TUV: We reject the obnoxious suggestion that victims should be equated with those they made victims

The Victim Commissioner Judith Thompson said about a pension for people injured during the terrorist campaign: “While there are political sensitivities around eligibility for a pension this move has the support of all political parties in Stormont and in Westminster” (‘Victims’ Commissioner Judith Thomspon: Tier pensions according to degree of injury,’ July 17).

Lest there be any confusion, the TUV remains clear that we reject the obnoxious suggestion that victims should be equated with those who made them victims.

The dignified comments of the Weir family are more powerful than anything I could say.

The very fact that a family so deserving of support from the state should reject these proposals out of hand because of the moral equivalence they draw between victims and victim makers would cause any reasonable person to conclude that the proposals are unworkable.

Far from there being a moral obligation to get on with implementing what the commissioner proposes there is a clear moral obligation on her to get back to the drawing board and come back with proposals which while recognising the suffering of the innocent do not reward the guilty.

Timothy Gaston, TUV councillor