Responding to comments made by former Tory minister Norman Tebit on the BBC’s Politics Show in which he hoped that the darkest, nastiest corner of hell could be reserved in which pain could be administered to those responsible for the Brighton bomb rfj Chairperson Clara Reilly said: ‘Obviously Mr. Tebit is a deeply hurt individual who has great difficulty in reconciling his victim hood and experience to the progress of the peace process more generally including dealing with the legacy of the conflict including its nature, causes and extent. It is a great pity that he cannot make any positive or meaningful contribution like that of many others who also experienced injury and bereavement, which includes those families bereaved by the actions and policies of Mr. Tebit’s cabinet colleagues in which, applying his comments about chain of command, he therefore must as a government minister, share a collective culpability for the role of his government in running agents, arming loyalists, the use of shoot-to-kill, and of rubber and plastic bullets. Mr. Tebit’s comments will be viewed as hypocritical in this context and merely underline the need for an independent international truth commission in which the hierarchy of victim hood and the permissible scope for myths, lies, and propaganda about the conflict is addressed and narrowed. I have no doubt that such a process would assist Mr. Tebit in understanding what really took place and thus contribute towards personal healing and reconciliation.
