“Maybe that is the most worrying part of the story.”

The BBC report that the deputy chief constable, Judith Gillespie, is to meet some of the eight officers who came across that paramilitary checkpoint in Meigh, south Armagh. Which should be an interesting conversation.. Meanwhile, Malachi has some further thoughts on the display.

One thing can be said with confidence about the decision of dissident republicans to mount a checkpoint in South Armagh on Friday: they had made the judgement that it would be safe for them to block the road and to display weapons in the open air. That judgement was vindicated. They were right.

Adds Thanks to fair deal in the comments. It might not be the most worrying part of the story after all. The BBC’s Vincent Kearney has seen an internal PSNI report on the state of policing in Northern Ireland.

It said police were not delivering an effective service and had lost sight of what was important to communities. The report said officers in districts spend an average of 61% of their time in stations on administrative tasks. It said the PSNI does not provide “an effective 24-hour policing service” because officers are not deployed when and where needed. The report, labelled restricted, was intended exclusively for an internal police readership, which probably explains why the language used was so frank.

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