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Corbyn’s deafening silence over IRA attacks

Andre Walker
April 27, 2017

Andre Walker argues Jeremy Corbyn's steadfast refusal to condemn those responsible for the IRA bombings in Warrington is proof he is unfit to be Britain's next Prime Minister.

Last weekend Jeremy Corbyn visited the small town of Warrington in the North-West of England. Normally this would be a run of the mill election visit, except in 1993 dissident republicans blew up the town centre, and Corbyn has always refused to condemn those responsible.

On 20th March 1993 members of the IRA who were unhappy with moves towards peace planted a bomb outside the McDonald's in Warrington. The bomb caused chaos and panic and the busy main shopping street was cleared as people ran away.

But the worst was yet to come because the terrorists had planted a larger second bomb in the path of those trying to escape the first. The result was that two children, Jonathan Ball aged 3 and Tim Parry aged 12, were killed, while dozens more were injured.

This was the second time in as many months the town had been attacked, it was suggested this was because of some involvement locals may have had with arming troops for the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Instead, it was an attempt to undermine the peace process that all sides in Ireland were undertaking for the good of their respective communities.

Everyone of note condemned the attack; there were protests in Belfast and Dublin, but Jeremy Corbyn was remarkably silent. And he has remained silent for 24 years, leading Colin Parry, who is the father of one of the victims, to attack Corbyn in his local press.

He told Warrington Worldwide: "I would expect Jeremy Corbyn to announce, quite clearly, that he was utterly opposed to the use of violence by any paramilitary organisation. He has always been quite careful to avoid condemnation when he has been asked for it in the past."

He continued: "I think for a party leader to be so neutral on it is strange indeed. It's almost as if he can't bring himself to say it."

Parry is by no means a political figure, in fact, his only real intervention in public life is to have founded a peace centre in Warrington that educates young people about the dangers of extremism.

I must admit my own bias here because I am from the town of Warrington, and, as a teenager, I gravitated towards the McDonald's on an average Saturday. When the attack happened many of us felt that it could so easily have been us.

We were not combatants in a war, nor did we have any interest in the politics of Northern Ireland. This attack was an attack on a group of children who really had nothing to do with any dispute anywhere at all.

So today we ask ourselves why the man who wishes to be Britain's Prime Minister would shrug his shoulders over this incident. It is bad enough that he has made clear he would not take action against Islamic State but to ignore people in England is even more disgraceful.

He would argue this is all to do with his support for a united Ireland, but this is ridiculous. Many people in Warrington, and the hinterland of Liverpool more generally, are of Irish descent and share the desire to unite Ireland. A bomb in Warrington is just as likely to kill supporters of the united Ireland as its opponents.

The truth is Corbyn is always on the bad guys' side, we saw it over the Islamic State, we see it over his support for Hamas and the way he won't condemn killers in Warrington.

Mr Corbyn did defend his actions, telling the BBC: "I did make myself very unpopular with some people by a preparedness to reach out to the Republican tradition in Ireland, to say ultimately this war is unwinnable by either side."

His refusal to take the side of the democratically elected, the innocent or the police is proof he is not interested in politics and not fit to be Britain's Prime Minister. Corbyn just hates the West and hopes to see it destroyed by any means. Shame on him.

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Andre Walker is lobby correspondent and columnist for the New York Observer. He covers the work of the British Parliament and Prime Minister. Before joining The New York Observer he was part of the team that established Breitbart London.
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