Brexit

Man who advocates driving off cliff advises friends not to be in the car…

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The Guardian reports that arch-Eurosceptic MP John Redwood has been advising clients in his day job to pull their money out of the UK: In the piece for the Financial Times, the Conservative MP – who has a £180,000 second job as chief global strategist for Charles Stanley – said the European Central Bank was promoting faster growth when the UK was seeing a squeeze on credit. “Mario Draghi, ECB president, is now doing whatever it takes, not just to rescue …

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UK to leave the EU on 29th March 2019 at 11pm

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The UK Government has confirmed that it will enshrine the date and time of leaving the EU as Friday 29th March 2019 at 11pm (midnight Central European Time). The BBC reports; Mrs May, in an article in the Telegraph, said the decision to put the date of Brexit “on the front page” of the EU Withdrawal Bill showed the government was determined to see the process through. “Let no-one doubt our determination or question our resolve, Brexit is happening,” she said. …

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#StateofState “The billion pound deal negotiated by the DUP to support the Conservative Government was well designed”

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This is the time of year Deloitte release their State of the State report which reviews the performance of the UK government and the devolved administrations. The report in its entirety can be read here. What I will focus in here is the findings from Northern Ireland. Austerity The report points out the general public tiredness with austerity by noting the following; After the June 2017 general election, Chancellor Philip Hammond reflected that voters had become “weary of the long …

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Real work to restore the Executive has yet to begin. For the public to make an impact, proposals and pressure from the governments are essential

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As a comparative outsider I’m struck by how most commentators are obsessed with speculating about political positioning and identity narratives. This has produced numbing negativism and  despair  rather than the energy needed to approach the daunting but practical problem of trying to restore the Executive.  Being case hardened and calloused, they endlessly refine their own explanations for obvious failure. They accept the parameters set by the DUP and SF too readily. To be fair, this is often the default caused by a …

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Brexit: Invisible border may not be desirable, but it is certainly possible…

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When we read back to this interregnum period between deciding to Brexit, and actually doing it, there are going to be some embarrassing moments, not least that official who said that it would not be possible to walk your dog across the border. Anyone who has encountered the Swiss border in their travels will know it’s not the two layers of barbed wire fencing portrayed as Steve McQueen tried to make it across in the German motorcycle and sidecar. Some …

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To solve the Catalan crisis, pay homage to Britain

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The Catalonian campaign for independence is a phenomenon of our times,  like the Scottish. They both claim they are ancient entities enjoying sufficient cohesion to go it alone and find their own balance between globalisation (the great big world now closer to all of us than ever) and self sufficiency ( provided it comes under the safety blanket of the EU).  They seem to think they deserve as of right, easy acquiescence and the blessing of a good deal from …

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Brexistentialist Crisis? – Get your free tickets for our live event on Mon 6th November…

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Brexit: Northern Ireland in a changing world With the UK withdrawal from the EU drawing closer, there has never been a bigger appetite for information on how negotiations are progressing and what the implications are for every aspect of life here in Northern Ireland and across the rest of the UK. It’s more than six months since Article 50 was triggered, but the government is still being accused of not having a plan, of internal division and of not being …

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More delay over a return to the Assembly needs challenging by the two governments

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So  the target date for either direct rule  or an agreement to revive the Executive has slipped  for  another week at least. What a surprise!   We were told by the two governments yet again that ” progress” had been made, but this has been slapped down by the DUP. Sinn Fein’s agenda as far as I know it is not inherently unfeasible. The problem is that it’s Sinn Fein who’s running with it.  Crafty old Gerry for false-footing the DUP?  Or …

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Message to the EU: Ireland’s economic interests are as important as the peace process

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Irish Times Brussels correspondent Patrick Smyth demolishes the option of a border down the Irish Sea – not just because the UK government and the unionists won’t have it – but because it is against the economic interests of the Republic.  This assessment follows the leaking of a report by the Office of the Irish Revenue Commissioners saying that an invisible border on the island is “impossible”. “It is probably somewhat naive to believe that a new and entirely unique …

