Keir Starmer humiliated as UK oldest’s regiment savages his proposed changes | UK | News
The Household Cavalry Regiment Association has called on soldiers and veterans to oppose the government’s controversial changes to legislation designed to protect Northern Ireland veterans. The Northern Ireland Troubles Bill would repeal and replace the Succession Act introduced by the previous Conservative government and end the immunity scheme, which has been ruled unlawful in the courts.
Members of the Blues, Royals and Life Guards have joined an inter-regiment campaign against the bill, which the government says is partly illegal. In coordinated emails sent this month, regimental associations, which support serving personnel and veterans but rarely intervene in political matters, warned their members that the bill introduced to Parliament was “not fit for purpose and fails the veterans it claims to protect”.
One of the emails read: “Our soldiers who served under the law of armed conflict are now being retrospectively investigated under a different legal standard, the European Convention on Human Rights.
“No one is suggesting that any serving or former member of the armed forces may have violated the Geneva Convention. [conventions]”They should not be held accountable under the law of armed conflict or humanitarian law, nor should they be subsequently investigated retroactively within a different legal framework.”
Proposals to change the law have been met with significant backlash from veterans and activists; A petition to block the move has been signed more than 200,000 times.
Veterans’ Commissioners in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland opposed the move, with one of them branding it a “continuation of the IRA’s struggle by other means”.
The former Minister of Veterans Affairs referred to the Inheritance Act in his resignation letter after leaving his post as Minister of the Armed Forces.
Al Carns said on June 11: “I have worked to fix the bill from within, but it is not fit for purpose. It risks failing the veterans it claims to protect.”
“The men and women I served with, the people I buried my friends with, are people who performed their duties under conditions that most individuals at Westminster would never have to imagine.”
A former lieutenant colonel in the Parachute Regiment branded the move a “political act” designed to help Britain “get closer” to the European Union.
Simon Barry said: “This is a political act and we conclude that they want to engage with the Republic of Ireland, so the Republic of Ireland also [will] Help them adapt to the EU.
“There’s no other earthly reason for wanting to do this, because it causes them so much trouble – more trouble than they thought they’d run into, I think.”
The UK government said: “We owe a huge debt to the veterans who served with distinction in Northern Ireland. The Issues Bill is a vital step in righting the wrongs of the flawed Succession Act.”
He said he had discussed with armed forces units how historical issues “could be handled in a way that veterans who are asked to provide information are treated with the dignity required of their service.”
