A Tangled Web

Out of Orde(r)



Ubercop, Hugh Orde is due to make his decision on the future of the PSNI's full-time reserve later today. In typical 'Lefty' style, the BBC has sought to convince us that polarisation of opinion on the future of the reserve exists purely between nationalists and Unionists. I disagree. Individuals campaigning for the retention of the reserve are pragmatists who believe that, in an era of epidemic paramilitary criminality, racial attacks and sectarian violence, the police need to be kept in a constant state of preparedness. Contrarily, figures campaigning for abolition of the full-time reserve are those who largely pay lip service to the idea of a competent police force, yet seek the eventual replacement of legitimate State law enforcement by hoods in helmets.



Hugh Orde embodies everything that is wrong with contemporary Ulster. He inevitably takes the side of political correctness over police competence and has, I believe, a visceral dislike for the ideology of Unionism. Taking that into account, if Orde perceives the quest to retain the full-time reserve solely as a standpoint of Unionism, it wouldn't surprise me if he personally recommended its liquidation. Peace process groupies love to pretend that in replacing the RUC with the PSNI, policing in Ulster transformed from the partisan to the neutral. In reality, the reverse is the case.