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The Brexit crunch may come as soon as Christmas. The British case should be taken more seriously

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Many commentators on the Brexit negotiations, including Irish ones scarred by the diktat of the 2010 bailout and understandably opposed to the whole idea, talk as if the EU Commission’s  stance is not only immutable but deserves the status of Holy Writ, while the British position is purely faction-ridden and pathetic. The contrast is too stark. There is no absolute  logic to the EU’s making an adamantine sticking point out of  of undefined  “sufficient progress” on  UK financial contributions,  citizenship …

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Will someone spell it out. What role for Dublin under ” direct rule? “

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Patrick Murphy’s apt question in the Irish News. “ Why do we think Dublin would  be any better than running the North than London?”  prompts the even more basic question:. What sort of new Dublin “input” is wanted or even necessary? Later this month, “Direct Rule” in whatever guise would  in key respects be inevitably different from the direct rule of 1972 when the two sovereign states had barely begun to cooperate. Today, the British- Irish relationship through governments and …

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Bertie Ahern: “It is worth looking for a moment at what we are in danger of losing…”

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Bertie Ahern, former Taoiseach and someone who has spent a political lifetime in the art of political negotiation gave this speech on Brexit to the Kennedy Summer School a few weeks back. This draft is published with the permission of both the Summer School and the author. The uncertainty surrounding the outcome of the Brexit negotiations is unsettling, and likely to last for some time to come. Brexit has opened up for the first time since the 1990s a major …

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The Irish border as a Brexit bargaining chip: A rejoinder to Legatum

Comments Off on The Irish border as a Brexit bargaining chip: A rejoinder to Legatum | Readers 3432

The Legatum Institute’s ‘Special Trade Commission’ published a paper this week on the subject of Brexit and what it terms ‘the Irish border issue’. Citizens on the island of Ireland need to take note of this for two main reasons. First, Legatum is one of the most influential think tanks in London on the subject of Brexit at the moment – its views are likely to have traction at the highest levels. And, secondly, it perpetuates egregious views of Northern …

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Lessons from the Brexit debacle for our Executive debacle

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On 10th April next year, familiar political figures and dignitaries (some with slightly less unscathed reputations than others) will gather in Belfast to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement. Northern Ireland is already in the middle of a veritable feast of commemorations, all of which illustrate the entanglement of its history with major events across these islands and beyond: the 700th anniversary of Edward the Bruce’s campaign, the centenaries of the Easter Rising and the Battle …

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Ending Brexit deadlock over financial contributions hinges on a transition deal

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The Irish Times is trumpeting “ breakthrough” in the Brexit talks over guaranteeing to preserve free movement of all European Union citizens between Ireland and Britain. But the headline oversells the overall story which dwells on the absence of breakthrough. .  In truth ” free movement  for EU citizens”  was bound to be the result for the future of the Common Travel Area  although the British have been making a meal of it and should have agreed it months ago, to start …

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Signs that plates are shifting over Brexit?

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While not exactly a flood tide, the case for Irexit made by economist Ray Kinsella has become a trickle of two. With a few distinguished exceptions, “official” Ireland has bought into the “spin”’. It has made the European Union the custodian of our national interests. It has ceded its responsibility for negotiations on our future relationship with our nearest neighbour and largest single-country trading partner. This makes no sense. The risks of trading the approval of “Europe” for the long-term interests of …

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Coveney “Continued membership of this Customs Union and Single Market,or something very like it, is the answer”

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The Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney addressed the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce this morning about Brexit and some of the British government proposals.   In his remarks he urged the UK to remain in the Single Market; Simply put, EU Member States will not countenance a partnership which allows the UK to benefit from full EU access while cutting separate deals with countries that don’t share our standards or systems. And that has obvious implications on this island. For …

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