No Equality for Police Reserve
22 September 2011
Statement by TUV leader and North Antrim MLA Jim Allister:
“News that the ‘Bloody Sunday victims’ are to receive further compensation, which by its nature will not be subject to tax and NIC deductions, throws a contrasting focus back on the Police Reservists whose meagre gratuities were subjected to a crippling tax raid.
“Many will see the inequity which has been wrought on police reservists, to whom our whole society owe such a debt. Equally, it will be telling to compare the compensation paid to the Bloody Sunday ‘victims’ with the heavily taxed gratuity paid to the reservists: an officer with 30 years got a mere £5000 net. How many times that figure will the families from Londonderry, who now occupy the top spot in the hierarchy of victims, receive? Many, who never had an inquiry into who murdered their loved ones, never mind one costing £200m, will have reason to feel slighted, particularly as the godfather of the killing machine that murdered them preens himself in a presidential campaign.”
