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BRITAIN
Trouble
Within and Without!
by
Gene H. Hogberg
Riots in the inner cities, the threat of civil war in Northern
Ireland, growing isolation within the Commonwealth- seldom have so many
· grave crises confronted the British people.
[
OK
at what is happen ing
to Bri ta in- at home
and abroad. Something
ha s definitely gone
wrong in the "sceptered isle.,
H a rd !y anyone, however ,
seems to know the reasons why!
But there are causes for the ob–
vious effects.
The treasured civility of the
British way of life is under assault
as never before.
Urban Cr isis
The picture of the unarmed bobby
is giving way to platoons of police
officers dressed out in riot-control
gear.
Crime and a rising drug traffic
plague large British cities. And too
often now violence erupts in
Britain's increasingly racially
mixed urban centers. In one out–
break in late 1985, rioters used
firearms on police for the first time
in British history.
Liberal sociologists blame the
turmoil on unemployment and po–
lice "insensi tivity." Yet there was
far greater economic hardship in
the Depression days of the 1930s
without such violent consequences.
Government sp okesmen at–
tribute the violent outbursts to
"plain, unadul terated lawlessness
and criminality." Adds a British
2
newsletter: "A g rowing section of
British youth-black and white-is
becoming disillusioned with au–
thority of all kinds."
British authorities are most con–
cerned that professional agitators
and outright revolutionar ies are be–
ginning to make headway in the
urban areas. Sorne militant organi–
zations openly profess as their goal
the overthrow of capitalism and
"imperialism." They preach that
the police are the "enemies of the
people" and tools of the state in
enforcing an "oppressive and
racialist society."
Ulster 's Cauldron
Troublesome as trends are in
Britain's inner cities, they paJe into
insignificance compared with what
could happen in Northern Ireland.
The Iatest round in the search
for peace in a millennium of trou–
bles in Ireland- troubles which
alone since 1969 have claimed
nearly 2,500 lives- took a dra–
matic turn last November 15. But
will the latest attempt be any
more successful than the dashed
hopes of the past?
Meeting unexpectedly, near
Belfast, Northern Ireland, Prime
Ministers Margaret Thatcher of
the Uni ted Kingdom and Garret
FitzGerald of the Republic of I re–
land signed a pact incorporating a
historie compromise. For the first
time, the l rish government, sover–
eign over lreland's 26 southern
counties, wi ll be granted an advi–
sory role in the affairs of Ulster's
minority Roman Catholic popula-
tion.
.
In return for this concession, the
Irish government agreed to explic–
itly recognize Bri tish sovereignty
over Northern I reland and to put
off indefinitely its demands for
unification of both parts of Ireland
under the tricolor flag of the Re–
public.
A primary aim of both London
and Dublin is to cut the ground out
from under extremists, especially
the outl awed I rish R epubli can
Army. The TRA's political arm,
the Sinn Fein, has been growing at
the expense of a more moderate
Catholic political party in the
Nor th.
The threat of ter rorism from
IRA extremists on both sides of
the Irish Sea is real. An IRA bomb
blast in 1984 killed severa] British
Conservat ive Party members, nar–
rowly missing Mrs. Thatcher. The
Irish government fears that with an
IRA beachhead in the North, the
extremists, sorne of them radical
Marxists, could undermine society
in the South.
The IRA "will not like this
ag r eemen t ," admitted M r .
FitzGerald shortly after signing
the accord. The IRA showed its
The
PLAIN TRUTH