David Cameron says new Birmingham pub bombings probe unlikely

Nov 22 2009 by Paul Bradley, Sunday Mercury

CONSERVATIVE leader David Cameron last night urged the people of Birmingham to look to the future as they marked the 35th anniversary of the IRA pub bombings which killed 21 people and injured 182 others.

He warned that it would be “very difficult” to re-open the investigation into the November 21, 1974 terror attack that devastated the city centre, despite the deep hurt still felt by so many.

And he said that the creation of a lasting peace and political process must take precedence over feelings of recrimination.

“When you lose someone like that, the hurt and the pain never goes away,” Mr Cameron told the Sunday Mercury.

“We should be thinking of the victims of the pub bombings on the anniversary.

“But we should also think about the peace we are trying to build in our UK.

“Those who were involved in bombing, killing and maiming in Northern Ireland and in the mainland UK – that has all stopped now.

“I had my first meeting with Martin McGuinness and Sinn Fein recently, and that was a really big moment.

“They walk into your office and not so long ago these people were trying to kill – and did kill – your friends and people you work with.

“But it’s nothing like as difficult as those people in Birmingham who lost family and loved ones.

“I know the hurt is still there but we have to say we are now in a country where the IRA have put their weapons beyond use and Sinn Fein are part of a democratic and political process – and we have to complete the work of devolution.

“We have to completely put on the fringe those who wish to return to violence.”

Asked if he would order a fresh probe into the bombings should the Tories come to power at the next General Election, Mr Cameron held out little hope for the families of those who died in the atrocity.

“I would not rule anything out but I think that would be very difficult,” he said. “Obviously so much of the evidence is no longer there. So much time has elapsed.

“Politicians don’t order prosecutions in this country. It is for the Crown Prosecution Service and the police to see if there are new leads and evidence.

“It’s not for me to order whether those things should happen.”

It was at 8.11pm on November 21, 1974 that a man with an Irish accent telephoned the offices of the Birmingham Post and Mail and said that there was a bomb in the 25-storey Rotunda office block housing the Mulberry Bush pub.

Police went to the Rotunda to investigate. Officers started to check the upper floors of the building but failed to clear the crowded pub which was situated at street level.

Just minutes later, at 8.17pm, the bomb exploded, devastating the crowded bar.

Warnings had just reached the equally crowded Tavern in the Town pub nearby, when at 8.27pm a second bomb there exploded. A passing West Midlands bus was caught in the blast and written off.