'It's difficult to see how hanging an IRA man would have made the situation worse, to be honest.'

I have no such difficulty in imagining the scenario. A little more imagination and flexibility would have denied the IRA their greatest victory - the hunger strike - one of the greatest set pieces of resistance. Surely the turning point in the whole period of conflict.

The public execution of one of Diana's children would have been a whole different ball game to Mountbatten's killing. Diana was the most loved of all the royals. A lot of English people would have hard pressed to know who Mountbatten was.

I still think it was a damn silly thing to risk, and might have left our cities in flames. Still that gang of Bertie Woosters at the Ministry of Defence/MI5 might have been hoping for just that result - devious bastards!