Brexit – Page 40 – Slugger O'Toole

Observe the sons of Ulster, marching towards the bin

Gerry Lynch on March 3, 2017, 11:52 pm

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It was the best of campaigns, it was the worst of campaigns. Arlene’s decision to meet the three letter problem of RHI with the three letter solution of IRA worked masterfully in terms of holding the DUP’s vote together; despite three months of unremitting negative publicity and a collapsed government, DUP losses were kept to just 1.1%, with the drop in seats not much worse than the five likely to go with the shrinking of the Assembly. The DUP actually …

Theresa May launches high stakes confrontation with Nicola Sturgeon

Brian Walker on March 3, 2017, 12:21 pm

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The pace of big politics is quickening in the run-up to pulling the trigger of Art 50. In advance of addressing the Scottish Conservatives today, Theresa May says “politics is not a game and the management of devolved public services in Scotland is too important to be neglected.” But it’s high risk, high stakes poker that the prime minister and the first minister are in fact now locking themselves into. May is calling Nicola Sturgeon’s bluff over the first …

Despite going to the polls today, the Northern Ireland voters will have no say in the outcome. The two governments’ hands- off approach to Stormont will have to change

Brian Walker on March 2, 2017, 10:53 am

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People going to the polls today are being sold badly short. They do not know whether they are electing members to an Assembly that will function again. Northern Ireland is facing not an existential crisis but a failure of politicians to work a workable system consistently. The trouble is that no effective means of calling them to account has yet been developed. Most people, the public and politicians alike don’t seem to realise how appalling this looks to outsiders and …

EU nationals are going through 85 pages of hell to claim their right to remain

Brian Walker on March 1, 2017, 1:59 pm

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In the atmosphere of increasing tension as we enter the month of triggering Article 50, the government faces at least a temporary defeat in the Lords over the status of EU nationals. Peers are unlikely to accept home secretary Amber Rudd’s claim in a letter to each peer that: a guarantee of EU nationals’ right to stay, however “well-intentioned”, would not help the hundreds of thousands of UK citizens living on the continent as it could leave them in potential …

New Brexit bombshell. Irish citizen rights to live and work in Great Britain may change within a month, even for northerners. The answer so far- take out a British passport if you can, quick

Brian Walker on February 27, 2017, 2:15 pm

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My thanks to commenter Jag for drawing attention to a quite a different Brexit bombshell from No 10 in the Daily Telegraph. The Prime Minister is expected to say that EU citizens who travel to Britain after she triggers Article 50 will no longer have the automatic right to stay in the UK permanently. They will instead be subject to migration curbs after Britain leaves the European Union, which could include a new visa regime and restricted access to benefits. …

Scotland and Northern Ireland move centre stage, says Downing St. ” Save the Union” is the mission

Brian Walker on February 27, 2017, 9:35 am

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Well what do you know? At the beginning of a very busy news week, the Times leads with a real revelation from right under their noses. After months of patting the wee Celts on the head with bland assurances that Brexit will be fine all round, “sources “ now say that “concerns about Scotland and Northern Ireland were discussed at last week’s cabinet.. and the impact of Brexit on the UKs devolution settlement is the government’s greatest concern about the exit …

DUP received £425k for the Brexit referendum

David McCann on February 24, 2017, 8:24 am

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The wait is over and we now know how much the DUP received during the Brexit referendum and just who donated. RTE reports that; The Democratic Unionist Party has confirmed that it received £425,000 from a group of business people led by a Scottish Conservative party member and passed it on to help fund the UK pro-Brexit campaign. The money was used to help finance an advertising campaign in Britain during the EU referendum. The money was given to the …

Kenny calls for United Ireland provision in Brexit deal

David McCann on February 23, 2017, 10:22 pm

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The Taoiseach, Enda Kenny was speaking today about some provisions he would like to see in any Brexit deal which included a deal that would see Northern Ireland back in the EU should the electorate decide to vote for Irish unity. Outlining his position he said; “In other words, that in such future time, whenever that might be, were it [reunification] to occur, that the north of Ireland would have ease of access to join as a member of the …

Tony Blair has made the case for a rethink on Brexit and Northern Ireland will need a new financial deal. Is anybody listening?

Brian Walker on February 17, 2017, 6:01 pm

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Hurtling at us like a comet but unnoticed by the local worthies is the prospect for repatriating powers direct from Brussels to Stormont, Holyrood and Cardiff Bay. Among them are powers over agriculture and energy, which in Ireland are linked or integrated north and south. How they’ll be divvied up is hasn’t even been examined. The British government retain a substantial interest in these areas where powers currently rest with Brussels as it negotiates new trading arrangements to replace membership …

NI’s post Brexit (and unpolicible) border will be dictated by the (un)generosity of #Brexit’s precise terms.

