It’s no secret this columnist favours the tone, content and conduct of the Talkback programme over similar offerings on BBC Radio Ulster.

I also appreciate its occasional focus on genuinely informative and educational discussions free from the echo chamber of Northern Irish tribalism.

The programme’s freshness stems partly from the host’s eclectic knowledge and awareness across various topics.

Last Thursday I switched on to a cacophony of voices adding their tuppence worth to the ongoing discussion about how to ‘lure, buy, bribe, or entice mainly loyalist paramilitaries and their rabble dissident counterparts to disband’.

Tom Kelly: Appeasement has failed. It’s time to root out loyalist paramilitarism once and for all

Graham Spencer: One more serious attempt at paramilitary transformation is worth trying

The pros and cons of a softly-softly approach were re-hashed. They’re so familiar it’s like reciting a decade of the Rosary.

I heard criticism of those, like me, who argue that loyalist paramilitaries have had enough time to disband and now is the time for rigorous law enforcement.

This beggars belief and highlights that some people seem to live in a parallel universe, immune to the harsh realities faced by communities under the cosh of paramilitaries.

Just as women subjected to sexual assault may have little faith in systemically misogynistic police forces to take their complaints seriously, people in communities can have little faith in the entire criminal justice process standing up for them when the establishment courts the capos and dons who control the very paramilitaries exploiting them.

Loyalist paramilitaries – or........

© The Irish News