The Polecat tastes blood
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Then Lord Tebbit stood up, so thin that he hardly takes up even a breath of air. He is a sinuous figure, almost cadaverous if you can be such a thing in pinstripes. He sported a thin smile as he faced Baroness Scotland of Asthal on the Government’s front bench.
How she must have rued the sight of this man who carries such weight on this subject. In 1984 Lord Tebbit was badly hurt in the IRA Brighton bomb and his wife was crippled for life. Yesterday, a few benches away, Baroness Thatcher had turned to watch him speak. These days she is a silent presence and often her eyes seem very far away. But this was not the case as she watched her old friend.
At present, he noted, most of the victims of terrorism in this country had suffered from a conflict that had its roots much closer to home. "I have long been concerned that it has seemed impossible to take proceedings against Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness who have and still do glorify terrorism," he said. A Labour peer must have shaken his head, for Lord Tebbit bit back: "We have all seen those two gentleman standing at military-style funerals with hooded gunman firing guns in celebration of the terrorists. If that is not glorification of terrorism, I think it would be rather difficult to define what is."
So, he asked, would those two men be prosecuted under this new legislation? Lady Scotland had made much of the fact that the Bill needs to tackle inflammatory placards as well as speeches. "If placards are to be brought into this legislation," he demanded quietly, "might I ask the noble lady what about the murals on the walls in Belfast and London, which glorify both republican and loyalist terrorism. Would the creators of those murals be likely to be found guilty of glorifying terrorism?"
And you wonder why I prefer him to David Dave's vacuous pledges that all Conservatives will love Mom's Apple Pie and be kind to kittens from now on..