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LAST UPDATE | 17 Jul 2024
KING CHARLES III has confirmed the new Labour government in the UK intends to repeal the controversial Legacy Act, which offers a limited form of immunity for perpetrators of Troubles crimes.
Charles made the confirmation as he delivered the King’s Speech at the State Opening of Parliament on the first day of a new session. It was one of 40 pieces of proposed legislation announced today.
The new Labour government intends to replace the Act with new legislation that changes the sections most vehemently opposed by victims and survivors and those found deficient by Northern Ireland’s High Court.
The King’s Speech marks the beginning of a new parliamentary year, or session, and it is an opportunity for the government – particularly a new government – to set out its legislative agenda for the coming months.
New Prime Minister Keir Starmer had pledged to repeal the legislation, which is opposed by all the major political parties in Northern Ireland.
Speaking from the Sovereign’s Throne in the House of Lords, clad in royal robes and the Imperial State Crown, the British monarch said that the government would “begin the process of repealing and replacing” the Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act.
Typically, within this King’s Speech the government will set out bills that it intends to introduce to parliament in the forthcoming session, as well as other policy priorities that do not need legislation.
Speaking ahead of the address, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that Labour will “take the brakes off Britain” when it unveiled its first King’s Speech today.
“For too long people have been held back, their paths determined by where they came from, not their talents and hard work,” Starmer said.
“I am determined to create wealth for people up and down the country. It is the only way our country can progress, and my government is focused on supporting that aspiration.”
At the last changing of power in 2010, the Conservative government offered 22 Bills to the British public at the state opening of parliament.
The Imperial State Crown, the UK government tells us, has 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, 269 pearls, and four rubies.
Responding to the announcement that the Legacy Act would be repealed, Grainne Teggart, Amnesty International UK’s Northern Ireland deputy director, said:
“Today is an important step toward overturning an atrocious attack on rights.
“The new Government’s commitment to repeal and replace the Troubles Act is welcome. Repealing and replacing the Troubles Act is necessary to right a historic wrong. The UK Government must show a complete change in approach to the last government; listen to victims and prioritise their rights.
“There must be no delay in getting the wheels of justice turning. We want to see Stormont House Agreement plus legislated for and an urgent reinstatement of judicial processes, such as inquests, for all who need them.
“Victims deserve longed for answers and independent legacy mechanisms. Providing these will contribute to healing and building a just society.”
In all, the chunky package features 40 pieces of proposed legislation. Here are some of the most notable ones:
Football Governance Bill
This includes establishing an independent football regulator to address clubs’ financial sustainability and approve stadium sales or relocation; requiring clubs to get fan approval for changes to shirt colours; and preventing clubs from joining break-away leagues.
Crime and Policing Bill
Measures include strengthening neighbourhood policing; cracking down on antisocial behaviour with new “respect orders” for persistent adult offenders; introducing stronger measures against shoplifting; banning ninja swords and lethal knives; and ensuring an improved police response to violence against women and girls and spiking.
Holocaust Memorial Bill
This will enable the Government to build a planned Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre next to the Houses of Parliament.
House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill
This will take a first step to modernising the upper house of Parliament by removing the right of the almost 100 remaining hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords.
Hereditary peers have automatic membership in the House of Lords because they hold titles such as Duke, Earl, Viscount or Baron. They have the same amount of power as other members of the House. Most of them were removed from the House in 1999.
Hillsborough Law
This will introduce a “legal duty of candour” for public servants in an effort to tackle the “defensive culture” highlighted in the Hillsborough and Infected Blood inquiries.
Tobacco and Vapes Bill
This reintroduces former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s proposed smoking ban, gradually lifting the age at which people can buy cigarettes, and it will impose limits on selling and marketing vapes.
Draft Conversion Practices Bill
This aims to ban practices that aim to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity by creating new offences to target acts not covered by existing law.
Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill
This gives the new UK Border Security Command powers to crack down on criminal gangs, introduces stronger penalties for organised “immigration crime” and modernises the asylum system to clear a backlog of claims.
Members of the House of Commons and House of Lords will now debate the contents of the hefty speech for a number of days before the speech is voted on.
- With reporting by Press Association and David Mac Redmond
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Jesus Christ. I can’t even try to understand the mentality of these savages.
