Hume accuses SF of hypocrisy over policing

Sinn Fein and the former SDLP leader John Hume have clashed over policing in the North and the republican movement’s continuing boycott of the Police Board.

Mr Hume, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998, accused Sinn Fein of hypocrisy for agreeing to join the Northern Executive, but refusing to endorse the new policing arrangements in the North.

The republican party, however, said it ensured that there were adequate checks and balances before agreeing to join the Executive and, when there are the same for policing, it will join the Police Board.

Mr Hume also said that the police can only be changed from within and he called on Sinn Fein to join the SDLP in doing so. But Sinn Fein said this argument is hypocritical, because the SDLP refused to join the old Police Authority, where it would have had the power to change the RUC from within.