ABSTRACT
A section of the population here tried to overthrow the state by force of arms, and the British government, after the fall of Stormont, failed in their fundamental right, or the fundamental thing for them was to protect life and to me they failed in that. I could have easily got involved with the RUC, because, I mean, I wasn’t involved in any criminal activity before I joined the Ulster Volunteer Force, but I felt that we had been let down by our government, who had hand cuffed the security forces with their policy of appeasement and restraint rather than the same sort of policy they used in the conflict in the Falklands. If they had had the same attitude towards republicans, I don’t think it would have been a war. I think it would have been a conflict that could have been put down in a couple of years. (Interview with UVF Volunteer, Belfast, Ferguson 2007)