The men should get the same treatment of death by kerosene
Worse. They should wet those animals down every 30 seconds and then light them up again. To hell with them, savages.
A fired red poker pierced slowly through the back of their skull. For each and every one of them.
Any one fancy a game of pool
You know wat I mean !
These guys deserve to be hung guillotined stoned quartered electrocuted lethally injected but not before some bad treatment first.
If they did it in this country they would have a holiday compared to what’s going to be their punishment in India, but saying that there is something wrong with the way women are treated it will hopefully change quickly because we are all doing some kind of business with them
it really beggars belief in the 21st century this kind of barbaric behaviour is tolerated in any country.
What is even worse is that the Indian governments response is to victim blame and offer advice to girls and women about when they should and should not leave their homes that effectively places a curfew on them. They have increased punishment but most perpetrators get away with it. Nothing done to try and educate these men that what they are doing is wrong. Nothing done to end the utter poverty some castes live in. Shameful
That is so fcked-up. Poor girl.
These rural villages in India are a time warp, its as if you are in the 10century, totally uneducated, illiterate and superstitious they make up the laws and take the law into their own hands.Police corruption is rife there too.Women are at the bottom of the pecking order and new born girl babies are left in the forests to save money for future dowries.
It is beyond my comprehension to think of, or understand, how regularly groups of men wait for, stalk and viciously attack these girls in India. Are they breeding a trait of paedophilia and predilection for abusive violent rape? It just makes no sense whatsoever and makes me so upset to think of how many women have been, and continue to be, abused raped and killed. Can’t the world force them into stopping this…
Animals
Animals wouldn’t do this!
Just light the b@stards up!
It would make one think that the Indian subcontinent would be a better place for women if the British were still ruling it.
Savages. Filthy low life devil worshiping filth
Sub humans,hanging is too good for them.
Seems to happen quite a lot in these backward kips of countries. Hang these murderers in public to make examples of them. Men in these countries have no respect for women, men from all tiers of society and casts. Filthy animals.
Just hang them. Arrest does nothing to deter these ‘men’. Just get rid of them. There is nothing redeemable in them. Their behaviour will not change. Their disdain for other human beings is deeply ingrained from the beginning of life and irreversible. Get rid of them and not only will it free society of the immediate threat they pose, but it will send a heavy message to others who might consider it acceptable to treat another living creature with such contempt disrespect.
Hands up who knew it was India when they read the headline? Something seriously wrong in that country.
Execute all criminals and remove their DNA from the gene pool. Every country. Until there is no more crime. Easys
Is this really the same country that said we treat women poorly?
At first I was horrified and shocked when I read the headline. Then I seen the hashtag on the image and I was no longer shocked, and slightly less horrified if I’m being honest.
Stories like this coming outta India are becoming par for the course. What is wrong with that place?
They deserve to be hung.
What the hell is wrong in India?? Why do they assume they can sexually dominate and abuse women? I don’t mean to be offensive but is it religious or cultural views that lead them to believe they are superior??
-What is going on in India with all these rapes and murders? India seems to have turned into a savage country for women and girls.
-Time to start a boycott of India like what happened with South African apartheid.
-Economic measures seems to be the only way to pressure these countries politicians into taking real measures into what seems to be a cultural problem.
-Shame, shame, shame on Indians everywhere for permitting this to happen…
No respect for women in that part of the world what so ever its sickening what goes on
I tough no one deserved to be killed by a flame thrower or by hungry dogs like in North Korea, until now
Neanderthalistic tribal/religious nutter’s! Hang em all!
Lost for words
Vote to boycott Indian goods and services…
-When there was Apartheid in SA the response from the international community was abysmal.
-The workers in Dunnes Stores mounted a boycott of SA goods.
-People said it was a waste of time inc. government etc.
-its well documented that it made a difference even Mandela said so.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”….
Boycotting won’t make a blind bit of difference, many of these attacks happen in areas of poverty we in Ireland will never understand. It’s like trying to sue someone who’s bankrupt.
I believe an example needs to be made though. I can’t pretend to understand rape and what would drive someone to it, but I can understand that there are sick twisted individuals everywhere, but all of these attacks seem to be by groups. How has it gotten to the stage where groups think it’s Ok to rape and a lot of these attacks happen in public. Worryingly if I’m not mistaken this article said earlier that the govt have recently taken to educating the police in how to deal with such cases.
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