Mr. Prime Minister....

[MKSheppard]

You have just replaced Tony Blair as PM of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland. Your immediate issue at hand is
the Irish "Question".

How do you deal with the "Troubles" in Northern Ireland?

My method:

Y'see, Guns are illegal in Great Britain, yet these paramilitary
scumbags in the IRA and UVF, etc love to pose with them
in press releases:

http://www.terrorismanswers.com/images/ ... vf_pic.jpg

Why not just round them all up and charge them with firearms charges
and make the convictions STICK?

We've got a lot of background for this tactic - Remember, Al Capone was
never convicted of bootlegging, or ordering the murders of people, but
instead for tax fraud.

[Sea Skimmer]

The main reason the UK introduced its gun control laws in the first place was to make it easier to deal with rebels and terrorist in Ireland, and do just what you propose. Notice how the men are all masked so you can't get there identity.

[RadiO]

Unless you somehow take every extremist out of circulation simultaniously, shitheads will start blowing up police stations or shopping centres as a retaliatory move against the imprisonment of their colleagues.
Don't assume that their choice of targets will make any sense either; for the life of me, I can't work out how the Real IRA's bombing of Omagh was a result of their "ongoing war against the Brits".

[MKSheppard]

Unless you somehow take every extremist out of circulation simultaniously, shitheads will start blowing up police stations or shopping centres as a retaliatory move against the imprisonment of their colleagues.

That's the rub....you CANNOT give in to their tactics. A conviction of
30 years' Imprisionment must STICK. Or a Life Sentence must also
STICK. You have to make it crystal clear to those shitheads that they
cannot negotiate for the release of their fellow terrorists by bombing
madly across England.

Or you could just reintroduce the death penalty and give the lot the
needle

[MKSheppard]

Or you could just reintroduce the death penalty and give the lot the
needle

In fact, I think the lack of the needle for terrorists is what's causing
a lot of Britain's problems with the UVF/IRA. You've had to resort to
using the SAS as a hitsquad to get around the no capital punishment
laws when you want a particularly odious terrorist dead, and not as
a martyr in jail..

[Lord Sander]

Personally, I don't think the conflict will die whatever you do. You're damned if you're soft-handed, you're damned if you're hard-handed, and you're damned if you give the lot to Ireland proper.

[RadiO]

Or you could just reintroduce the death penalty and give the lot the
needle

In fact, I think the lack of the needle for terrorists is what's causing
a lot of Britain's problems with the UVF/IRA. You've had to resort to
using the SAS as a hitsquad to get around the no capital punishment
laws when you want a particularly odious terrorist dead, and not as
a martyr in jail..

Yeah, but historically terrorists haven't been the brightest people, have they? Look at the Washington Sniper and his buddy. They must have known that their crimes would carry the death penalty; but they either didn't believe they'd be caught, or simply didn't give a shit.
Why would it be any different with the paramilitaries in Northern Ireland? They're Irish people willing to kill innocent Irish civilians in the street, in order to strike a blow against British-Protestant domination/Republican-Catholic insurrection. Would they behave any differently if the punishment was the hangman's noose?

[Nathan F]

The main reason the UK introduced its gun control laws in the first place was to make it easier to deal with rebels and terrorist in Ireland, and do just what you propose. Notice how the men are all masked so you can't get there identity.

And look what a great job it has done...