I want to talk about what is happening in the peace process because I know a lot of you are concerned and want to know where things are going. Everyone over the weekend asked me that - even at the Robbie Williams concert at Slane Castle.
The truth is, last week was a tough week for people in Northern Ireland. Especially for the relatives of Charles Bennett; the families of those who have been exiled by IRA thugs; for the nationalists in Larne and elsewhere who have been petrol bombed by Loyalists; for the police barraged with speculation about their future without anyone knowing the facts; and for everyone here who hoped that we had left the years of violence, and the politics of violence behind us.
The question after such a week is very simple: what on earth can you do next? Simply give up? Go back to the days when parties did not speak to each other? Back to the days when people were being killed day in day out week after week. I know that's not what anyone wants. But the reality is that there is a proper working political settlement that both sides can live with. Unless the police here are accepted by the whole community terrorism will never be defeated. That's the reality.
People know the Good Friday Agreement is the best bet we have. But unless there is confidence across the community it simply won't work. Which is why as Secretary of State I have to keep trying to build that confidence - even though people sometimes say I am naïve to do so. It's not naïve, it's an essential part of the process - of making the Agreement work. And it is essential that confidence is there on both sides.
Sometimes what I do or don't do as Secretary of State leaves me open to criticism of bias. In fact, throughout the past two years, both sides at different times have accused me of favouring the other. It's bound to happen - especially when people are trying to cope with change.
My job is to stick to my principles - fairness, justice and equality - and act according to the law. Act in the interests of all in the community in Northern Ireland - as a whole.
But while I believe people want the agreement to work and recognise that it has to be accepted by both sides I also understand that there is great concern at recent events and incidents of violence. The murder of Charles Bennett, the planned importation of arms from Florida, and threats against teenagers have all raised genuine concerns about the state of the IRA cease-fire. The series of Loyalist petrol bomb and pipe bomb attacks have raised genuine concerns too. Concerns that are made worse by the lack of progress by the participants in the political process. Both sides are now asking the other - are you serious? And, unfortunately, both sides seem all too willing to contemplate the possibility of failure.
But I ask the people to remember just how far we have come. How much difference the cease-fires are making to life in Northern Ireland. Anyone who regularly goes out, walks the streets, goes shopping here, knows that. What we're doing is not about appeasement, or turning a blind eye, but about helping this society end its historic conflict. And I believe that the basic desire is still there - despite all the recent problems. And that is why the parties should be in there, talking to each other, in the Mitchell Review, not walking away.
I know how tough this is, especially on those who supported the Agreement and have rivals and opponents sniping at the sidelines. Yet they are the brave ones who held their nerve and are now taking Northern Ireland forward to the future not back to the past. But in some ways the past is still with us - like the threats made to young people over the weekend and again last night - from both sides.
Let no one be in any doubt. I condemn kangaroo courts of any kind. They are wrong. The way to deal with juvenile delinquency is through the police and through the courts. This is my bottom line. But life in Northern Ireland is sometimes not as straightforward as it would be elsewhere. When the IRA ordered teenagers to leave Dungannon last week, some, at least, small in number, in the local community supported that action because they said they could not support the police.
That, as I say, I find very disturbing. But it is a reality we have to deal with - and a reality behind part of the Patten Commission on policing and its work. Again, not because we are in the business of appeasing critics of the RUC, but because we have to find a way forward for policing which helps the force to be accepted as widely as possible in both communities - and makes events like last week as unimaginable as they should be.
The government wants a modern, effective police service here in Northern Ireland - just as we do in any other part of the UK. That is a goal we had as a party long before the Good Friday Agreement. In Opposition we made it clear our desire to see a police service which was more balanced, with more women, and better equipped to face the challenges of a peaceful society - a goal underlined in our manifesto. And the need for change was accepted by the parties in the Good Friday Agreement. Because they recognised that it provided the opportunity for "a police service capable of attracting and sustaining support across the community as a whole". That is why they agreed on the independent commission which is now due to report. And that is why, while the main responsibility for implementing that report lies with the government, I will begin discussions with the parties as soon as they have had chance to properly consider it.
But while the need for change has been at the core of government policy for a long time, I also recognise that the process of change is difficult for those currently serving in the RUC. It is not an easy time. And it is not made any easier by press speculation.
I do not know what is in the Patten report. All I know is that I should wait until it is published before I pass judgement --and I would ask others to do the same. That is the time to debate its contents, not now. But, I also know, as a government and as human beings, that we are fully aware of the huge sacrifice made by the RUC and their families in the last 30 years - and the need, therefore, to handle any change sensitively. Which doesn't mean, as some have suggested, putting paramilitaries in charge of local law enforcement. That would be insane - and wrong. Nor leaving any community in Northern Ireland without the proper protection they need. But change that is sensible, practical and well managed in the interests of the whole community.
And I will make sure that those affected by anything Chris Patten recommends are dealt with generously and sympathetically as the Prime Minister promised they would be - in a timescale that is sensible for the families concerned. Because change is hard for people to take. It takes courage as people here today understand only too well. Integrated education has never been an easy dream. But for 11,000 children in 44 schools in Northern Ireland, it is now a reality - a reality which parents here are working hard to realise too.
I congratulate you on your success this year in getting money from Europe, and I wish you well in your efforts in the future - you have my support. What you have done to overcome problems and find answers is exactly what people throughout Northern Ireland can do - together to build on the vision we all hold for the future.
