Is SF a law-and-order party?

I see Sinn Féin is refusing to attend a debate on a policing proposal it helped produce. I'm pleased they helped shape it, but they need to follow through and debate it as well.

 

Republicans need to stop acting like second-class citizens, they have a right to be there and make their voice heard. I can understand why some diehards in the Republican movement might still see the old RUC as their opponents, but they need to wake up - at last - to fact that Sinn Féin has a democratic right - and a moral obligation - to represent its voters in any debate on policing and law enforcement in Northern Ireland. And Unionists have an obligation to welcome them into that process.

 

So do the Big Thing, Gerry: Get in there and debate.