Brian Walker – Page 27 – Slugger O'Toole

IS DUP threat to abandon pact trick or treat?

Brian Walker on October 10, 2018, 3:40 pm

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Newnight’s Nick Watt broke the story just after the regular morning lobby briefing in Downing St Just minutes before this story broke, a Downing Street source was asked whether the PM felt she could rely on DUP votes. “The confidence and supply arrangement we have with the DUP is a matter of record,” he said. “Is that a yes?” “It’s an answer? Yes The story.. Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party is planning to vote against the Budget if Theresa May …

We shouldn’t let another attempt to deal with the Troubles legacy slip by

Brian Walker on October 10, 2018, 1:54 pm

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The submission of five former secretaries of state of both parties to the UK government’s consultation on their draft Legacy Bill gives significant backing to the idea of an amnesty or statute of limitations. It amplifies the call some of them and retired security chiefs made in the House of Lords last month. If the decision was to rest with the British establishment alone, an amnesty by whatever name would have featured as a formal option for dealing with the …

The backstop with a good deal for GB can give Northern Ireland the best of both worlds

Brian Walker on October 10, 2018, 12:48 am

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While Arlene is stuck in the grove of her blood red hard line, the local business community has found their own voice independent of politicians and have talked to Peter Foster, Europe editor of the Daily Telegraph 700 miles away in Belfast, where the business community is trying to prepare the best it can for Brexit, despite all the uncertainty, the tone was markedly less apocalyptic ( than Arlene’s, stuck in a grove of red lines) . Declan Billington, …

C’mon Arlene – Be a stateswoman. Let’s all jump together

Brian Walker on October 8, 2018, 10:55 pm

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As the Brexit negotiations approach some sort of climax it’s unwise to take any public statement entirely at face value. Indeed any statement may have the opposite significance to the words usually mean. Thus when Juncker imitates the Dancing Queen and tells the world: “The rapprochement potential between both sides has increased in recent days, the Dancing Queen interprets the optimism as pressure on her to give more concessions on the backstop. So she threatens to refuse to sign a …

We have it easy today compared to what happened after 5th October 1968

Brian Walker on October 5, 2018, 6:58 pm

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October 5 1968 was indeed a sort of Bastille Day for Northern Ireland when a single event triggered a “ bliss it was to be alive” moment. Like the French Revolution it was followed by a long and darkening era of violence when “ things would never be the same again”. Of course it had deep roots in the past. It emulated a wave of street actions in the US, Paris and Prague, all with different outcomes. Whole volumes of …

The UK and Ireland are closing in on a border solution

Brian Walker on October 4, 2018, 10:49 am

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The FT hopefully leads: “Ireland backs Theresa May’s plan for all-UK customs union with the UK”. The story is jointly by-lined by their political editor at Conservative party conference in Birmingham and their Ireland correspondent. She will offer to meet the EU half way on the vexed issue of the Irish backstop, agreeing to Brussels’ demands that Northern Ireland stay part of the single market regulatory area of the bloc. But, in return, she wants the EU to concede to …

Don’t let Arlene cause panic. The GFA isn’t dead, only sleeping and will acquire new life

Brian Walker on October 3, 2018, 10:57 pm

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When Arlene Foster said the GFA wasn’t “sacrosanct” was she deliberately provoking a fit of the jitters? What did she mean? The Irish Times had no doubts: The apparent attempt by Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster to undermine the Belfast Agreement in pursuit of a hardline strategy on Brexit is ill-considered and dangerous. It would appear that the DUP is actively pursuing a policy designed to ensure the restoration of the hardest possible border on the island regardless of the consequences for living …

May’s team claim to find flexibility in DUP demand for legal guarantees for no checks ever in the Irish Sea

Brian Walker on October 2, 2018, 5:46 pm

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This is a running story .. Latest at 22.53 The FT leads with DUP puts May on notice over Brexit backstop Arlene Foster tweeted defiantly: Meeting with Prime Minister just ended. NO border in the Irish Sea will ever be acceptable to unionists throughout the UK . . . regulatory or otherwise. Government sources claim there must be just enough wriggle room created by new time limits. But are they deceiving themselves once again? From the FT story For some months, Mrs May’s team …

Bradley’s attempt to choke off debate on a statute of limitations will fail

Brian Walker on October 2, 2018, 11:17 am

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In anticipation of the end of the consultation period on Friday for the proposals on dealing with the Troubles’ legacy, the secretary of state Karen Bradley writes in Eamonn Mallie’s website.. As the consultation is still live, I will not, at this stage, comment on specific suggestions. She then goes on to do precisely that, on the issue overhanging the whole exercise that has significant support at Westminster and in sections of NI opinion. The military lobby is campaigning strongly …

Moment of truth approaches for the DUP deal as May prepares to reveal her latest plan for the border

Brian Walker on October 2, 2018, 10:23 am

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This morning on the Today programme, Theresa May stalled when pressed on when she would have her detailed plans for the backstop ready. But she will have to say more when she meets the DUP this afternoon. This suggests she may unveil it in her leader’s speech tomorrow morning – unless once again, the DUP stop her. Q: Will you compromise on the Irish backstop? May says she hopes to get a backstop that never needs to be used. Her …

