No-one should hold their breath waiting for an apology from the British government for the appalling crimes of the agent Freddie Scappaticci. This is a government that knows no shame.
Chris Heaton-Harris says it will take time to read the full report – probably at least until after the next election, then it won’t be his problem.
It’s hard to know how best to deal with the terrible legacy of our conflict. Victims and survivors aren’t a homogenous group. They are individuals who want different things. With the passage of time, justice becomes less likely.
But what they don’t want – none of them – is the iniquitous legacy legislation which was specifically designed to make sure no British soldier faces a court again.
The Kenova report has brought no justice for the families of the men and women whose murders Stakeknife was behind. But the team, headed by Jon Boutcher, seem to have treated them with decency and respect. And they listened.
In the end, the best they can probably hope for is to find out what happened to their loved ones and why. It’s not much, but it is something.
This is a government that knows no shame
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It was a witty response to the first and deputy first ministers having a go at camogie in their latest photo opportunity, but the “Sliotair Sisters” is unlikely to have the same resonance as the Chuckle Brothers, when Martin McGuinness and Ian Paisley chortled their way to an apparently warm relationship.
Maybe it was McGuinness’s easy charm, humouring the older man and his vanity. But it worked so well it enraged Paisley’s own church so much that the congregation kicked him out.
Unlike the frosty atmosphere between Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill, the current top two women seem to actually get on. When they took their hurls in hand, they even managed to colour-co-ordinate their outfits in black and blue.
And as if that wasn’t enough, Paul Givan, who once famously chopped the Líofa bursary, has now discovered Irish is for everyone and gosh, Scottish Presbyterians once championed it. Who knew? Er... everybody.
Maybe late to the party Paul, but you’re welcome, nonetheless.
Meanwhile, Jimbo Allister also took to hurling. But alas, only insults in the direction of the “DUP Nua” for their surrender to a “foreign language”. Yet despite his and the Donaghadee sage’s best efforts, the blows seem to be failing to land.
The Duppers might have been condemned at the rally in Ballyclare Orange Hall, attended, strangely, by DUP MP Paul Girvan, who was later reportedly shocked, shocked I tell you, by the insults directed towards his party leader at the event. But most of the public response to this new civility has been welcoming.
It may not last, and elections have a habit of chilling the political atmosphere, but there is a public appetite for respect and co-operation, so long as there is action to match the pleasant gestures. They have plenty to be getting on with.
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Do you think Rupert Murdoch lies awake at night thinking of ways to annoy his adult children? Even the Brian Cox character in Succession – loosely based on the Aussie media mogul - didn’t keep acquiring wives to get his kids anxious about their inheritances.
But old Rupe, who was 93 yesterday, has announced his engagement to a 67-year-old biologist, who may or may not be conducting a live experiment. It comes less than a year after he broke off an earlier engagement to a 66-year-old prison chaplain, apparently because of her infatuation for Tucker Carlsson, which you might think is good reason.
[ UK Rupert Murdoch: The four previous marriages of the media mogulOpens in new window ]
And all this is just a few years after his divorce from wife number four, Jerry Hall. Maybe he just likes wedding cake?
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P.S. Could someone at BBC Newsline keep an eye on the programme’s subtitles? A report on the Stakeknife story referred to him as “Freddie Starr”, a British “estate agent”.
