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How our relaxed Twelfth left Ann Widdecombe truly impressed
Friday, 18 July 2008
enlargeFor years it was synonymous with street violence and civil unrest, but the Twelfth parade has now become a model for the rest of the UK for its “relaxed” policing, according to the former Tory front bencher, Ann Widdecombe .
Not impressed with rigid security or “petty” health and safety rules, the MP said she much prefers the “sensible organisation” that she says she saw displayed at this year’s parade.
Ms Widdecombe, who was here over the Twelfth to film a TV documentary, used her column in a national newspaper this week to praise policing on the day.
“In London, crowds are penned behind crush barriers and police stand every few yards waiting for trouble. In Belfast, there were very few crush barriers and along the whole five miles of the parade there was only the odd police presence,” she said.
“Children dashed out in front of the bands and no health and safety tsar threw a hissy fit.
“People spilled from pavement to road and the marchers simply wound cheerfully round them.”
She then quotes an Orangeman as saying, “I am still pinching myself”, when she asked him where the police were.
“The best word to describe the whole performance was ‘relaxed’, she said.
“Yet,” she added, referring to health and safety rules in the UK, “Northern Ireland is not merely part of the same European Union, but it is, dash it, part of the same United Kingdom”
Yet they, with all their history, are relaxed about health and safety while we rush about with a million forms of triplicate.
“Indeed, a Women’s Institute picnic, a simple little event if ever there was one, was withdrawn from my local park because the health and safety procedures were disproportionately onerous,” she added.
“Well that is praise indeed from Ms Widdecombe,” said one Orange Order member.
Ms Widdecombe was not as impressed, however, with airport security in Belfast.
“Sadly, the sensible, proportionate approach shown towards the Orange parade was absent at Belfast airport where a rude jobsworth of a woman extracted various items from my bag and confiscated them,” she said.
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Please Please Please can someone at your paper do a piece on the staff employed at security and passport control at Belfast airports?
I live in NY and travel a lot within the country and nowhere have I been as badly treated by as many rude people as I have at both the airports in Belfast.
I cannot wait to meet the terrorist who is greeted by one of that officious bunch before you check in that turns himself in when he is asked did you pack the bags yourself.
If that is the first introduction people get coming in to the province it is a wonder we have any tourism at all.
The staff themselves are just ignorant people but who is hiring them and keeping them on if this is so rampant?
Posted by Irish New yorker | 18.07.08, 18:48 GMT
Ms. Widdecombe, you forgot to tell us what was removed from your bag at Belfast airport!
Posted by Eddie | 18.07.08, 16:01 GMT
I'm afraid that the experience that Ms Widdicombe had at the City airport is all too common. I am a OneWorld top tier frequent flyer ( who flies more than 120,00 miles a year) and the city airport has the most invasive and inefficient security check that I have ever come across. Each time I fly there, because I have a few computer accessories in my briefcase, it is emptied and swiped with a dirty piece of paper to check for explosives. If they invested in some proper security equipment it would help everyone. Why is the one bag limit still in force there ? And you have to buy your plastic bags for liquids and gels.... I hope the money they make from this is being used to save for their upgraded security scanners !
Posted by Sam | 18.07.08, 14:26 GMT
I was pleased to read that the 12th in Northern Ireland was a geat day for all who watched or participated.
In Toronto we also have the 12th - the 188th uninterrupted parade.
Although it is on a smaller scale, all who participated were proud to present their heritage.
I have seen many 12th parades in Ireland and enjoy them all.
Best Wishes to all in Northern Ireland. Keep up the good work.
I am proud to be Irish - although born in Canada.
Helen Taylor
Posted by Helen Taylor | 18.07.08, 14:14 GMT
Brilliant - truly brilliant - yet again: “Sadly, the sensible, proportionate approach shown towards the Orange parade was absent at Belfast airport where a rude jobsworth of a woman extracted various items from my bag and confiscated them,” she said.
Happened to me!!
Posted by Aran | 18.07.08, 14:08 GMT