EU – Page 23 – Slugger O'Toole

Uniting Ireland means tackling the huge social debt generated by the Troubles before not after…

Mick Fealty on June 25, 2018, 4:06 pm

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IThe uncertainty surrounding the Brexit process is driving what often comes across as feverish talk of a United Ireland. Make no mistake, Brexit (even a soft one) will change relations on and between these islands for good. But island unity is no foregone conclusion. In his column for the Irish Times week before last, Noel Whelan picked up the same United Ireland issue our Slugger panel will be discussing this Tuesday evening (still a few tickets left). He usefully puts his finger …

The Union in Revolutionary Times

Gerry Lynch on June 20, 2018, 8:00 am

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There may never be a United Ireland. But, equally, there could be one very soon. Historical inevitability is a fallacy best left to ageing Marxist university lecturers. So ubiquitous is forecasting the fate of Northern Ireland through the glacial process of demographic change, we forget that in revolutionary times, previously robust assumptions can crumble in a day. The night the Berlin Wall was accidentally opened, a panel discussion on West German TV discussed the stunning events of the previous hours …

Margaret Thatcher And The Road to Brexit…

Robert Campbell on June 14, 2018, 12:16 pm

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It was while reading Will Hutton’s and Andrew Adonis’s recently published book Saving Britain that a curious and disturbing thought came into my head, unexpectedly and without invitation; it hasn’t gone away. I’m not a great fan of either author, though they can give useful insights at times. The book has two main parts, firstly, how Brexit came about, and secondly what can be done to save Britain. The thought occurred while reading the first part. Apart from this thought, my views on Brexit …

Would the DUP be any happier with a backstop, staying in the single market?

Brian Walker on June 11, 2018, 5:44 pm

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So it’s October then. The UK will fail to present its withdrawal plan to the EU summit at the end of the month and its backstop, handed in only after a cabinet crisis was averted on Thursday, would still lead to a hard border in Ireland. Lurking in the background may still be the option of some differentiation in NI’s status from GB. Such is the peculiar course of these negotiations, that the EU is mildly encouraged by the state …

Boris Johnson and the “pure millennium bug stuff”

Brendan Heading on June 9, 2018, 4:03 pm

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I’m really glad Boris Johnson, in private remarks, chose to draw a comparison between the Brexit process and the Millennium Bug. I’ve often thought this comparison was apt and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs’ comments have given me a great excuse to write about my own short experiences dealing with the bug. I was working at the HQ of a large Irish financial institution between the summers of 1999 and 2000 as part of my placement …

The wheeze lasted less than 24 hours…

Brian Walker on June 2, 2018, 5:43 pm

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Trouble is, if you start a hare running you may have to shoot it. David Davis had proposed Northern Ireland have a joint regime of UK and EU customs regulations, allowing it to trade freely with both, and a 10-mile wide “special economic zone” on the border with Ireland, thus avoiding checks there. The Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU) declined to comment directly on the report, but also did not reject it, saying work was underway to “refine” possible customs …

Latest wheeze – Northern Ireland to become a joint EU/UK economic area with a 10 mile buffer on the border

Brian Walker on June 1, 2018, 12:11 pm

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Sun Exclusive! Special economic zone could be useful for dairy farmers and allow for trade on the border. David Davis praises ‘constructive’ talks with Michel Barnier in London The Brexit Secretary is also drawing up a 10 mile-wide buffer zone the length of Northern Ireland’s 310 mile border with Ireland. Dubbed a ‘special economic zone’, it will be for local traders such as dairy farmers – who make up 90 per cent of the cross border traffic – and share the …

Brexit and the fantasy outcomes it engenders may not be real, but real change is going to come…

Mick Fealty on May 27, 2018, 7:53 am

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So, as Brian points out, Jeremy Corbyn seems to have disappointed a lot of unionist politicians by not really giving them much to go on re the seemingly promised promotion of a United Ireland. This is a short video introduction to a piece I had published in the Guardian on Friday, discussing why the ambiguities introduced by the prolonged Article 50 negotiation process would not in themselves deliver either a border poll or a united Ireland. Mick FealtyMick is …

With May’s border plan rebuffed already, is the UK edging towards the single market as well as a customs union?

Brian Walker on May 25, 2018, 12:57 am

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The gloves are off with weeks to go before the terms of the UK’s withdrawal are supposed to be presented to EU leaders. In the most scathing briefing of its kind that I can recall, a “senior EU official” has dismissed Theresa May’s plan for a British backstop for remaining aligned to the customs union as “fantasy” even before it’s tabled. In turn the British complain of being insulted. To cap it all the two sides are locked in a …

May bids to extend the Northern Ireland backstop to the whole UK to buy time to solve the border problem

Brian Walker on May 24, 2018, 2:43 pm

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The Times reports the latest wheeze for sorting the border problem. The clear implication is that the UK government are admitting that neither of their transition ideas for a customs partnership or “max fac” will fly. But does it do any more than kick the can further down the road? Theresa May will ask the European Union for a second Brexit transition period to run until 2023 to avoid a hard border in Ireland. Britain will propose another transition covering customs and …

DUP hard line on Brexit is shown to be at odds with supporters’ opinions, as tensions rise between Brexiteers and the Irish

Brian Walker on May 23, 2018, 10:48 am

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As the days of Brexit reckoning draw near, rising tensions were on show yesterday at a conference held by the think tank the UK in a Changing Europe to discuss the Queen’s University report and survey, Northern Ireland and the UK’s exit – what the people think. Differences between Brexiteers and the Irish side were gaping wide. There was no meeting of minds over the UK’s options for withdrawal. A particular test case was over the feasibility of technology to keep …

MPs urge the UK government to end “untenable” inaction over the absence of Stormont after the Bank holiday. But who believes anything will happen?

