The rule of law is the foundation of our society. Everyone is equal before it and equally subject to it, whatever position they hold.
On the Nolan Show this week, I was asked a simple question. Was violence threatened on the Garvaghy Road? My answer was clear. I believe this decision was never really about a parade. It was about the threat of violence, disorder and terror.
Brendan McKenna has now confirmed that petrol bombs were present on the road and were taken from local youths. He says residents destroyed them. We have not been told who, or whether police were ever informed.
I do not believe petrol bombs were the only threat. I have spoken publicly about concerns that gunmen were available, and I believe police judged there was a real possibility that someone - an officer, a resident or an Orangeman - could be shot.
Dissident republicans were highly visible on the Garvaghy Road, standing shoulder to shoulder with Sinn Fein, mainstream republicans who have a past of their own and SDLP representatives. They posed a threat then and they pose one now, not least to PSNI officers, for whom the risk remains substantial.
None of us in positions of leadership want to see officers placed at risk on that road, or as a result of police action on it. But that is precisely why the public deserves the truth. If the threat of terror was serious enough to halt a lawful parade, people should be told. If it was not, they should be told that too.
Powers under the Public Processions Act that had never been used before - not even when Northern Ireland faced real violence and terror - were used here for the first time. Without an explanation, that is incomprehensible. Mob rule and threat cannot be seen to get their way. If they do, the lesson will not stay in Portadown.
