“Emperor’s New Clothes”

The BBC reports on comments by Norman Baxter, former Head of Serious Crime Branch of the PSNI, appearing in front of the House of Commons Northern Ireland Affairs Committee as part of their continuing investigation into the handling of intelligence relating to the Omagh bombing. From the BBC report

Mr Baxter, who is also the former head of the PSNI’s Serious Crime Branch, said there was a policy of running down security in Northern Ireland which dates back to the 1990s. He told the Commons committee it was inspired by political thinking and he warned that, in light of the dissident threat, the government was repeating the same mistakes now. He said the situation was like the “Emperor’s New Clothes” where everyone carried on pretending everything was normal. Referring to the Omagh bombing, he said the security policy at the time was a failure.

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.