Promises, promises..

A quick point to note on the Sinn Féin manifesto, launched today. The PA report has some interesting detail on the pledges it contains – more below the fold

Sinn Fein also pledged in its 50-page manifesto to:
:: Achieve fully democratically accountable civic policing, secure the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont by May 2008, develop a balanced and comprehensive strategy to acknowledge and address the suffering of victims and survivors, force the British government to acknowledge its role in collusion and shoot-to-kill, block the secondment of Police Service of Northern Ireland officers to MI5, guarantee all-party representation on the Policing Board special purposes committee, and ensure the Police Ombudsman has statutory access to all information held by the PSNI and statutory powers to hold all police officers to account. [added emphasis]

The problem for SF is that, while such a pledge may satisfy their own conditions for the Ard Chomhairle to eventually implement the motion passed at the recent Ard Fheis, the British government have made it as clear as they can that the devolution of policing and justice powers, however restricted those powers may be, will ultimately depend on conditions on the ground – “nor is the power available to the Government”

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.