EU

Has Britain (or indeed Ireland) got Government Talent?

| Readers 1325

I was struck by the new French President speaking about those to be recruited to his government: I will choose them for their experience, their competence, what they have done and not for what they represent or their political weight… Gosh. There’s a thought. Leaving aside whether you think he is a good or bad thing, what a contrast this is to Westminster/Whitehall and even Holyrood, Cardiff Bay or Stormont (when it is actually up and running). What will we get …

Read more…

Brexit: Little Northern Ireland can only brace itself, whilst the grown-ups decide

| Readers 3074

I was asked earlier by a French journalist if I thought Brexit was playing in the upcoming election. Not much I said, or at least in the overt campaigning, which is largely about who wins and who loses. I expect it is playing well enough on the doorsteps for the DUP (who alone of all the NI parties went with it). SF’s agitprop approach of scaring the bejesus out of their base will work for them too. Though they weren’t very …

Read more…

The UK rejects the EU timetable for negotiations. A border solution will have to wait

| Readers 2816

A pat on the back is due for Slugger for anticipating this reaction  to the EU negotiating guidelines. The FT (£)  has picked up Brexit Secretary David Davis’s interview on ITV’s Peston show yesterday   “How on earth do you resolve the issue of the border with Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland unless you know what our general borders policy is, what the customs agreement is, what our trade agreement is?” he told ITV’s Robert Peston. “It’s wholly …

Read more…

“So let nobody speak of a progressive or anti-Brexit pact either…”

| Readers 1513

In Saturday’s Irish News, Newton Emerson with some impertinent points about electoral pacts in the forthcoming General Election on June 8.  From the Irish News Sinn Féin has ordered the SDLP to stand down, although sadly not to dump arms, in North Belfast and Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Let nobody call this a nationalist pact, as that would involve reciprocation and Sinn Féin has not offered to stand down anywhere.  Sinn Féin’s stance is doubly impressive when it risks handing …

Read more…

Tony Blair assures EU that May is sincere about a frictionless border; sees need for small amendment to the GFA

| Readers 1492

Am I on my own in becoming weary of  yet another of the great and  good  speaking in general terms about the future of the Border?  Tony Blair, addressing a European People’s Party gathering in Co Wicklow  was at pains to  declare his confidence in Theresa May’s sincerity over wanting a “ frictionless “border, even though  by rejecting  continuing membership of the single market and free movement   she has made it the  problem without a solution so far. “I …

Read more…

Special status for the North is a possibility from Barnier’s speech. Would the UK agree?

| Readers 3422

EU negotiator Michel Barnier and the Irish government seem to be inching their way towards special status – sorry – arrangements, for the North. The EU is there for you, Ireland and so is a close partnership with the UK based on a fair free trade agreement – but ( only!) after sufficient progress on EU citizens’ rights and the financial settlement. So declared Michel Barnier in a speech to the Oireachtas that seemed designed to calm the worst Irish …

Read more…

Europe’s chief negotiator to make the trip to Northern Ireland that our own Prime Minister is currently too busy for

| Readers 2660

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has said that during a trip to Ireland later this week he will visit the border areas that are soon to become the divide between the UK and the EU. Meanwhile, Theresa May in the run-up to the election that she has made all about Brexit has reversed her earlier promise to visit the place that will likely be most affected by the split with Europe. In this time of uncertainty for Northern …

Read more…

Sinn Fein’s tactical playbook does not include what to do if unionists play generous and smart

| Readers 3686

So Brexit, eh?  How’s that going for you? Will it affect your vote? Or is it business as usual? Signs are from England that since it is still impossible to define what Brexit looks like the strong Remain position the Lib Dems took isn’t paying off well for them. In Scotland, the whole thing is being run aggressively as an anti-SNP/anti-#ScotRef referendum. The SNP is protected by the ongoing weakness of Scottish Labour, yet those who predicted the Tories were …

Read more…

For Brexit, British and Irish citizens’ rights are not yet guaranteed. Interchangeable rights for all should be the aim

| Readers 3380

The issue of reciprocal citizenship rights after Brexit is turning out to be more complicated than at first thought. It extends well beyond confirming the status quo to embrace work and pension rights for new immigrants from the EU as well as the 3 million existing residents.  Even when an EU citizen’s rights in the UK are backed up by taking out British citizenship, everything is not quite the same as before – as in the case of the dual …

Read more…

Can Sinn Fein tell us if the EU protects workers rights or not?

| Readers 1169

On May Day Sinn Fein were pontificating on workers rights along side their anti Brexit rhetoric,it is worth remembering: In the book Identity in Northern Ireland: Communities, Politics and Change by Cathal McCall, my own MP for Mid Ulster, Francie Molloy, states “We wouldn’t be happy with.. a United States of Europe..Irish identity would be lost” and that “a fully integrated EU would be to the detriment of vital resources of the Irish identity (Mitchell McGlaughlin discounts a fully integrated EU in …

