Republic – Page 6 – Slugger O'Toole

The DUP and Theresa May, the EU and Leo Varadkar, are all at sixes and sevens over the backstop and a hard border

Brian Walker on March 25, 2019, 6:55 pm

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At this late stage of the game, the DUP are furious that Theresa May is still defending the backstop when it appears it may not be so vital after all. This new last minute dispute goes to the heart of why the DUP is still refusing to back her deal and is complicating the search for a Brexit agreement and with it Mrs May’s prospects for remaining in office. Just to add to the complications she went to say that …

Has David Trimble has provided the DUP with the crucial argument for supporting the deal?

Brian Walker on March 18, 2019, 11:22 am

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Has their old enemy David Trimble provided the DUP with useful ammunition to support Mrs May’s deal? We’re told she will only make a third attempt at securing the Common’s agreement this week if she can be sure of winning a majority. And for that DUP support is crucial, not only in terms of numbers but for their influence with the ERG. “It was the Attorney General wot wrecked it” was the Brexiteer verdict after last Tuesday’s debacle, when their …

The plain unvarnished truth by Fionola Meredith

Brian Walker on March 13, 2019, 3:54 pm

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She cuts through the dream world of imaginary politics… I have one question for people in the Republic who said they want a referendum on Irish unity: Are you mad? There is another side – if you’re passing through… https://discovernorthernireland.com/about-northern-ireland/destinations/causeway/causeway-coastal-route/causeway-coastal-route-destinations/?s=D423088611DB11AB8D4C3772F5F0C533A2F20C25 Brian WalkerFormer BBC journalist and manager in Belfast, Manchester and London, Editor Spolight; Political Editor BBC NI; Current Affairs Commissioning editor BBC Radio 4; Editor Political and Parliamentary Programmes, BBC Westminster; former London Editor Belfast Telegraph. Hon Senior Research …

No Deal nightmare announced for Northern Ireland to keep the border open

Brian Walker on March 13, 2019, 9:10 am

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The No Deal scenario announced unilaterally by the UK this morning keeps the Irish border open but at a cost to Northern Ireland business and sets up a border in the Irish Sea for the Republic but not Northern Ireland. And while it’s intended to keep the border open, the Republic would be obliged to levy tariffs on some goods heading from the north to the south. Northern ports would be a back door from the EU including Ireland but …

British arrogance or Brit guilt? Irish attitudes to the world that created Karen Bradley

Brian Walker on March 8, 2019, 1:29 pm

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“Anti-English sentiment in Ireland had healed. But Brexit has brought it all flooding back.” So writes Irish Times columnist Una Mullally in the Guardian. Is she right? Most comment here will not only echo but amplify Una’s comments. But I think – I hope – she exaggerates and all will be restored when we discover that the legacy of Brexit – or no Brexit- – will not as bad as all that. She makes a big thing about the British …

Give us the softest Brexit and a plague on all your houses! In Northern Ireland, the gap between people and politicians is wider than ever – latest North-South poll

Brian Walker on March 8, 2019, 11:26 am

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It’s a snap shot in a febrile atmosphere I know, but who can be surprised? A new poll from the Irish Times and Ipsos/MRBI – in fact parallel polls north and south – find that 59 per cent of Northern Ireland voters want a special arrangement for Northern Ireland for no checks on the border – even if that means some checks on goods travelling between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The poll also found that 67 per cent of voters …

Varadkar bids to make Durkan in effect MEP for Northern Ireland after Brexit

Brian Walker on March 5, 2019, 10:17 am

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Leo Varadkar has made the radical move to present Dublin voters with the choice of electing in effect former SDLP leader, deputy First minister and Foyle MP Mark Durkan as MEP for Northern Ireland, based in Dublin but significantly, still living in Derry. The bold move is, as Durkan himself admits , a ” bold ask” of Dublin voters and amounts to a modest alteration to the political balance on the island. However the big point is that it might …

Stop dreaming and learn how to take responsibility – the key demand to local parties

Brian Walker on March 4, 2019, 12:05 pm

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Alan and Mick have done sterling work in reporting and commenting on the Alliance and Fianna Fail conferences, with the SDLP in tow for the latter. From me at a distance they prompt the following reflections. Real politics cannot be about endless positioning, it has to be about policies, doing things for the people , how to raise and spend the money – you know, the stuff you read about what happens in other places. The SDLP’s agenda is too …

In letting the Brexit crisis mount so high, you’d think we were in the early Middle Ages

Brian Walker on February 22, 2019, 11:10 am

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It’s become just like the filioque controversy that led to Great Schism of 1054 don’t you think? You know, when the Roman church tried to foist a change of theology on the Orthodox Greeks of Constantinople. In what became the Nicene Creed the Romans insisted on the Holy Spirit “proceeding from the Father and the Son. But the Greeks weren’t having any of “the Son” business, (“filioque” being Latin for “and the son” for all you ignorant Prods.) And never …

Northern Ireland could be caught in a tariff trap imposed by a British minister. How can such a muddle be avoided in future?

