Mr. John Finucane:

I say this respectfully, but I had assumed a little more assumed knowledge on this point. I will clarify and set out the basis on which I made those comments. David Cameron's statement to the House of Commons was on 12 December 2012. It came at the end of a process whereby a senior barrister, Sir Desmond de Silva, had been appointed by the then coalition Government of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to review the papers in my father's case. That came after a report by the former Canadian Supreme Court jurist, Judge Peter Cory. He was appointed after the Weston Park peace talks, which occurred after the appointment of John Stevens, who may not have been appointed by Sir John but who was appointed on his watch. Mr. Stevens carried out three investigations into allegations of collusion in the North. His first investigation took place when he was either assistant chief constable or chief constable of Cambridgeshire police. The third report took place when he was in charge of the Metropolitan Police. He was Britain's most senior police officer. It is the findings of those reports I am quoting. It is not necessarily using my own interpretation or words. All three of those independent analyses have confirmed that collusion took place not just in the case of the murder of my father but right across the board.

The importation of shipments of arms is a matter of record through the courageous work of investigative journalists, along with the reports I have cited. Following on from the comments made by Senator Currie, I do not think anybody would want Sir John to comment on private conversations. However, the legacy debate is very much out in the open. There is nothing secretive going on. There is no negotiation taking place. My family and many others have fought for decades. Any success we have had has been in spite of and not because of the actions of successive British Governments. Our success has been the result of reports being published or court cases being won. What we face at present is a piece of legislation that will affect families. Irrespective of the derivation of the family's loss, whether it was a result of state actions, republican actions or loyalist actions, this piece of legislation will remove their right to an inquest and deny them the use of the services and offices of our police ombudsman. It will remove their right to initiate civil proceedings and will remove their right to see anybody brought before a criminal court to face justice for the actions he or she carried out to the standard our criminal courts demand. This is what is currently before the courts. Uniquely, this piece of legislation has united every single political party on the island of Ireland, bar none. I do not need to tell Sir John what a difficult task that is but this legislation has achieved it. To my knowledge, no political party in Britain other than the Conservative Party supports this legislation. It has been condemned at a European level by the Committee of Ministers as not being Article 2 compliant. It has been condemned by human rights organisations and the US Congress. The list goes on. Families have in some cases been fighting for more than five decades for the simple right to an inquest. In that context, I invite Sir John to pass some comment about such a draconian piece of legislation. It has been described, and I share this sentiment, as unamendable.