Brexit – Page 17 – Slugger O'Toole

Rumbled! Theresa May’s secret plan to extend Article 50 and stay close to the customs union long term.

Brian Walker on February 13, 2019, 12:28 am

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Theresa May will not mind being forced to extend Article 50 in fifteen day’s time by a cross parliamentary vote, if Tory Brexiteers try to veto whatever she brings back from Brussels. Long suspected as inevitable despite her constant denials, the evidence for this comes – would you believe it ? from that old faithful of hacks’ sources,” overheard in a bar” – in this case by ITN correspondent in Brussels , Angus Walker. Last night, I’d been reporting …

Theresa May is prepared to go right to the brink. The Remainers’ last chance is 27 February

Brian Walker on February 12, 2019, 6:27 pm

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Against most expectations, Theresa May has all but abandoned any effort to strike a cross party agreement with the Labour front bench. To concentrate minds, a cliff hanging finale as late as 26 March – three days before Leave day – is now looking likely. You don’t need to get into her head to come to this conclusion. It’s nakedly obvious from her statement and the exchanges in the Commons today. She’s challenging all sides who so decisively turned down …

Despite the coyness at dinner in Phoenix Park, Brexit should be no barrier. We cannot escape the urgent need for a resumption of close British-Irish relations

Brian Walker on February 9, 2019, 10:56 am

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However they’re phased and whatever the context, close British Irish engagement on both Brexit and rescuing the GFA are essential. Who with any wit can doubt it? Brexit provides no excuse. Indeed, it’s one of two pressing reasons for close encounters, the other being the Stormont stand-off. Dinner in Farmleigh House may have been in Theresa May’s programme of displacement activity as she mulls over Labour’s offer to talk and runs down the clock, but at least it displayed dim …

Ah,oh… UK government gets a little rough with the DUP

Brian Walker on February 8, 2019, 8:47 pm

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From the champions of the precious Union and the busy custodians of devolved government , the crudest bit of spin I’ve seen in a long time, so crude it makes me giggle. Not that it isn’t plausible, mind you! I’m sure Sammy will take it on the chin One senior minister said the prospect is “very real” and very much on the prime minister’s mind. A second cabinet minister warned the government risked “sleepwalking into a border poll”. And a …

Theresa May must do business with Jeremy Corbyn. So is it goodbye DUP?

Brian Walker on February 8, 2019, 2:50 pm

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In her heart, Theresa May must realise that her desperate attempts to hold a Conservative majority together and avoid a crash out No Deal in fifty days’ time are on the point of collapse. She told Donald Tusk yesterday that her party would never unite behind Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit letter and that 30 of her MPs would never back her deal unless changes were made to the Irish backstop. To hear them all talk you’d think they had all the …

Biscuits and gravy

Andrew Gallagher on February 6, 2019, 6:30 pm

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Plenty has been written already about Owen Polley’s article in the Newsletter last week. I have no wish to reopen the debate over his support for the Irish rugby team, which is entirely his business. But I must pull him up for making one the most basic schoolboy errors that Unionists normally accuse others of. He has conflated Englishness with Britishness. Or rather, he has conflated anti-Englishness with anti-Britishness. Brexit has of course dredged up a lot of feeling south …

The creeping reality is dawning of what extending Article 50 means

Brian Walker on February 6, 2019, 3:45 pm

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To clear my head, I’ve done a round up of expert comment of where we are and what might be done, with 51 days to go to Brexit. Most of it implies or supports an extension of Article 50. But the heavy squeeze on Mrs May is on with a vengeance. The EU don’t look like granting it unless she drops options they’ve already rejected And that excludes the options in her Commons mandate. So this week, back empty …

From Donald to Theresa, the bluntest of messages. Nothing doing unless you drop the Brexiteer options

Brian Walker on February 6, 2019, 3:14 pm

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With 51 days to go to and Brexit clarity as elusive as ever, EU council president Donald Tusk drops a not so subtle hint that most of Mrs May’s renegotiation options are no goers. Afterward meeting Leo Varadkar, Tusk said those who promoted Brexit without a plan for leaving deserve “a special place in hell”. There are 50 days left until the UK’s exit from the European Union, following the decision and the will of the UK authorities. I know …

Mrs May’s tilt towards nationalism in Belfast implies an appeal to Varadkar to be more flexible about the backstop

Brian Walker on February 6, 2019, 1:15 am

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Northern Ireland does not have to rely on the Irish Government or the European Union to prevent a return to borders of the past. The UK Government will not let that happen. I will not let that happen. A fundamental belief in the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is part of my political heritage as a Conservative and Unionist – and that will never change. But the Unionism I believe in is one that respects absolutely the central …

Restoring devolution and seeking reunification go hand in hand

David McCann on February 5, 2019, 2:43 pm

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It has been two years the Executive collapsed and as usual the debate has shifted to a border poll with the usual questions, when it should be held? Under what circumstances? etc. I have read with some a certain lack of surprise some Nationalists say “we are over Stormont” and that there is little point in trying to revive the institutions. However, I think the frustration that many had about the previous Executive has led to a certain misguided malaise. …

Squaring the backstop circle

Andrew Gallagher on February 3, 2019, 9:11 pm

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It is just under eight weeks until Brexit, and a deal still has not been done – or rather it has been done and then swiftly undone. Eight weeks is surely not enough to pass both the Withdrawal Agreement itself (scheduled for 14th February) and the subsequent, still top secret, six ton elephant that is the Withdrawal Agreement Implementation Bill (see Paul Daly’s Twitter thread). If we are to avoid No Deal, extra time is now inevitable. Complaints that the …

It’s Ireland’s call as well as England’s – and both can still win the match!

