MERCER: Don't bring out the big guns

Notts MP Patrick Mercer went on Today this morning to urge restraint in the wake of shootings in Northern Ireland.

He said: “What we don’t want is armed troops on the streets of Northern Ireland, vehicle check points and an overreaction.”

Spot on I reckon. A heavy counter-productive reaction is just what the Real IRA want.

At the moment they don’t have the support of the public and it would be playing in to their hands to give it to them with a heavy-handed response.

Mercer spent nine tours of duty in Northern Ireland as an officer with the Sherwood Foresters before becoming an MP and has first hand experience of how a peaceful situation can turn ugly.