The "Let's Talk" BBC1 programme on policing, (March
27) gave participants the opportunity, another one, to speak
for themselves, and sometimes for their parties, on their
attitudes, and responses, to the Police Service of Northern
Ireland. The attitudes, Unionists, nationalist and republicans,
Protestants and Roman Catholics, were of the kind to be anticipated
in our divided society, positive and negative. The opening
interchanges with young people in their schools at Bangor
and Newry, showed how opposite was their thinking on the subject.
Their reactions to the changes in the police service was interesting
in that none doubted the necessity of policing, and most of
them hoped that what was happening in the PSNI would bring
about that much to be desired time when the police would be
accepted and respected everywhere. The programme provided
opportunity again for politicians and people to have their
say on everything to do with police and policing in our society.
The problems are legion, all of them transparent, and some
of them especially annoying to people, fair-minded and tolerant,
who feel that decisions are being taken about policing for
purely political purposes, to meet the incessant demands of
Sinn Fein and a republicanism which has by heavy hand ensured
that Roman Catholics would not be looked on kindly if they
joined up. It was a view at Newry that were Sinn Fein to join
the Policing Board their attitude to the PSNI would change
agreeably. There were strong feelings on positive discrimination
in selection for the service and the unhappy consequences
for Protestant and other young applicants. The spokesman for
the Equal Opportunities Commission admitted the inequality
of the present recruitment policy but consented to it as a
temporary arrangement to meet a present necessity. The expectation
was that it would go when Roman Catholics joined the PSNI
in numbers in the wake of joining the Policing Board. Expectation,
but when and after what concessions to Sinn Fein. The value
of programmes like these is not easy to assess for their enlightenment
or entertainment value because they say so little that is
consequential and original, and the saying does not always
make for pleasant hearing. How viewers react to them as they
watch on the box could be the more interesting aspect of the
show. People can get very bothered by what and who they see
on television. Over exposure is a danger to all those who
would use the medium.
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