Brexit

Unionists should be careful what they wish for with a Brexit…

Samuel Thompson on February 23, 2016, 7:19 am

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So it’s official. Turkeys do vote for an early Christmas. Without even waiting to see what David Cameron brought back from Brussels, the DUP and TUV nailed their colours to the Brexit mast. Both explain their position primarily in monetary terms – the UK pays far more into the EU than it gets back, so we’d be better off out of it. The tax payers of England of course could say that about the UK in general and Northern Ireland …

Amazing occurrences: Sun rises in East and Boris backs Brexit

Turgon on February 21, 2016, 5:35 pm

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In the most surprising news since the revelation that the sun came up in the east this morning, Boris Johnson has announced that he will support Brexit. The fact that Teresa May has stayed with Cameron means that none of the serious leadership contenders would have supported Brexit had Johnson stayed with Remain. This move will no doubt make him the grass roots darling for the meantime.

Brexit from the Centre Left

Turgon on February 21, 2016, 9:39 am

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The Remain camp have so successfully monopolised the centre and especially centre left ground that they have reduced the political space for Leave. In reality perfectly valid arguments for both positions (Leave / Remain) can be presented from almost anywhere on the political spectrum.

#EUref set for 23 June – how will it affect the #ae16 campaign?

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 20, 2016, 2:13 pm

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Will the debate over Europe provide a welcome distraction from the normal politicking during Assembly elections? Will it lift public and political heads out of purely local issues to think about the bigger picture and how Northern Ireland sees itself within Europe? Or will it heighten our identity politics?

SUN/Lucid Talk Poll shows majority voting to stay in the EU

David McCann on February 19, 2016, 10:27 am

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A poll for The SUN conducted by Lucid Talk online with 2,886 responses (balanced by gender, age, area of residence and community background) shows a majority at this stage voting to stay within the European Union. (The poll has a margin of error of 3.9%) The headline figures show that if a vote were held today 55% would vote to stay within the EU, 29.4% would vote to leave and more than 14% are undecided. Breaking those figures down the poll …

#Brexit would not be particularly good news for UK’s regions. But it’s not an exit visa either.

Mick Fealty on February 5, 2016, 4:28 pm

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So Brexit. The Tusk negotiations aren’t over yet, but there is a broad outline for a deal that changes the UK’s relationship with the EU. Sceptics say it is not enough. Yesterday’s YouGov poll puts the figure of those who want to leave where it needs to be if the Brexit campaign is to have any chance of success: leading 45% to 34% with 19% undecided. There are of course serious concerns at the implications for British Irish relations, and …

#EUDebateNI Energy security, cross-border health & transport investment, FE opportunities

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on February 5, 2016, 4:19 pm

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EUDEBATENI – nuanced debate and discussion rather than the normal knock about arguments around whether the UK should remain in or leave the European Union.

Fianna Fáil will campaign against #Brexit in NI regardless of the outcome of #GE16…

Mick Fealty on January 20, 2016, 10:59 am

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BORDER HOP: Micheal Martin told the Dail yesterday, that it is Fianna Fáil’s intention to lay out the case in Northern Ireland for it to remain as part of the European Union, and that “the case for Northern Ireland remaining is overwhelming and we should not and will not be silent in the campaign”.

Is a reformed federal UK within a reformed, more federal European Union an answer to the constitutional itch??

Mick Fealty on January 18, 2016, 9:07 am

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CONSTITUTIONAL FRAMES: David Torrance argues that the ideal, perhaps quixotic, answer to the constitutional itch is a reformed federal UK within a reformed, more federal European Union? For only that would give adequate expression to Scottishness as well as Englishness, Welshness and, more awkwardly, Northern Irishness.

The Brexit debate: choosing sides?

Soapbox on December 1, 2015, 11:41 am

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IN OR OUT: Last week may have given something of an insight into the international economic outlook of our largest party.

#Brexit Northern Ireland

Kilsally on November 29, 2015, 3:56 pm

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The debate on EU membership in Northern Ireland has recently kicked off. On Saturday Northern Ireland born Labour MP Kate Hoey laid out the Vote Leave & Labour Leave case from leaving the EU at the TUV conference at the Hilton Hotel in Templepatrick (UKIP`s Paul Nuttall addressed their conference in 2012 on the same issue). Irish Foreign Minister @CharlieFlanagan recently addressed Queens University Belfast on implications for Northern Ireland of Brexit. Both Labours Kate Hoey MP & UKIP`s David McNarry …

Charlie Flanagan warns against “jumping over the cliff into uncertainty” while Arlene Foster leaves door open for “deep reform”

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on November 26, 2015, 3:09 pm

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LISTEN BACK to Ministers Charlie Flanagan and Arlene Foster explaining their differing positions on what Brexit might mean for Northern Ireland at a QUB-hosted event today. Agreeing that a wide debate about the issues is essential was perhaps their only point of agreement.

