Goodbye to Guns?

Well, that's OK, then. The UVF are decommissioning, so innocent Catholics can stop worrying about being killed for no other reason than that they're Catholic. Mind you, the decommissioning will have to be credible. The DUP were very definite about that when the IRA decommissioning came up: there'd have to be photographic evidence, otherwise it'd be pointless and literally incredible; so clearly they'll be applying the same rigorous standards to UVF decommissioning. Stand by for a weekend demand from Peter Robinson. That's one thing the DUP have always insisted on: they do not distinguish between brands of terrorism, no matter what quarter they come from. For their part, the families of victims seem less enthused. Some of them are sort of spoiling the celebrations by suggesting a deal may have been done, whereby the details of some UVF killings will be kept vague because if they weren't, there's a good chance that scrutiny would reveal the marks of collusion between British 'security' forces and loyalist killers. And that really would spoil the mood of celebration.

It's a cliché but true: attitude-decommissioning is what really matters, not weapons decommissioning. You don't need guns if you want to kill a Catholic. Ask them up in Coleraine. They know.