Early this month while on route to the LGA Labour Group Spring conference I was surprised to come across this apparently "blown up" car in the underground park entrance opposite the Houses of Parliament. It was quite a disturbing sight but you could tell by the lack of Police etc that this wasn't for real. There was a couple of security guards near the entrance and putting 2+2 together I asked them whether this was a TV production on the murder of Conservative MP, Airey Neave? They confirmed that it was connected to a film about him.
I can still remember being shocked by his murder by the INLA on 30 March 1979. Not only had cowardly gangsters killed a democratically elected Politician within the confines of our Parliament, Neave was also a respected Second World War hero. He was the first person to escape from the high security German Prison of War Camp at Colditz and had helped prosecuted German Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. The BBC TV series about Colditz was then hugely popular.
I thought at the time that this was not only morally wrong but also a completely stupid and self defeating act. The INLA later descent into a cesspit of blatant sectarian killings, merciless internal republican murders and drug dealing was therefore no great surprise to anyone.
