Brian Walker – Page 41 – Slugger O'Toole

Tony Blair assures EU that May is sincere about a frictionless border; sees need for small amendment to the GFA

Brian Walker on May 12, 2017, 2:09 pm

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Am I on my own in becoming weary of yet another of the great and good speaking in general terms about the future of the Border? Tony Blair, addressing a European People’s Party gathering in Co Wicklow was at pains to declare his confidence in Theresa May’s sincerity over wanting a “ frictionless “border, even though by rejecting continuing membership of the single market and free movement she has made it the problem without a solution so far. “I …

Special status for the North is a possibility from Barnier’s speech. Would the UK agree?

Brian Walker on May 11, 2017, 1:58 pm

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EU negotiator Michel Barnier and the Irish government seem to be inching their way towards special status – sorry – arrangements, for the North. The EU is there for you, Ireland and so is a close partnership with the UK based on a fair free trade agreement – but ( only!) after sufficient progress on EU citizens’ rights and the financial settlement. So declared Michel Barnier in a speech to the Oireachtas that seemed designed to calm the worst Irish …

The soft Theresa is no more forthcoming than the hard Theresa

Brian Walker on May 10, 2017, 1:27 pm

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So there is a hard Theresa and a soft Theresa. The hard Theresa has been subject to some searching assessment today. First, Janan Ganesh in the FT (£), on her claim that Brussels bureaucrats were interfering in the British general election by leaking a derogatory account of her dinner with EU Commission president Junker. To leak the gist of a private dinner is normal political sport. A near-verbatim account, couched in a snide tone, is a breach of trust that …

Are the DUP sounding “generous and smart” or have they just lost their mojo?

Brian Walker on May 9, 2017, 1:15 pm

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Mick has just credited Arlene Foster and the DUP with making moves toward nationalists which Sinn Fein is struggling to answer. I see very little that the DUP have done yet that needs an answer. It is not news that the DUP don’t want a hard border or that there is a case for some sort of Irish Language Act, totemic as it is, particularly when your own contemptuous rejection whipped up demand for it. How to answer SF effectively …

For Brexit, British and Irish citizens’ rights are not yet guaranteed. Interchangeable rights for all should be the aim

Brian Walker on May 8, 2017, 1:57 pm

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The issue of reciprocal citizenship rights after Brexit is turning out to be more complicated than at first thought. It extends well beyond confirming the status quo to embrace work and pension rights for new immigrants from the EU as well as the 3 million existing residents. Even when an EU citizen’s rights in the UK are backed up by taking out British citizenship, everything is not quite the same as before – as in the case of the dual …

The Irish should take care not to write off Brexiters as a basket of English deplorables.

Brian Walker on May 6, 2017, 1:34 pm

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The Irish Times writes in the term “English nationalism” almost automatically now as the key factor to explain of Brexit. Even for the British they don’t doubt it’s wholly a bad thing, based on distorted memories of empire and English delusions of national sovereignty, not a bit like our own dear sovereignty won in a struggle for freedom. But this is too pat and shields Ireland from some awkward questions about its continuing relationship with the EU. Star columnist …

Theresa May’s local victories are good for the Union cause but give no comfort to special status fans

Brian Walker on May 5, 2017, 8:59 pm

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A note of caution is needed about talk of a Tory landslide on 8 June. Although UKIP was obliterated in the GB local elections, Labour might have done even worse. Michael Thrasher’s projections of the local results to the general election “ for a bit of fun” on Sky News works out a majority of 48 seats, up a respectable 36 but well short of a landslide and barely worth the trouble of calling a snap election. John Curtice, election …

The fault lies in ourselves, not just the politicians

Brian Walker on May 5, 2017, 1:23 pm

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Slagging off politicians is so often the default of Slugger comment, sometimes down to the level of that useful word “trolling,” which for me recalls the fate of the troll in “ The three billy goats gruff,” when the troll richly deserves to get crushed to bits. It ought to occur to people by now that life demands a bit more than a bilious attack, a rant or a sprint down a favourite cul de sac. Hand on heart I …

“Brexit has become a central question in the identity conversation and that is dangerous”

Brian Walker on May 4, 2017, 1:16 pm

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In a commentary “Brexit and Northern Ireland” on the EPC discussion paper( see below) the legal academic Chris McCrudden asserts the primacy of the Brexit question and laments the “ tone deafness” of the UK government to Northern Ireland’s interests. But while he rightly sees the need to set priorities in the interparty talks, he doesn’t discuss here the reasons given for SF’s withdrawal from the Assembly such as an Irish Language Act and the legacy and other issues SF insist …

The European Economic Area is looking more attractive as a Brexit solution but it aint perfect

Brian Walker on May 4, 2017, 12:54 pm

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It’s going to be a long haul. Perhaps we shouldn’t pay too much attention to the megaphone diplomacy – Junker’s claim that May was living in another galaxy, May accusing unnamed Commission bureaucrats of interfering in the British election. But it isn’t a good start. On balance May has come off slightly worse in early reactions without doing her any harm at all in the court of public opinion. Attention is turning back to an outcome that was identified almost …

