Another important step in the normalisation of Northern Ireland has been taken, albeit reluctantly by all sides. The Police Service of Northern Ireland will become the new title of the Royal Ulster Constabulary for all practical purposes from the autumn. The Police (Northern Ireland) Bill won a comfortable majority of 291 votes in a stormy session in the House of Commons on Tuesday night; it will enter the statute books with passage assured through the House of Lords later in the year.
These legislative moves pave the way for the creation of the new police service which, hopefully, can still command the support of all sections of the community, the first prerequisite in a reforming society. But, like all major changes arising from the Belfast Agreement, the reform, restructuring and renaming of the RUC, recommended in the Patten Report, are to be achieved with the maximum amount of controversy and public discomfiture, not just among all shades of nationalism and unionism in Northern Ireland, but on the island as a whole.
The final compromise to incorporate the name of the RUC in the title deeds of the Police Service of Northern Ireland is, no doubt, an honest attempt by the Secretary of State, Mr Mandelson, to end the debate and make a concrete start to the process of police reform. But it is regrettable. The parliamentary manoeuvrings surrounding the withdrawal of the British Government's amendment on Tuesday night have served to anger the Government, agitate the deputy First Minister, Mr Mallon, and de-stabilise the deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Mr Taylor.
Ideally, the new police force should have been established without reference, even in the title deeds, to the RUC. The British Government should not have run away from defining in legislation that the new title would be used for all working, public, legal, ceremonial, administrative, presentational and recruitment purposes. In making the particular changes that he did, Mr Mandelson has departed from the Patten Report. The report did not recommend the disbandment of the RUC. Nor did it advocate a seamless transfer from the old RUC to the new police force encased in a double-barrel title. The new Police Service of Northern Ireland has been denied the fresh start which it deserved by being compelled statutorily to carry some of the baggage of the past.
For all of that, Mr Mallon went too far on Tuesday night when he told MPs that Mr Mandelson stood "very little chance" of persuading Catholics to join the new police service. The "political chicanery", he suggested, had done "irreparable damage" to the prospect of a new policing dispensation. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, will discuss the latest developments with the British Prime Minister today.
Only time will tell if a workable balance has been achieved. As far back as May 5th at Hillsborough it was known that there was an understanding between Mr Trimble and Mr Blair that the name of the RUC would be incorporated, in some way or other, into the title deeds of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. That fig leaf, which made possible the restoration of the Executive and the political institutions in truly historic advances for nationalists and republicans, has been put in place. It remains to be seen at what cost.