Clive Fairweather: Gravy train rolls as a price is paid for ignoring lessons of history

MOST are likely to agree that if Iraqi civilians have suffered gratuitous injury or ultimately death at the hands of British troops then surely, irrespective of ECHR, they ought to be able to seek redress from the British government.

This latest landmark ruling makes it crystal clear the government can no longer dodge the issue - if indeed there was one - any more.

Inevitably it will open the way, not only for genuine cases, but to many more spurious claims as individuals seek to leap on board this now accelerating gravy train.

Also there will be considerable implications for the way the British Army conducts subsequent campaigns, not all of them positive.

Not that this is an entirely new situation.

The lessons of history are frequently forgotten or laid aside as politicians and military commanders grapple with unfolding conflict, only for what should be unavoidable milestones to later re-emerge and haunt them.

It took the same European Court until 1978 to find the UK in breach of Article 3 following "detention without trial" in Northern Ireland from August 1971 onwards.

No-one could deny that we were "in charge" of the Irishmen who came into the Army's hands, as hitherto has been the case made for the period 2003-4 in Southern Iraq.

Remarkably, however, and in a corner of our own country, similar sounding gratuitous violence was deployed against a relatively small number of detained prisoners.

This involved the hooding of prisoners, beatings and even "unusual occurrences" in helicopters.

However, observing as a former Army member myself, it appears there could be one fundamental difference.

In Ireland, elements of the chain of command apparently sanctioned some of these actions, whereas in Iraq cases like Abu Moussa sound more like a loss of local control.

But pay we must if Iraqi claims can be proved genuine.