On Brexit, the Irish are caught between two opposing forces, but at least they’re showing more invention and concern about the North than the British and northerners themselves

Brian Walker on May 3, 2017, 1:46 pm

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The ritual opening shots in the Brexit campaign must leave the Republic feeling caught in a trap in a dialogue of the deaf between two opposing forces. So much, so sadly predictable, in spite of all the warm words- although the crudeness of the exchanges is perhaps surprising. It’s pretty clear that the Irish government don’t favour the aggressive opening approach by the Commission and confirmed this morning by its chief negotiator Michel Barnier. On the detail of the FT’s …

The devil is in the detail for softening a hard border and terms for a good trade deal

Brian Walker on May 1, 2017, 12:51 pm

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Here are a couple of Big Ideas. On the border…. It reads as dryly as any piece of euro-bureaucracy you could ever imagine. But here is a potential magic bullet that could ease the non-trade cross border problems of Brexit. It’s spotted by Dr Janice Morphett a planning expert currently with University College London writing in the Centre for Constitutional Change blog. It could be developed tight away, she says. Governments and local parties please take note. There are …

If Theresa May is so hopeless, why is she dominant?

Brian Walker on May 1, 2017, 12:35 pm

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The buzz from Twitter is not only deafening about the account of the Junker-May dinner posted by David. Reaction to her two Sunday political interviews on the Marr and Peston shows is just as scathing. Marr politely put it to her straight away that the mantra of “ strong and stable government “ might be “a bit robotic.” Peston – though not to her face – that if she goes on like this “we’ll lose the will to live.” Former …

Citizens’ assemblies in Northern Ireland planned to influence the Brexit debate

Brian Walker on April 29, 2017, 11:41 am

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Three academics, John Garry and John Coakley of Queen’s and Brendan O’Leary of the University of Pennsylvania are planning citizens’ assemblies to feed into the Brexit debate in the absence of the elected Assembly. Good idea. We await an announcement which I hope will not be confined to academe, which is where I picked it up – you know, the liberal elite and all that. Their pitch is: How NI voted in the EU referendum – and what it means for …

On Enda’s fondness for the precedent of German reunification, be careful of what you wish for

Brian Walker on April 29, 2017, 9:36 am

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The Irish government are entitled to congratulate themselves on their achievement in persuading the EU 26 to declare that if the North joined the Republic the new state would automatically inherit the Republic’s membership. Dublin hastens to add that this incorporates the consent principle enshrined in the GFA and they are opposed to an early border poll. But the future of the open border is a completely different issue. Irish Times coverage ranges from euphoria about the declaration to nervousness …

Westminster’s reply to the SNP’s case for remaining in the single market was taken seriously after all. So why did May allow Sturgeon to claim she’d been ignored?

Brian Walker on April 29, 2017, 12:14 am

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Here’s a strange thing. There we were, led to believe that Theresa May had dismissed almost with contempt Nicola Sturgeon’s carefully considered case for the UK, or at least Scotland, to remain within the single market. It turns out it wasn’t like that at all. We know that because the Scottish Government itself has just published a reply to the SNP’s paper Scotland’s Place in Europe, from the Brexit Secretary David Davis in a letter dated 29 March. It lists …

The EU summit’s declaration on a united Ireland exposes British isolation

Brian Walker on April 28, 2017, 10:11 am

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EU prepares for post-Brexit united Ireland membership Summit endorsement would raise fears over fragmentation of UK The Financial Times is getting excited about today’s EU summit endorsing special treatment for Ireland in the Brexit negotiations and raises “ fears for the fragmentation of the UK “ The Irish Times political editor Stephen Collins is equally excited that a declaration on Ireland gives Enda Kenny the dignified farewell he’s been seeking. What does it amount to? The Irish Times gives a …

Amnesty for soldiers and police officers appears imminent after the election. And the effect on prospects for restoring the Assembly?

Brian Walker on April 27, 2017, 1:27 pm

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The government appear to be on the brink of taking the legacy of the Troubles out of the hands of the Assembly. The only question remains if they would entertain an agreed counter proposal from the Assembly parties . You can work out for yourself the prospects of that The Times (£) are reporting that The British government has moved one step closer to shielding British soldiers who served during the Troubles from murder prosecutions despite concerns that it could …

The republic is pointing the way to solving the health care crisis throughout the island

Brian Walker on April 27, 2017, 10:34 am

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Here I join Mick in commending Newton Emerson for giving a new twist to a familiar theme. He describes a linkage between a religious ethos north and south and a lack of resources not due to funding alone, that stands in the way of providing a better health service. In the republic a partial solution has been reached for transferring the National Maternity Hospital to a new 300m euro building on the St Vincent’s Hospital campus. The governing …

A win for the clinical independence of the maternity hospital but a new battle royal looms over abortion

Brian Walker on April 26, 2017, 8:51 am

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Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research Fellow, The Constitution Unit, Univ Coll. London