The present NI police chief, Hugh Orde, has accepted the report. That itself is terrific progress. Imagine any/i>, of his predecessors accepting such a damning indictment. Without exception they would have taken the Ken Maginnis line that the RUC was a non-sectarian force staffed with exclusively honourable men and women.

Orde's open contempt for senior officers in the RUC who refused to co-operate with the inqiry is evidence of s sea-change in attitudes. (He has refused to name them, but it was for the ombudsman to do tghat. He has pointed out that it is easy enough to find out who they were.)

There will be further evidence of a sea change when Sinn Fein resolves in the immediate future to give its support to the police force that succeeded the RUC.

All this gives me, for one, some cause to be optimistic about the future.