Al Carns is absolutely right here

[00:00:00]And thirdly, I left because I could no longer ignore the continued failure to address the treatment of our veterans in Northern Ireland.

[00:00:09]It's a difficult issue and I cannot describe how difficult this fight has been. Whatever the view people have of the troubles, a country owes a duty to those sent into harm's way under lawful orders.

[00:00:21]That duty does not end when that uniform comes off.

[00:00:24]The Labour movement was built on a simple idea that the people who do the hard work this country asks of them deserves the backing of the state in return.

[00:00:34]Too many veterans have carried uncertainty for too long while others have benefited from political accommodations that were never available to those who served and I could not reconcile that with my own understanding of duty.

[00:00:47]But Mr. Speaker, in slightly more detail, the IRA failed to achieve its political ends through the use of terrorist tactics. We must be exceptionally careful that we do not help them achieve those ends through other means.

[00:01:00]Constant, never-ending legal wranglings that undermine the contract between the nation and those that serve is neither a good use of tax paying money nor an effective execution of strategy.

[00:01:10]Inquests, inquiries, and an independent commission creates a hierarchy of truth.

[00:01:16]It will cost us hundreds of millions for 15 years.

[00:01:19]Painting the state as an aggressor, supporting our adversaries, political objections, and causing untold anguish for those that only ever deployed to protect us.

[00:01:29]We have neither the political capital nor the resources to spare for this unjust journey.