Editorial: Kate ​Hoey has grasped how the legacy of the Troubles could well turn against the security forces

A peer who is originally from Northern Ireland, and still passionately interested in the province despite 34 years as a parliamentarian based in Westminster, spoke bluntly about where the legacy seems to be going (see link below).

Baroness Hoey told the House of Lords debate on the Legacy Bill that unless the legislation was amended to give historic investigations certain parameters, they could cost £1 billion and last a decade.

Baroness Hoey has grasped something that precious few others have done: that any elaborate process on legacy is likely to turn against security forces. This was not widely realised when the Stormont House deal on legacy was signed in 2014. But a welter of Troubles probes since then have shown how legacy can turn, and how influential people in the NI, Ireland, EU, UN and US are willing on such an anti UK direction.

Opponents of the Legacy Bill such as the former DUP leader Lord Dodds, a Cambridge-educated peer whose political and legal background is respected by Westminster power-brokers, are of course right to be appalled by any amnesty. However, even worse than an amnesty would be a legacy juggernaut that picked apart security force actions without consideration of the context in which they operated, of trying to constrain IRA mayhem.

When other speakers last night such as another much respected voice, Lord Eames, talked about the wishes of victims (which are an essential part of the legacy equation) they appeared unaware of the essays on these pages last week by Neil Faris, who warned against ‘victim centred’ justice.

Legacy has turned against state forces who stabilised this society. It is the duty of all those who defend those forces to turn that round, not make it worse.

Legacy Bill: Baroness Hoey warns of vast probes into the past that rewrite history and could cost a billion pounds