Changing the name of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to the Police Service of Northern Ireland was not intended to dishonour or devalue the contribution of the officers who served in it, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, told the House of Commons yesterday.
Setting the tone for Ulster Unionist exchanges with the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, even before he had made his statement on the Patten report, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, angrily challenged Mr Blair during Prime Minister's Question Time to explain the precedent for removing the "royal" title from the RUC's name.
"Nothing this government says or does can dishonour the RUC and the men in it," Mr Trimble said. "This government can and does dishonour itself."
Mr Blair acknowledged the hurt felt by unionists, but insisted no dishonour was intended. But there was a desire that the police service should attract support from all sides of the community in Northern Ireland.
When he stood at the dispatch box to make his statement, Mr Mandelson told MPs that of all the issues dividing society in Northern Ireland, policing was probably the most controversial.
In its eagerness to police a normal society in a normal, professional way, however, the RUC was "held back by the burden of history" in which it was inevitably, if unfairly, identified more with one side of the community than the other.
Mr Mandelson insisted reform was an opportunity to create a more representative police force and paid tribute to the courage, resilience and professionalism of the RUC and the 302 officers and the thousands injured during its 77-year history.
"We all owe the RUC a huge debt of gratitude. The George Cross is a fitting acknowledgement of their sacrifice," he said.
The Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, Mr Andrew Mackay, said the RUC had stood as the "thin green line" between the maintenance of democracy and the descent into anarchy and accused the Patten report of failing to pay proper testimony to the sacrifices and achievements of the RUC.
Nevertheless, while the majority of the Patten recommendations were not controversial, he said, the Conservatives could not support a change in the name of the RUC. Moreover, while the Conservatives wanted to see greater representation of Catholics in the RUC, intimidation by the IRA remained a significant barrier to Catholic recruitment.
"For many people this process has been all take and no give by the terrorists. The greatest contribution to dispelling that and to transforming the policing environment in Northern Ireland would be for the terrorists to finally begin decommissioning their illegally held weapons immediately," he said.
Acknowledging Ulster Unionist and Conservative anger about the name change, Mr Mandelson said that "in a perfect world" he would have kept the RUC's title, but changes must be implemented to encourage cross-community support and recruitment.
"I would have liked the RUC's name to have been maintained. It is a proud name. It represents a very fine tradition . . . but I'm afraid that name is not owned by both communities in Northern Ireland. I realise the hurt that is involved in giving up the name but I equally recognise that the police service will never be entirely accepted unless that change is made, and changed it must be."
The Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, told Mr Mandelson that while his party supported efforts to recruit officers from both traditions, they objected to the name change which he said "degrades, demeans and denigrates" the RUC.
He predicted that despite the government's proposals, intimidation of potential Catholic and nationalist recruits would continue, "because although he has proposed to change the name of the RUC the one thing that has not changed is the name of the IRA, Sinn Fein/IRA. These people continue to be armed. These people continue to ride on the backs of the entire community."
Insisting that Mr Maginnis might, on "mature reflection", like to reconsider his comments, Mr Mandelson fired back: "He has said to me on many times in the past that he compliments me on what I have said about the RUC . . . I am therefore very surprised that he chooses to say differently in public from what he has said to me in private."
The Ulster Unionist deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, said the UUP agreed with about 80 per cent of the recommendations in the Patten report, including the incorporation of human rights training and the recruitment of more Catholics, but asked why the proposals could not be implemented without resorting to a change in the RUC's title. The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said the Patten report was an opportunity to create a lasting basis of peace and order on the streets of Northern Ireland.
"We should now take that opportunity . . . to implement in full the Patten agreement so that we have a police service that has the loyalty of the entire community, that its membership draws from the entire community and that when policemen walk streets in Northern Ireland, no matter what district they are in, they are walking among friends. That would be a real change, and it is an enormous challenge to all of us, and I hope we're up to that challenge."
Rejecting accusations from unionists and Conservatives that reform of the RUC could be achieved without changing its name and still attract cross-community support, Mr Mandelson urged the leaders of the nationalist community in Northern Ireland to encourage Catholics and nationalists to join the force.
"When we have all reached the conclusion that a new beginning for policing has been created in Northern Ireland, that will be the time when leaders of the nationalist community, political and religious leaders, must stand up and speak up and back the police and call for people from the nationalist community to support the police."