Was Saville Worth It?
The Saville Report was commissioned by the Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in 1998 as part of the peace process. The 5,000 word document has cost £195m to produce and taken 12 years to complete. The new Conservative Government have questioned the cost and time it took. Yet it provides a unique, and most detailed historical document. Nothing will ever come closer to the truth surrounding the circumstances of Bloody Sunday. It offers unprecedented scrutiny of all involved – marchers, soldiers, army bosses and the politicians of the time. It looks at the IRA and other paramilitaries, and at the policies of the government and military. It is a microscopic study of the wider issues facing Northern Ireland in 1972 – political, social, religious and paramilitary. As such it has long lasting value. What’s more without the individual scrutiny it has afforded each case it could not have been so conclusive – down to the detail in some cases of who shot who. This has gone a considerable way to sa