Brian Walker on February 3, 2019, 1:40 pm

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Let’s go straight to the bottom line. Ireland and EU26 say the backstop is necessary to prevent a hard border. The UK says insistence on the backstop in its present form is the best way to guarantee a hard border. These are expressions of perfect deadlock. Nevertheless, after the defeat of the withdrawal deal by over 200 votes, Mrs May is returning to Brussels to seek an “alternative” to the backstop, either a time limit or unilateral exit mechanism to …

Future Ireland / Breaking waves – Considering a New Ireland in 2019

Chris McKee on February 3, 2019, 10:00 am

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As the drama in Westminster continues, it’s fair to say that in 2019 and beyond, Northern Ireland’s often petty and tedious politics will be interesting, as an international spotlight passes over old scars and immense change looms once again. At times, it feels like we are back on a familiar shore, where the waves grow bigger and the very sand is moving below our feet. Brexit, now, is like a meteor landing in the distant sea. Suddenly, many of the …

“Such pressure as is on Ireland (and it will be significant) will come from the reality of the situation…”

Pete Baker on February 2, 2019, 3:03 pm

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Worth quoting at length from Pat Leahy in the Irish Times on the Irish Government’s role in the ongoing Brexit negotiations. It’s a welcome, un-hysterical look at a key player in what will unfold. [And all too rare here! – Ed] Indeed. From the Irish Times By and large, Leo Varadkar, Simon Coveney and the Government apparatus as a whole have handled the Brexit crisis well – just as the Opposition, in the main, has been pretty responsible. Contrast our …

Don’t Mention the War: Legacies of the Troubles and Their Impact on Brexit

Vicky Cosstick on February 1, 2019, 8:30 pm

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Is this the calm at the centre of the hurricane? The eerie, robotic, delusional calm of Brexiters as they respond with condescension to the exasperated questioning of journalists that of course there are digital and technological ways of monitoring the border, and of course the EU needs the UK more than vice versa, and it is bound to cave in “when they see the whites of our eyes”; the “calm bewilderment” of the EU as they survey the unfolding horror in …

Slugger TV discusses Fianna Fail/SDLP and the #IrelandsFuture conference

David McCann on February 1, 2019, 4:32 pm

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This month I spoke with our own Chris Donnelly and Brendan Hughes from the Irish News David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs

The personal strains imposed on identity by Brexit, as Theresa May struggles to build support for a renegotiation

Brian Walker on January 31, 2019, 11:46 pm

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With cabinet ministers admitting as much and an extension to Article 50 looking ever more likely, the Daily Mail carries this busy chart purporting to describe Theresa May’s renegotiation agenda with the EU. It reads like a Brexiteers’ dream. Her idea of doing a DUP-type deal with Labour leavers isn’t going down particularly well with the comrades who recognise ” Brexit bribes” when they see them. Nick Timothy. Mrs May’s sacked joint chief of staff now a loose cannon is …

Pro-Remain Parties “We urge the EU to remain firm in that position and call on the British Government to reconsider the reckless path that they have adopted”

David McCann on January 31, 2019, 4:21 pm

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“With only eight weeks until the UK exits the EU, the four pro-Remain Assembly parties – SDLP, Sinn Féin, Alliance and Greens – are united in our support for the backstop negotiated by both the European Union and the British Government. “We continue to believe that there is no such thing as a good or sensible Brexit, and any opportunity to reconsider Brexit should be taken. “We believe that while the Withdrawal Agreement is imperfect, it will mitigate against a …

SDLP and Fianna Fáil can deliver our long awaited peace dividend

Soapbox on January 31, 2019, 3:37 pm

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On Saturday I attended the ‘Beyond Brexit: Ireland’s Future’ conference in Belfast. My immediate observations were firstly the sheer number of people that were in one room; a rarity for a political event in Northern Ireland. The broad representation of speakers undermined the myth that Irish Nationalists are a homogenous group. Despite the conglomeration of those present – they were all unified under the one realisation- that Brexit has shifted politics indefinitely. And that that shift has unearthed centuries old …

The Good Friday Agreement is in the frame for Theresa May’s challenge to the backstop

Brian Walker on January 31, 2019, 3:01 pm

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In their renegotiation campaign the UK government are offering belated assurances that the proposals they’re about to make to replace or qualify their backstop involve no weakening of their commitment to the Good Friday Agreement. The attention-grabbing part of foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt’s BBC interview was his hint – subsequently denied by No 10 – that withdrawal might have to be delayed to after 29 March. While he declined to give details, the “ alternative arrangements include: a “trusted …