What future for the loyalists?

Loyalists are in the spotlight following the IRA announcement

Four military installations are to be dismantled in Northern Ireland in the wake of yesterday's historic move on disarmament by the IRA. What will it take to get loyalist paramilitaries to follow suit?

Dr John Reid struck a bullish note when asked about the possible reluctance of loyalist paramilitaries to decommission, but, as the Northern Ireland peace process gets back on track, what will happen to these groups?

Ruth Dudley-Edwards tells us that many of them have simply become gangsters and should be treated as such, however loyalist Billy Hutchinson rejects the criticism, claiming the IRA has jumped the gun and should be moving in tandem with the loyalists, in accordance with the Good Friday agreement.

The Home Secretary has announced an effective relaxation of the drug laws, but does this not throw the government's 10-year plan into chaos?
David Blunkett tells us that the move is simply a recognition of the fact that heroin and crack cocaine should be dealt with differently to cannabis, and he denies as ludicrous suggestions that the story was meant to be 'buried' behind the IRA announcement.

And the Standards and Privileges committee has recommended that Geoffrey Robinson be suspended from the House of Commons, over his failure to declare a payment by the late Robert Maxwell. Opposition spokesman David Heathcoat Amory alleges a cover-up.

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