There is only one genuine fact surrounding the latest so-called crisis in Northern Ireland – Fear of Sinn Fein’s growing power.
Everything else is spin, propaganda, lies and hypocrisy all laced with tiny nuggets of truth to keep all the bullshit together.
When the PSNI first triggered the ‘crisis’ they were merely doing what they always do when elections approach – smearing Sinn Fein.
On this occasion, however, the propaganda was slightly overdone which gave the more extreme wing of Unionism, who genuinly want to collapse the Peace Process no matter what the consequences, all the ammunition it needed.
Peter Robinson’s crowd then had no choice but to pretend that they too were outraged by events.
So here’s the first question:
Is there anybody out there who seriously believes that Unionists are genuinely outraged by the murder of two IRA men? If such a person exists I would advise immediate psychiatric treatement.
The other interested parties – the UK government, the Irish government and mainstream opposition parties all got a bit of a fright because, while these parties want to destroy Sinn Fein, they do not want the Peace Process to collapse, that would be fierce inconvenient for all concerned.
So the propaganda plan was simple. Select one of the numerous crimes that are routinely committed by ex IRA members and present it as if it was something new. In this way politicians could express their absolute outrage at Sinn Fein’s criminal connections in the run-up to elections.
As the plan began to go askew there was panic within officialdom. Something had to be done quickly to get the propaganda plan back on line.
The obvious response was, of course, an investigation. The PSNI and MI5 were ordered to check if the PIRA had managed to stay in existence without the security forces ever noticing a thing.
So here’s the second question:
Is there anybody out there who seriously believes that the the PSNI and MI5, who conducted the farce inquiry, didn’t already know everything contained in the report? Is there even one moron out there who thinks that an MI5 official, shocked at what he found, utttered sentences like:
Oh my goodness, some structures of the PIRA still exist.
On my goodness, some ex members of the PIRA are involved in criminal activity.
Oh my goodness, the PIRA are operating a secret bomb-making factory on the moon.
(Yeah, bet you didn’t know about that. ‘Independent’ ‘Journalist’ Jim Cusack is, as I write, on the moon digging up the dirt on this latest IRA plot).
The PSNI/MI5 report hit all the right buttons allowing the ‘outraged’ politicians to resume their propaganda attack on Sinn Fein’s alleged colllusion with criminals while waffling knee deep in hypocrisy about the Peace Process.
And that’s all we’re going to hear from now until polling day when, suddenly, the entire incident will be forgotten – until the next propaganda campaign.