Brian Walker on May 23, 2018, 12:23 am

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The call by the NI select committee of MPs to secretary of state Karen Bradley to “redouble” her efforts to restart talks aimed at restoring devolution has a ritual flavour about it. There seems no appetite for action on this front while the two governments are in stand-off over the UK’s long awaited proposals for exit and backstop which are due to be submitted by the EU next month and agreed in October. The MPs also said she must outline …

“Less poll-watching, more planning [and more action], please….”

Mick Fealty on May 21, 2018, 11:12 pm

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One of the problems with the Queens survey Brian highlighted this morning is that the Brexit related questions are couched in hypothetical terms “what if”. That makes them hard to read, and easy to dismiss. Nevertheless, it lances certain popular misassumptions about where we’re going. The vacuum of the last few years both in Northern Ireland and Westminster has given rise to an enormous amount of hyperbole around the consequences of a hard Brexit, most of it based on political …

Border poll recedes as polls show nationalist support for unity hinges on Brexit outcome

Brian Walker on May 21, 2018, 9:59 am

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If two polls out today are to be believed, pressure for an early border poll will recede and unionists fearing the worst, will heave sighs of relief For nationalists, while much hinges on the economic consequences of Brexit, majority opinion among them in favour of unity hasn’t solidified, despite the UK government’s confused approach to Brexit and the border. The Newsletter gleefully reports Two separate polls have found no evidence that Brexit has yet caused a radical shift in public …

But a new customs backstop won’t be enough….

Brian Walker on May 18, 2018, 7:35 am

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If the temporary extension of the customs relationship was greeted with euphoria, it was shortlived, as the FT reports. It exposes the next big issue. The single market looms. Mrs May was accused by some Conservative MPs of “bouncing” the cabinet into adopting the scheme, and others said they had been kept in the dark. Senior EU officials also expressed doubts about the UK approach, warning that it diverges significantly from Brussels’ preferred outcome. “If this is it, we will …

Breaking… The UK will meet the June deadline with a breakthrough plan for Brexit and the border, to a cautious welcome from Varadkar

Brian Walker on May 17, 2018, 5:34 pm

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Has the fog started to clear? Can any sense be made of the claim and denial about extending the transition beyond 2020 to buy time to solve the customs relationship and the border? The Guardian, RTE and the BBC all thinks so, reporting top level briefings from both governments at the EU summit in Sofia. Without overdoing it sounds like a modest breakthrough on the hitherto incompatible versions of the stopgap . The longer term relationship involving a longer transition …

New backstop plan ties the whole UK to the customs union to buy time for solving the border problem

Brian Walker on May 17, 2018, 8:11 am

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The rumour has now become fact (almost) Britain will tell Brussels it is prepared to stay tied to the customs union beyond 2021 as ministers remain deadlocked over a future deal with the EU, the Telegraph has learned. The Prime Minister’s Brexit war Cabinet earlier this week agreed on a new “backstop” as a last resort to avoid a hard Irish border, having rejected earlier proposals from the European Union. Ministers signed off the plans on Tuesday despite objections from Boris Johnson, the …

Brexit: what the hell happens now? And Brexit and Ireland – Two interesting books on Brexit…

Robert Campbell on May 16, 2018, 3:45 pm

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Let me be clear from the outset: I am a Remainer. I’ve not seen or read anything that would materially change my opinion. The European Union (EU) may have its problems, but overall I see it as a force for good. I live in N Ireland; here, we voted to remain in the EU. But the vote of the English outweighed this, and the vote in Scotland. The ‘will of the people’ is to Leave. The government triggered the Article …

Northern Ireland’s 1968 at the epicentre of the French ‘Maydays’

Soapbox on May 16, 2018, 2:10 pm

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As the 50th anniversary of Northern Ireland’s 1968 approaches, we can be hopeful that the accompanying commemorative interest will provide the necessary platform to enable a long-overdue and detailed reflection of what was an unquestionably seminal moment in our recent past. One particular area that requires a more comprehensive examination is how the events in Northern Ireland are to be understood within the broader (and rather exceptional) international context of the time. The term ‘1968’ has become a byword for …

Fears for the future of the Union move centre stage in Theresa May’s Brexit strategy, claims The Times

Brian Walker on May 15, 2018, 11:47 pm

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The Times has followed up on its report on how Theresa May challenged the complacency of the arch Brexiteer Jacob Rees Mogg in her series of back bench briefings in No10 when he claimed that a border poll could be won anytime despite Brexit, Mrs May said, ‘I would not be as confident as you. That’s not a risk I’m prepared to take. We cannot be confident on the politics of that situation, on how it plays out.’ ” This …