No difference in a mother's tears

Yes, I know this has been written about before, but that controversial report is actually published today.

I am still absolutely outraged at the prospect of yet more of my money, of your money, being wasted by this inept, corrupt and clearly retarded group of fuck-bunglers though some days have past. I thought perhaps that I would find something else to be angry about but it still makes me shake with anger.

And listening to this fool Lord Eames, who obviously sat through The Troubles with his fingers in his ears, or perhaps contorted up his own fundament, I want to scream.
Why should the families of murders get any more cash? It's bad enough what it gets spent on already, but to think that because some old dear has managed to convince Lord Eames and Denis Bradley that "there is no difference in a mother's tears" and that all deaths during those times were equal is not reason enough.

This is deeply insulting nonsense about there being "no hierarchy of victims" really makes my blood boil. You see, Lord Eames has said that he thinks that there is "no difference" between the people killed and they are "not here to judge".

Fuck you.

We are talking about people who killed others in cold blood simply because, in some cases, of the job they were doing. How do they equate to being victims of anything other than their own damned lazy, evil hearts and minds? If he wants to pay them then he can get out his cheque book but I do not want my name on the bottom of it.

Trixy asked a friend who lived through the troubles and whose family did actually suffer those "tears" indirectly. Here's what he had to say:

1. Who is a victim? The man who works at the power station, murdered for keeping the lights on, certainly is. Those shot in their terrorist van by the SAS whilst trying to blow up a police station, certainly aren't. But unless you can guarantee the money only goes to decent people, which Sinn Fein will never allow you to do, you're making an offensive equivalence between the two groups. And, even worse, the two groups are not always completely distinct.
2. Is the state offering money to the families of those people it has killed not an admission of guilt or liability?
3. Has money not already been paid in most non-terrorist cases through the Northern Ireland Office?
4. No one in NI is asking for it and it can only stir up trouble.

Not being from Northern Ireland I couldn't possibly comment on the last point, but my friend can. So why was this report written? I know times are hard but isn't that going a little too far just to keep someone in work?

And can't we have Thatcher back?

UPDATE

After my friend listened to that Today programme projectile vomit:

Compensation in NI as a result of terrorism would surely be dealt with by the (criminal injuries) Compensation Agency for physical injury or, in the case of structural damage, by the Northern Ireland Office.

So, victims of terrorism are compensated for their injury or loss in the same manner as they would be anywhere in the UK had they suffered a criminal act. Firstly, this raises a question of how can someone who committed a crime be compensated as if they were a victim and secondly, if you start giving extra money over and above that, suddenly the criminal can't be just a criminal anymore, can he? He must be something special.

*This is exactly what they have always wanted*

The IRA see themselves as soldiers, not criminals. That's why they refer to themselves as Prisoners of War when in jail even though if they knew anything about international law they’d know that PoW status is brought about by the Geneva Convention on international conflicts.

Therefore, rather than just be pissed off at yet another waste of our money, we should be refusing this to happen on the basis that it is glorifying and permitting terrorism.

Had civilians in Northern Ireland just given up and allowed the Army to do anything rather than their very sensible mantra of ‘we’ll build a bigger, and a better one’* then these bastards would have had the 'war' they craved. Instead, of course, they are still simply common criminals.

And why should common criminals get money?

*I very much enjoyed giving my custom to a petrol station in Northern Ireland which was blown up by the IRA about four times.