As the road to referendum shortens, battle lines are drawn over the EU

Soapbox on November 10, 2015, 5:20 pm

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Craig Harrison writes for us about the EU referendum and David Cameron’s appearance at the CBI The annual conference of the Confederation of British Industry, held recently in London, provided an illustrative snapshot of the wider political debate on the UK’s membership of the EU. David Cameron reiterated his desire to move away from the ‘ever closure union’ concept, downplaying any notion that the UK couldn’t survive outside of the institution. In what is expected to be a key message …

Will a #Brexit trigger an #IndyRef2?

Mick Fealty on October 26, 2015, 9:05 am

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Fascinating as ever John Curtice looks at what polling says about Scottish attitudes towards Brexit, and much of it hinges on the SNP’s nationalist pro EU outlook… …in Scotland, those wanting to remain substantially outnumber those who wish to leave. Survation reported as many as 51 per cent said they would vote to remain, while just 29 per cent would opt to leave. More recently in a poll published last week, YouGov have reported almost identical figures; 51 per cent …

What are the issues for NI when imagining Brexit from the EU? (audio)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on October 6, 2015, 9:40 pm

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BREXIT – Has Northern Ireland even begun to discuss the European Union referendum that is likely to be held in September 2016? Have we a handle on how the issues peculiar to Northern Ireland? Listen back to the discussion at QUB’s event earlier tonight.

Irish ambassador’s latest move in the Republic’s role in the campaign to keep the UK in the EU

Brian Walker on July 30, 2015, 3:10 pm

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The FT (£,unfortunately) reports a strategically timed interview with the Irish ambassador to the UK , the Yeats-loving Dermot Mulhall. Remember when the Irish people reversed their “ wrong” answer in the first referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? It was the bold Dermot who fund the way through, apparently. Now he’s recommending that the UK follows a similar route to avoid the calamity – for both islands – of Brexit . But eventually the rest of the EU agreed to the …

Greece: bitter pills & ill-wills

Paul Hagan on June 30, 2015, 12:18 am

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Of the grand, ambitious projects embarked-upon on the European continent over the last three decades two highly visible examples were recalled today in Brussels: football’s Champions League and the Single European Currency. Whatever they have in common there is one crucial difference in joining either of these prestigious clubs, in the Euro one can gain promotion but there is no relegation. Countries simply don’t drop-out of the Euro if they fail to finish with enough points, only to return after …

Brexit, Schmexit, it’s globalisation rather than Brussels that squeezes national sovereignty…

Mick Fealty on June 22, 2015, 4:54 pm

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Caroline de Gruyter is the correspondent for NRC Handelsblad in Vienna, and she makes an important point about the rather faux character of the debate on the EU Referendum, thus far… A former village mayor conceded to me that Swiss locals had become rich by selling vineyards to multinational companies and by renting out houses to the new globalized middle class. Life was good, he said; the well-off immigrants Switzerland had managed to attract made other nationals green with envy. …

Northern Ireland & TTIP: Is it Deal or No Deal?

Paul Hagan on June 9, 2015, 8:55 pm

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While nowhere does acronyms like Brussels, one four-letter word has had everyone talking: TTIP, and now in public conscience like few others before it. For clarification TTIP stands for Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, which is basically Brussels-speak for Free Trade treaty between the USA and all 28 EU countries. Free trade is nothing new to the EU or the European project, it was one of its founding aims after all, and to date it has been one of the …

Could Kate Hoey help swing Northern Ireland (and the UK) towards #Brexit?

Mick Fealty on May 28, 2015, 9:55 am

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Clever move, if it works out. Kate Hoey is not only a Labour MP (albeit a near permanently off message on), but she was one of the earliest members of the Civil Rights movement in Northern Ireland when she was a student PE teacher and worked closely with Michael Farrell in People’s Democracy. British rights for British citizens was her prime motivation. Kate Hoey, the former Home Office minister under Tony Blair who is one of the most prominent Eurosceptics …