The pursuit of historical allegations against UK forces represents a failure on the part of the British state to protect those it asks to serve.
Anyone who objects to the unfairness of this trend, whether in relation to veterans who served in Northern Ireland or elsewhere, should welcome last Wednesday’s decision by the High Court to dismiss the long-running group litigation arising out of the Kenyan Emergency (the Mau Mau insurgency) from 1952 to 1962.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office had faced claims for damages from over 40,000 people for abuses alleged to have been committed during that period.
While some abuses undoubtedly took place, the UK has always denied legal liability for wrongdoing. In view of the scale of the litigation, if the claims
