Ed McGuinness

The three members of Irish rap band Kneecap are 'ceasefire babies': they grew up on the streets of Belfast around the time of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. So did I. But the similarities between me and the band end there. Despite what some of Kneecap's fans might think, there was nothing glamorous about life as a 'ceasefire baby' On a November night in 2001, I was at the cinema with my brother. In Belfast, one of the best cinemas at the time was in Yorkgate. Unfortunately, it was situated at what is known as a 'flashpoint', where the Catholic New Lodge estate abutted the fiercely Protestant Tigers Bay. Riots were common. A thick steel fence was meant to keep cinemagoers safe, but it failed to stop the petrol bomb that was lobbed in our direction.

Keir Starmer has vowed to create a ‘squaddies tsar’ if he wins the election. This ‘Armed Forces Commissioner’ would represent the military and their families and sit outside the military chain of command. But it’s here that the problems start. The Labour leader says this issue is personal to him because his uncle served aboard HMS Antelope in the Falklands War. But Starmer could do with turning to another military reference point – the 1998 film, Saving Private Ryan – to appreciate why such a ‘tsar’ could cause trouble. ‘I don't gripe to you, Reiben,’ captain Miller explains as his soldiers traipse through the French bocage. ‘I'm a captain. There's a chain of command. Gripes go up, not down. Always up.