Hamas is as I suspected it would be. He disagrees with their methods - openly - but rightly suggests that unless all sides are talking there will never be a peace.
Whether he thinks in a similar fashion of the IRA situation who knows, but perhaps he was merely ahead of his time. People openly stand with the likes of Gerry Adams these days, and whilst there are occasional splinter groups making problems for people, in general the peace is holding.
Do I want someone who is willing to talk to hostile forces rather than either bombing them or sending weapons to unstable regimes so that they can bomb people for us in the hope they'll forget how to use them when it comes to bombing our allies or civilians... you know what, yes, I think that is the sort of person I'd like in control.
Is he good enough in the other areas... that's questionable.
O.
O.