Mick Fealty on February 17, 2017, 10:39 am

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Last night, I rewatched Michael Smiley’s Something to Ride Home For, a light-hearted, three-part TV series featuring interviews and bike rides across Ulster (including Monaghan and Donegal) which was originally broadcast in the summer of 2015. There’s a section in his interview with author Dervla Murphy at Crossmaglen on the shores of what I took to be Lough Ross, which straddles the border, where he reads from her 1979 classic A Place Apart where she discovers she’s crossed the border seven …

Sinn Fein has abandoned the idea of Irish Independence for the EU

Kilsally on February 16, 2017, 10:45 am

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The recent blog post of Free Church of Scotland Minister Rev David Robertson ( @theweeflea ) on his conversion from being a Pro SNP Scottish Independence supporter to a person who would now vote “No” in any second Scottish Independence referendum has triggered some fierce debate. I could not help but see the parallel between the SNP and Sinn Fein. The SNP has exchanged the idea of Scottish Independence for the fantasy of the progressive EU How easily the above …

Where did the DUP get £250k for that Brexit Metro wrap around? (Answer: NI law says they don’t have to tell us)

Mick Fealty on February 16, 2017, 9:12 am

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When it comes donations and party funding, Northern Ireland is to the UK political world, what Panama is to tax. Peter Geoghegan and Adam Ramsay with a nice piece of investigative journalism at Open Democracy: A quarter of a million pounds is unlike anything the DUP has spent in the past. Just a month before the EU referendum, the party won 38 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly elections and retained its position as the largest party there. To do …

Dail takes note of the nature of Sinn Fein’s bargain basement ‘win’ in the #EUReferendum…

Mick Fealty on February 16, 2017, 7:59 am

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It’s a bit of a red letter day when Slugger gets read into the record of any of our legislatures. So far we’ve made it into the Seanad, and the House of Lords, now we’re in the official record of the proceedings in Dáil Éireann. This snippet (and it’s exchanges) is worth sharing: Deputy Brendan Howlin: The people of Northern Ireland voted to remain part of the European Union. The largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin, failed to register for …

Theresa May’s week of shuttle diplomacy produced only gloom in Dublin

Brian Walker on February 4, 2017, 9:20 am

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At the end of a week the when Theresa May touched down in Dublin again, the Irish Times is deep gloom. Noel Whelan’s pessimism is not placated by May including Dublin in a transcontinental shuttle that began in Washington, touched down in Ankara and Cardiff and ended up in Valetta. She can’t have meant business if she only had James Brokenshire with her, he snorted. It seems a bit ungracious to dismiss her visit, the second, in which she accorded …

UK Government produces #Brexit White Paper

David McCann on February 2, 2017, 1:11 pm

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The UK Government had just produced its Brexit White Paper which can be read here The text dealing with Ireland and the Common Travel Area comes to a grand total of 3 pages with two key commitments which are listed below; 4.9 We are determined that our record of collaboration, built on shared experience and values and supported by personal, political and economic ties, continues to develop and strengthen after we leave the EU. 4.10 We will work with the …

Sinn Fein failed to register for the EU referendum (ie, it took no part in preventing Brexit)

Mick Fealty on February 1, 2017, 10:54 pm

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This is just weird. The new leader of Sinn Fein in the Assembly Michelle O’Neill had this to say: Brexit is not just an issue for the north. It will be a disaster for our economy north and south. Jobs are at risk, investment is under threat and our agricultural community faces new tariffs and an end to crucial subsidies. As it happens, I agree with her. What’s odd is that when the chips were down in the Referendum, Ms O’Neill and her …

Dublin Airport – Northern Ireland’s gateway to the world

Peter Donaghy (Salmon of Data) on February 1, 2017, 10:50 pm

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Yesterday’s announcement that Brussels Airlines are withdrawing their route from Belfast City Airport to Brussels is the latest in a series of setbacks for Northern Ireland’s aviation sector, following the controversy surrounding the termination of United Airlines’ route from Belfast International to Newark. The habit of throwing government funds at airlines to coax them into flying to Northern Ireland, only for them to pack their bags and leave when the subsidies run out, has become routine. Serious questions must be …

“If I no longer give you my judgment and simply follow your orders; I am betraying you.”

Mick Fealty on February 1, 2017, 11:06 am

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That the UK vote in favour of Brexit, and the election of Donald Trump are two outcomes I would guess not many sane elected representatives would have voted for. [What are you trying to say about the DUP? – Ed] Ssssh… Indeed it looks like both campaigns used advanced machine learning techniques to edge out the metropolitan elites (a real thing, actually) in both jurisdictions. It may also edge out deliberation of the type offered by Ken Clarke in the …

The splits over Brexit in the election campaign distract from bigger realities. As usual

Brian Walker on February 1, 2017, 10:18 am

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So no news in the fact that the DUP and Sinn Fein remain at odds over Brexit. Sinn Fein’s new Northern leader Michelle O’Neill rejects Theresa May’s assurances on an open *frictionless?” border. Mrs O’Neill said: “What we are very sure of is the implications of a hard Brexit are going to mean a hard border – a soft border is a nonsense. Nigel Dodds dismisses this as hot air, adding a twist by reminding the UK government that moving …

Theresa May holds the initiative as she makes promises on an open border

Brian Walker on January 31, 2017, 11:37 am

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While the world is transfixed by Trump, we made a little quiet progress on the interlinked politics of Brexit and the future of the Assembly. What did we get from Theresa May’s immersion in the generally anti-Brexit atmosphere of the joint ministerial committee and a summit with Enda Kenny? A warm gesture of commitment, that’s what, riding above the divisions which leave her unfazed for now and rather more than we might have expected, in the form of an article …