Read more…

Like the Samurai, Labour faces the verdict of the machine guns

| Readers 1028
Labour Party in Northern Ireland

There’s a scene in the Tom Cruise epic, ‘The Last Samurai,’ where the main characters – noble samurai (as the film title suggests) – charge the battlefield against the Western-trained forces of the Japanese Emperor. One by one, these brave warriors are cut down by machine-gun fire. Their swords and bows and arrow useless against the latest military technology of the time. They know they face near certain death, but honour and belief drives them forward. This final battle signifies …

Read more…

2017 French Presidential Election

| Readers 1130

The French people are choosing today between Centrist, Emmanuel Macron and the Front National’s, Marine Le Pen. Both candidates went through to the second round two weeks ago. Some key things to look out for this evening Results will be in at 7pm our time. An exit poll will be published by the main networks projecting a winner, these polls are normally very accurate and over the past number of elections they have got the result to within 1% of the …

Read more…

Over the cliff edge – what would happen if exports to the EU were subject to tariffs

| Readers 3176

The continuing deterioration of relations between the British Government and the European Union has led to a renewed focus on the possibility of a hard Brexit, where all trade between the UK and the European Union would be subject to tariffs in line with WTO rules. Previously, I had written about how Northern Ireland would bear a disproportionate cost of a hard Brexit, due to cross-border exports of dairy playing a substantial segment of the local economy. Under WTO rules, …

Read more…

Theresa May’s local victories are good for the Union cause but give no comfort to special status fans

| Readers 1847

  A note of caution is needed about  talk of a Tory landslide on 8 June. Although UKIP was obliterated in the GB local elections,  Labour might have done even worse. Michael Thrasher’s projections of the local results to the general election “ for a bit of fun” on Sky News   works out a majority of  48 seats, up a respectable 36 but well short of a landslide and barely worth  the trouble of calling a snap election. John Curtice, election …

Read more…

“Brexit has become a central question in the identity conversation and that is dangerous”

| Readers 1547

In a commentary  “Brexit and Northern Ireland” on the EPC discussion paper( see below) the  legal academic Chris McCrudden  asserts the primacy  of the Brexit question and laments the  “ tone deafness” of the UK government to  Northern Ireland’s interests. But while he rightly sees the need to set priorities in the interparty talks, he doesn’t discuss here the reasons given for SF’s withdrawal from the Assembly such as an Irish Language Act and the legacy and other  issues  SF insist …

Read more…

The European Economic Area is looking more attractive as a Brexit solution but it aint perfect

| Readers 1480

It’s going to be a long haul. Perhaps we shouldn’t pay too much attention to the megaphone diplomacy – Junker’s claim that May was living in another galaxy, May accusing unnamed Commission bureaucrats of interfering in the British election. But it isn’t a good start. On balance May has come off slightly worse in early reactions without doing her any harm at all in the court of public opinion. Attention is turning back to an outcome that was  identified almost …

Read more…

Irish Brexit paper reveals the EU will likely seek to shackle the UK

| Readers 2816

The Irish government have just published their Brexit paper entitled “Ireland and the negotiations on the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union – The Government’s Approach”. It makes interesting reading. Notably as predicted – the Common Travel Area will more than likely be retained with the paper stating the CTA is not dependent on EU membership and that there is “no obvious legal barrier” to maintaining the CTA bilaterally. The EU Brexit negotiation guidelines effectively accepting the Common Travel Area will …

Read more…

Theresa May accuses EU politicians of seeking to influence #GE2017

| Readers 405

After visiting The Queen, Theresa May fired the opening shots of the campaign from the steps of Downing Street with what has stunned even some Brexiters. UK PM Theresa May accuses EU politicians and officials of seeking to influence the result of #GE2017https://t.co/6dQPV7H3Wcpic.twitter.com/MT4YiQsVdz — BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 3, 2017 David McCannDavid McCann holds a PhD in North-South relations from University of Ulster. You can follow him on twitter @dmcbfs

Trading Partners Wanted: Looking at Canada

| Readers 559

As it stands, Ireland’s largest trading partner is the United Kingdom. This has been the case since Independence although the balance has shifted greatly since Ireland entered the EEC in 1973 with the UK no longer wholly dominant although our reliance for trade with the UK continues in certain sectors such as beef, timber, pork and much more. As Ireland’s reliance on the UK as a trading partner has diminished, it has been able to look to a wider market …

Read more…

On Brexit, the Irish are caught between two opposing forces, but at least they’re showing more invention and concern about the North than the British and northerners themselves

| Readers 1718

The ritual opening shots in the Brexit campaign must leave the Republic feeling caught in a trap in a dialogue of the deaf between two opposing forces. So much, so sadly predictable, in spite of all the warm words- although the crudeness of the exchanges is perhaps surprising. It’s pretty clear that the Irish government don’t favour the aggressive opening approach by the Commission and confirmed this morning by its chief negotiator Michel Barnier. On the detail of the FT’s …

Read more…