++ Police officer murdered in shooting in Craigavon, Northern Ireland ++

After the Massareene atrocity, further disturbing news reaches us that a police officer has been shot dead in Craigavon, near Belfast. Tuesday evening update: Two men, aged 17 and 37, have been arrested in conncection with the murder – much quicker than it used to take to make an arrest …

So far the Real IRA and now, it appears, the Continuity IRA, have attacked the security forces (and tried to kill pizza delivery men), and the worrying aspect for people in Northern Ireland is what are the dissident paramilitaries planning next?

In the last few days, fear has suddenly returned to the streets of Northern Ireland for the first time in over a decade. Tonight’s and Saturday’s murders suggest a return to terrorist violence here. However, although these terrorists  have broken the peace, they will not bring down the Insitutions.

Update: The Continuity IRA has claimed responsibility for this murder of Constable Stephen Paul Carroll, 48, from Banbridge, Co Down. Banbridge, where I used to live, was the scene of a bomb by the Real IRA  on 15 August 1998 which wrecked the town centre but claimed no lives (a trial perhaps for their vicious Omagh bomb later that month) – and, in 1982, when an IRA bomb in the town killed 11-year-old Alan McCrum. Or as has been documented in Lost Lives:

A nine-year-old Derry boy, playing cowboys with his brother in the garden, stumbled over a tripwire and set off a bomb which killed him. 

Do the terrorists wish to return to these dark days when young kids, whether Protestant or Catholic, were “collateral damage” (as the paramilitaries consider them) of such atrocities?

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In a nutshell, why Labour has lost the confidence of the country

A superb blog that highlights how family people who voted Labour in the past, out of a once understandable conviction that the Government would deliver for their families, is A Diary of a Mother on the Edge: http://motheratbreakingpoint.blogspot.com who points out that:

Since I turned 18 ten years ago I’ve always voted … Anyway, I’ve always voted Labour …

Flip flopping over whether to hold an election (missed an opportunity there Gordy!), and the shambles that was the 10p Tax Band… not exactly impressed me with your decisiveness and leadership Mr Brown. Say what you like about Tony (and I did. at length) he stuck to his guns. When face with opposition on the War in Iraq from so many fronts, Tony Blair stayed true and stuck to what he believed was the Right Thing To Do. That takes enormous strength of character. When GB is faced with opposition, he buckles.

The final thing that has turned me right off Labour was the vote last night. I watched it live on BBC Parl and I nearly wept. The great elected representatives of our nation had the chance to use their voices to speak for the most vulnerable members of our society, the unborn (paraphrasing Ann Widd there) and they chose to ignore them. All but 3 members of our Cabinet voted against lowering the upper limit for abortions to 22 weeks.

What we have now is a ludicrous situation wheredoctors can be terminating the life of a 24 week old fetus while down the corridor another could be fighting to save the life of a premature child born at 24 weeks.

I have a friend who lost a baby at 23 weeks. There’s a picture of that child on her mantlepiece. He is perfect, just so very very tiny. He was lucky that he had his mother, father and sisters to speak up for him. What our Government has done is choose to ignore the cries of thousands of infants whose lives they have just dismissed.

Shame on you Labour.

If this does not sum up why Labour deserves to lose the Crewe & Nantwich by-election and the subsequent general election, I don’t know what does.