It was a remarkably grown-up Newsnight. I was concerned that at some point Kirsty would turn to camera and say, "Now, for a look at the lighter side of policing in Northern Ireland, we've brought together columnist and critic Allison Pearson and TV funnyman Tom O'Connor."

Instead there was something of a studio debate, albeit perfunctory. The taped interview with Patten was quite lively and Kirsty caught him out. He easily parried the predictable question of how the RUC will deal with applications from former paramilitaries and rightly dismissed as a dangerous principle the idea that police sometimes "know" people to be guilty but can't prove it. However, when Kirsty fired back with the fact that the force will still allow membership of the Orange Order, he didn't really have a proper answer.

Sadly, Kirsty was let down by a rather poor taped report from the streets, Jackie Long being one of those correspondents unable to keep the sound of gritted teeth out of her voice. She described a demonstration calling for RUC disbandment thus: "The slickly efficient Sinn Fein got their people out." I'm not asking her to describe Sinn Fein as "endearingly incompetent", but it's a particularly paranoid delusion that the enemies of the state are well organised.

But back to the studio. There was one moment of unintentional humour from a former policeman. Diane Hamill was given a few seconds to describe the abysmal way her family have been treated since they complained about the RUC's failure to prevent or properly investigate the murder of her brother Robert. She mentioned only two of the many instances of intimidation her family have suffered these past two years. One was the occasion when a police car pulled in front of her, forcing her to brake to avoid a collision, and the other was the time an RUC officer pointed his fingers at her in imitation of a gun. Asked by Kirsty to respond, the former policeman said, "The young lady should report these incidents at her local police station."

That would be the police station two hundred yards from where Robert was kicked to death, in full view of a Land Rover containing four fully armed officers. It would be the police station where one might find Constable Clare Halley, who arrived shortly after the murder and detained one of the Loyalist mob that attacked Robert, only to release him a few minutes later, questioning neither him nor the witness who approached her to say, "He's one of the ones that did it."

The failure of police officers to take notes is not to be surprised at. The most senior uniformed officer to arrive at the scene of Stephen Lawrence's murder was one Chief Inspector Jonathan McIvor. The McPherson report severely criticised McIvor on several counts, including "his failure to obtain full information of the incident" and "his failure to record activities personally and to ensure that there was some form of log of activities taking place". After his spell with the Met, McIvor became head of training for the whole of the RUC.

It might be said that, if all police forces which fail to represent the whole community were to be disbanded, all police forces would be disbanded. And it is not likely to happen to the RUC while Britain maintains its claim to the territory, so it was inevitable that Patten would merely suggest mild reforms. But it is hard not to feel slightly warm toward his report given the absolute fury it has provoked among unionists. Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan on Newsnight appeared grimly accepting of the inevitability of eventual change. It was Ken Maginnis who was apoplectic

The flag and the crown are to go, even if the sashes and bowler hats are not. The removal of mere symbols seems to infuriate unionists and loyalists more than any of the other proposals. In the words of one man interviewed for Newsnight, "our birthright has been betrayed". David Jones, press secretary for the Portadown No.1 Lodge, spoke, he said, for the many members of the Orange Order who have served with the RUC. The problem with the RUC is not just that nationalists see it as the armed wing of unionism, but that unionists in their hearts agree with them. Such rare consensus of opinion in Northern Ireland is not to be taken lightly.

Ken Maginnis was a member of the B-Specials, the protestant militia who machine- gunned Catholic flats at random. There was no earthly way they could not have been disbanded. To see his beloved RUC renamed barely thirty years later is more than he can bear. He is about to produce a report of his own, vindicating the RUC in relation to the death of Robert Hamill. It must have galled him to sit facing Diane on Newsnight. He didn't speak to her. He never has. He's only spoken to the RUC.
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