The British government must resist any attempt to disband the RUC and the force should only relax its anti-terrorist role once the threat and potential threat of terrorism in Northern Ireland has been removed, according to the Conservative Party's submission to the Independent Commission on Policing for Northern Ireland.
In the submission, published yesterday, the Tories repeated their firm opposition to changing the name of the force. They say that the Union flag should be flown at RUC stations, in accordance with the custom in the rest of the United Kingdom, but not on July 12th. Reductions in the size of the RUC and the RUC Reserve should be approached with the "utmost caution" in the wake of the bombing of Omagh.
Furthermore, any transfer of responsibility for policing from Westminster to the Northern Ireland Assembly should only take place after the Assembly and Executive have been working for a period of about two years - when, under the terms of the Belfast Agreement, full decommissioning should have taken place.
The shadow Northern Ireland secretary, Mr Andrew Mackay, said yesterday that the inquiry into policing need not become a "trap" for the RUC. Rather, it should be seen as an opportunity to lay to rest many "unfounded" allegations against a "brave police force".
The Independent Commission, headed by the former governor of Hong Kong, Mr Chris Patten, is expected to report to the government in July 1999, against the backdrop of demands by Sinn Fein that the RUC must be disbanded if the Belfast Agreement is to succeed. The Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has rejected the idea of disbanding the force and the Tories claim that such a move would "play into the hands" of those in the nationalist community who wish to see former paramilitaries policing nationalist areas in Northern Ireland.
The Tories also point out that any suggestion or implementation of a two-tier police force, split between community and security policing, would prove "dangerous" and lead to the establishment of no-go areas.
They say that the culture, symbols and ethos of the RUC must not be undermined. And reform should not be undertaken for purely cosmetic reasons in areas such as positive discrimination towards Catholics. Recognising that flying the Union flag on July 12th causes offence to some nationalists, the submission maintains that this practice should end in the interests of community relations.
The Tories blame the IRA for the RUC's failure to recruit greater numbers of Catholics to the force. Intimidation of Catholic recruits and their families reinforced the imbalance in the number of Catholics recruited to the RUC and would have to end. However, rejecting positive discrimination to boost the numbers of Catholics in the force - the current level is about 8 per cent - the Tories state that the RUC's goal must be to recruit "Catholics of a high calibre" in greater numbers than they are represented in the population of Northern Ireland.