SDLP backs police reform plans
John Hume’s SDLP today endorsed the British Government’s plans to reform policing in Northern Ireland by agreeing to join the body which will oversee the new force.
The Nationalist party’s decision to nominate to the 19-strong Policing Board comes after the Catholic church backed the revised implementation plan to overhaul the RUC.
Mr Hume said: "We will respond positively to an invitation to join the Policing Board and we will be encouraging people from all sections of the community to join the new police service."
Mr Hume described the party’s decision as "common sense" and denied that it had been particularly difficult for them to be the first nationalists to endorse the new police service.
"It has not been painful. It is a common sense decision based on a common sense approach.
"How can any democrat be opposed to a police service whose membership is drawn from the whole community and whose governing body is drawn from all sections of the community?"
SDLP deputy leader and acting Deputy First Minister in the Northern Ireland power-sharing executive, Seamus Mallon, appealed to young people in both the nationalist and unionist communities to support the new police service.
But in a direct plea to young nationalists, he added: "I want to take this opportunity to say to young people in the nationalist community: here is an opportunity.
"Here is the mechanism now through which policing can be changed and changed forever more.
"Do not let this opportunity slip because Patten (report) will never be written again.
"We have one opportunity to get this right. Take that chance."
