Why I Oppose Prison Proposals
16 November 2011
The following opinion piece by TUV leader Jim Allister appeared in today’s Belfast Telegraph.
With deep hurt supporters of law and order lived through the destruction and vilification of the RUC. While those who took life and justified the taking of life were elevated to the highest offices in the land, the proud name of the RUC and the badge which so many gallant officers had died wearing were sacrificed to appease Republicans.
Then hundreds of young Protestants were prevented from joining the new police service simply because of their religion.
Now insatiable IRA/Sinn Fein demand the same of the Prison Service. Sadly, though the report on prison reform demanded change ‘like the reform of policing’, it seems some – like the First Minister -were asleep as to what this meant. It was left to this backbench MLA to ferret out that the demise of the name of Her Majesty's Prisons and the symbol of the Crown on Prison Service uniforms was intended.
But why is the name and badge of the Prison Service so important?
Throughout the UK prisons are designated as ‘Her Majesty’s Prisons’, so it comes with the territory of being a part of the UK. Moreover, just last weekend tens of thousands of people across Northern Ireland paused to remember the sacrifices of men and woman in defence of freedom and the rule of law. Among those we remembered were the multiple members of the Prison Service who were murdered by the IRA.Men like Thomas Gilhooley, a young father of two who was shot in his car as he waited at a junction for a break in heavy traffic. Or Gerry Melville, a Roman Catholic Prison Officer again gunned down by the IRA.
Removing the badge under which these men served would be a gross and politically motivated insult to their memory.
It says a lot about the brave new Northern Ireland that while the Prison hospital in which Bobby Sands starved himself to death is a listed building and will be an integral part of the so called ‘Conflict Resolution Centre’, a plan is afoot to destroy the proud symbols of our prison service. Enough is enough!
