Troubles review group report shows a necessary sleight of hand

You can’t deny the state — British or Irish — the exclusive right to use legitimate force and, at the same time, hold it to a higher standard than paramilitaries.

Attempting to do so only encourages those who would say prisoner release isa distortion of justice, power-sharing is undemocratic, and those with a past cannot have a future

DEMOCRATIC governments had a good month in May. First, French police arrested the ETA leadership, the masterminds behind a series of recent attacks that brought an abrupt end to the fledgling Basque peace process. Then, news emerged that Manuel Marulanda, leader of the narco-terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), had died in his jungle lair. Just before the final whistle, though, the British government scored an own goal.