Sir David's dig about lawyers drew a prim response from the PM. The House didn't warm to Starmer's tone... QUENTIN LETTS on SAS veterans
Col Collins was the Royal Irish Regiment commander who in 2003, before the Iraq war, gave his men a speech about death and honour and the imperatives both of ruthlessness in battle and magnanimity in victory. It ended with the stirring words 'our business now is north'.
Anyway, he and the mesquite guy and their friends were in the Commons to hear Sir David Davis (Con, Goole & Pocklington) urge the Prime Minister to stop the legal harassment of former soldiers who served in Northern Ireland. The Government, whose attorney-general Lord Hermer KC once represented Gerry Adams, intends to undo a 2023 law which gave soldiers part-immunity from such prosecutions. It is the sort of area in which Sir Keir and his old buddy Hermer kept themselves busy in their professional days. We may guess their instincts.
PMs can not always indulge their youthful radicalism. They must consider bigger concepts such as military morale, natural justice and public sentiment, which is not necessarily as fussed about dead IRA terrorists' human rights as certain fancy KCs might be.
Sir David spoke up, for the sixth time in recent months, for veterans who could be 'exposed to legal persecution for crimes they did not commit'.
Up in the gallery, Col Collins and his neighbours listened impassively. When lobby groups visit Parliament they normally do much nodding and craning of necks to demonstrate their emotional involvement. These Army boys did none of that. They just sat there like troopers awaiting the first shot of a skirmish. They were controlled. Intent.
Sir David noted that during the Troubles there was never a shortage of legal oversight for the security forces. 'No bullet went unscrutinised. Our soldiers were held to the highest standard of law. The IRA were not. They tortured and shot men in the back.'
Yet now the Government intended to prosecute 'our own men' over split-second decisions taken decades ago.
The House, which had earlier been in a rather silly mood, listened to all this in silence. Sir David has, over the years, rebelled enough against his own whips to have earned the right to be heard. To swelling agreement he asked: 'Will the Government protect our veterans or sacrifice them to politically motivated lawyers trying to rewrite history with a pack of lies?'
There followed, from Sir Keir, a 15-sentence reply that was oddly tone-deaf and, I fear, horribly revealing. For it was quickly evident that Sir David's line about 'politically motivated lawyers' had irked Sir Keir. Touched a nerve, you might even say.
He complained that the final part of Sir David's question had lacked 'seriousness'. 'We have to get this right,' he said primly, 'but we don't get there by cheapening the debate. It's not about political point scoring.'
'Cheapening the debate' and 'scoring points'? If anyone were guilty of that, it wasn't David Davis. The House did not warm to Sir Keir's reply. Some MPs growled at it. Sir David himself looked startled that the Prime Minister had responded with such lack of, well, seriousness.
As for Col Collins and his men, they flinched not an inch, or in the case of the hard-as-mesquite man, a twig.
One sensed that they were unsurprised. Soldiers, and others who put their lives on the line for our safety, seldom have much time for lawyers.
After PMQs there was an urgent question about the future of jury trials, which are under threat. During this discussion a justice minister, Sarah Sackman KC, spoke of the 'revered judge' who had come up with this grotty proposal. One often hears lawyers describe judges as 'distinguished' (they love the word). But 'revered'? That is quite a leap.
Ms Sackman, who was on wearisomely partisan form, trilled away about how non-jury trials would be quicker and more efficient. Down my neck ran a chill.
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