Mr. Daniel Holder:

The Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill was introduced in March 2020 on exactly the same day. This was in stark contrast to what the UK Government agreed in the New Decade, New Approach deal, which was that it would legislate with the Stormont House Agreement within 100 days. Instead, within about 90 days, it did a complete U-turn and announced that this same approach of impunity, which was in the overseas operations Bill, would be applied to Northern Ireland.

As well as that, though, there was a very organised military lobby. Of course, as Professor McEvoy referenced earlier, this was about much more than just keeping soldiers out of jail because there were much easier ways of doing this. There is a broader politic behind this that is really about cover-up and concealment and seeking to maintain an official narrative of truth and history. That is an official narrative of truth and history that seems to involve an absolute denial that patterns of human rights violations took place, which are increasingly evidenced by independent investigations, such as collusion, torture and other right-to-life issues. It is a sort of version of official truth that denies that this ever took place. When we look at the array of mechanisms that are now in place and the level of control over reviews the UK Government will exercise at absolutely every level, it has gone much further than just keeping soldiers out of jail. It is really about ending meaningful and independent investigations.