Despite the PM’s steadfast support for the Union, Arlene Foster choses this moment to distance the DUP from Theresa May

Brian Walker on October 2, 2018, 12:00 am

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The Daily Telegraph claims Arlene Foster has given “a major boost” to Boris Johnson’s leadership ambitions in an interview with the paper on the eve of Boris’ appearance at a Conservative fringe meeting. In comments which fail to back the Chequers plan, she has also kept her distance from Theresa May personally. In a major boost for Mr Johnson’s leadership ambitions, Mrs Foster endorsed the “belief” and “spirit” contained in his blueprint for Brexit. One her biggest disappointments is the failure …

Theresa May’s version of the Union is as dangerously limited as the DUP’s

Brian Walker on October 1, 2018, 4:43 pm

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That ebullient and creative academic Pete Shirlow recently wrote a piece in the Belfast Telegraph discouraging the indulgence of Northern Irish whinging about ourselves as “ a place apart”, and unloved in GB. You can argue this either way. As he says: “ The idea that most people in Britain do not give a monkey’s is as true as it is false… I am sure most people in Britain never think about Northern Ireland, but they probably never think much …

Cabinet may be moving towards Canada. Are the DUP about to back No Deal?

Brian Walker on September 28, 2018, 1:15 am

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Not normally the keenest of DUP watchers, the New Statesman have their eyes on Sammy Wilson, who is the DUP’s Brexit spokesman in the Commons when it isn’t Nigel Dodds. Sammy is at heart a No Deal man. While I believe Chequers has the legs to move closer to Norway (these images become more bizarre by the day), Canada is now said to be favoured by a cabinet cabal – but not by Sammy, who has spoken against it . …

From Jeremy Corbyn, the chance of a Brexit breakthrough

Brian Walker on September 27, 2018, 12:12 am

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For some, Jeremy Corbyn had at last managed to deliver the usual old conference guff and sound like a leader. But for many others well beyond the hard Left, Corbyn’s speech took them out of the tight old Tory straightjacket, if just for a moment. The Brexit passage was particularly clever. Whether he entirely believes in or not, Corbyn made an offer to Theresa May that could be the Brexit breakthrough, one that’s compatible with her comments on the plane …

Theresa May’s defence of “the precious, precious Union” takes centre stage

Brian Walker on September 25, 2018, 11:31 pm

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Let Labour tie themselves in knots over an election or another referendum. Let the Brexiteers demand the abandonment of Chequers. The lady’s not for turning, to coin a phrase. And more: she has rejected their favourite option, a Canada plus free trade deal, because it threatens the unity of the United Kingdom. Those were her essential messages to the travelling Westminster lobby on board the plane to New York for the UN General Assembly. And she invoked the taoiseach twice …

Efforts are mounting to drive a wedge between Theresa May and the DUP over the backstop

Brian Walker on September 25, 2018, 12:27 pm

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The Guardian has been the only media I can find claiming a British ploy to get round the backstop in these terms. Senior diplomats involved in the negotiations have reacted furiously to the details of a fresh UK proposal for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland, briefed to the Irish PM, Leo Varadkar, at last week’s Salzburg summit. Under the solution, May will agree to Northern Ireland potentially staying, in effect, in the single market, as the rest of the …

Theresa May still holds the initiative over her Brexiteer critics. But she needs a new Big Idea – fast

Brian Walker on September 24, 2018, 11:00 am

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The Sunday Times report that No 10 have been gaming a general election, although now comprehensively played down in the Times, is evidence that the options are tightening as much for her party critics as the prime minster. The initial reports claimed that Brexiteer cabinet ministers were putting her under pressure today to abandon the Chequers plan and reinstate a version of David Davis’s “Canada plus, plus, plus” plan she rejected at the Chequers cabinet awayday that provoked the resignations …

Stepping back from the cliff edge has begun. Chequers is not dead – says the EU

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 11:36 pm

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The salvage job has already begun and a better verdict sought than disaster. If Salzburg was not all a misunderstanding, it was more like a farce without the laughs. People literally passed each other in the night. Theresa May’s ten minute pitch over dinner, followed by a leaders’ chat over lunch next day without her was hardly the stuff and style of diplomacy. In the gap between the two meals, rumours and spin raised suspicions and fears about British intentions …

Theresa wraps the flag around herself and Northern Ireland. But fresh proposals on the border may test the DUP deal

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 6:38 pm

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Flanked by two Union Jacks in the State Downing Room of No 10, Theresa May reacted to her mauling in Salzburg with a sharp sense of affront. Let’s face it, a woman can still register hurt dignity more convincingly than a man. The setting was in fact improvised; it had been moved inside from the street because of a deluge. And in a faint but uncomfortable echo of her disaster at last year’s party conference, there was a delay because …

Theresa May takes a big share of the blame for Salzburg but not all of it. How do they all walk back from the cliff?

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 1:14 pm

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Salzburg has turned out to be a Suez moment, a sudden and unexpected blow to the government’s prestige delivered by the discovery that UK does not possess the political and economic weight to make a deal with the EU so special that that it violates existential Union rules. The shock is all the greater because the EU decided that, too close to deadline, the British had allowed themselves to be deceived by too much diplomatic fudging; and this had tempted …