Karen Bradley has pulled off the feat of making Chris Grayling look like a safe pair of hands. Even now, after two apologies, it still beggars belief that the Northern Ireland secretary could say what she said on Wednesday about the Troubles. Ms Bradley plunged recklessly into the murkiest recesses of Northern Ireland history by assuring MPs that the killings committed by members of the security forces during the Troubles were “not crimes”. Instead, she went on, they were the actions of “people acting under orders and instructions, fulfilling their duties in a dignified and appropriate way”.
It is hard to exaggerate the stupidity of those words. Yes, it must always be remembered that the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries murdered far more people over the 30-year emergency than the security forces did. But it was a dirty war on all sides – and two wrongs do not make a right. Britain’s use of undercover killings, links to paramilitary squads, abuses of the “yellow card” shooting procedure, internment without trial and, above all, the legacy of the 14 killings by the army on Bloody Sunday in 1972 remain dark episodes. These are deep waters and Ms Bradley was plainly out of her depth.
That there were episodes at least as dark on the other side does not diminish the insensitivity of her words. That these “legacy issues” are exploited for sectarian purposes to this day does not excuse them either. Both sides still play a tit-for-tat game with the past that entrenches sectarian suspicion. But so do MPs and newspapers who leap reflexively to the defence of “our boys”. This does no one any favours, because they can seem to be – and sometimes are – applying double standards. In the end, that is why Ms Bradley’s words were so daft and dangerous, given the post she holds.
She tried to limit the damage, of course, returning to the Commons to say that “where there is evidence of wrongdoing, it should always be investigated”. But her words fell far short of what was required. On Thursday Ms Bradley tried again. The rule of law applied to all killings, she now insisted. Cases should be pursued “whoever the perpetrators might be”. Her earlier comments, she confessed, had been “deeply insensitive” and she was “profoundly sorry”.
All this comes on top of Ms Bradley’s admission in 2018 that she did not know that Northern Ireland votes along sectarian lines. Together they suggest that she is not up to the job. But they don’t say much for the quality of the civil servants who advise her either. Where were they in all this? And Ms Bradley is not alone in the cabinet in saying foolish things: Jeremy Hunt and now Amber Rudd have done so too. But Conservative prime ministers bear particular responsibility. Since 2010, they have too often given the Northern Ireland job to second-raters who know little history and have shallow political instincts.
Predictably, this culture of sloppiness towards Northern Ireland has fed into the Brexit debacle. A better politician than Gavin Williamson, the chief whip, might have been more careful to stop something as vital as Brexit being part-captured by the DUP in 2017. A stronger Northern Ireland secretary than James Brokenshire might have insisted that a DUP deal must be conditional on the resumption of power-sharing. A more strategic prime minister than Theresa May might have faced down her English nationalist rightwing over the importance of the Northern Ireland backstop to the withdrawal agreement. None of it happened. Whether through incompetence or ignorance – or both – this government has sown the wind. It should be no surprise that it may reap the whirlwind.