Brian Walker on February 21, 2019, 1:04 pm

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Whatever that latter day Rumpole attorney general Geoffrey Cox comes up with by way of alternative arrangements to try to seal the withdrawal deal at Sharm el Sheikh at the weekend, Northern Ireland’s own arrangements are the least likely to be replaced, as the Irish Times’ Denis Staunton has warned. and is bound to cast fresh doubt on the DUP’s support for a revised deal. (Attorney General) Cox wants the EU to make explicit the temporary nature of …

We should at least discuss a border poll, says Colin Harvey. Why not indeed

Brian Walker on February 15, 2019, 7:48 am

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Colin Harvey, Queen’s law professor and an authority on human rights law identifies as a prominent member of nationalist civil society. This is his latest call for a proper discussion of a border poll. My sole concern here is to suggest that in tackling one of the consequences of Brexit – a hard border on the island of Ireland – a principled way forward is to ask people in this region whether they wish to remain in the UK or …

Despite the coyness at dinner in Phoenix Park, Brexit should be no barrier. We cannot escape the urgent need for a resumption of close British-Irish relations

Brian Walker on February 9, 2019, 10:56 am

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However they’re phased and whatever the context, close British Irish engagement on both Brexit and rescuing the GFA are essential. Who with any wit can doubt it? Brexit provides no excuse. Indeed, it’s one of two pressing reasons for close encounters, the other being the Stormont stand-off. Dinner in Farmleigh House may have been in Theresa May’s programme of displacement activity as she mulls over Labour’s offer to talk and runs down the clock, but at least it displayed dim …

Mrs May’s tilt towards nationalism in Belfast implies an appeal to Varadkar to be more flexible about the backstop

Brian Walker on February 6, 2019, 1:15 am

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Northern Ireland does not have to rely on the Irish Government or the European Union to prevent a return to borders of the past. The UK Government will not let that happen. I will not let that happen. A fundamental belief in the Union of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is part of my political heritage as a Conservative and Unionist – and that will never change. But the Unionism I believe in is one that respects absolutely the central …

It’s Ireland’s call as well as England’s – and both can still win the match!

Brian Walker on February 3, 2019, 1:40 pm

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Let’s go straight to the bottom line. Ireland and EU26 say the backstop is necessary to prevent a hard border. The UK says insistence on the backstop in its present form is the best way to guarantee a hard border. These are expressions of perfect deadlock. Nevertheless, after the defeat of the withdrawal deal by over 200 votes, Mrs May is returning to Brussels to seek an “alternative” to the backstop, either a time limit or unilateral exit mechanism to …

The personal strains imposed on identity by Brexit, as Theresa May struggles to build support for a renegotiation

Brian Walker on January 31, 2019, 11:46 pm

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With cabinet ministers admitting as much and an extension to Article 50 looking ever more likely, the Daily Mail carries this busy chart purporting to describe Theresa May’s renegotiation agenda with the EU. It reads like a Brexiteers’ dream. Her idea of doing a DUP-type deal with Labour leavers isn’t going down particularly well with the comrades who recognise ” Brexit bribes” when they see them. Nick Timothy. Mrs May’s sacked joint chief of staff now a loose cannon is …

Brexiteers are starting to fear that May will bend to reality

Brian Walker on January 31, 2019, 1:38 am

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He was the unlikely hero of the hour. In the Commons last night with his voice shaking, Tory MP Oliver Letwin, the backroom politician who was the chief policy coordinator of the Cameron coalition, made the most striking statement of the day. “I’ve actually got to the point where I am past caring what the deal is we have. I will vote for it to get a smooth exit.” On the face of it, a very irresponsible statement indeed from …

Theresa May’s win gives her the scent of bigger victory, courtesy of divided Labour

Brian Walker on January 30, 2019, 12:15 am

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Quite a coup, to turn a defeat by 230 votes into a victory by 15 votes in a fortnight – a victory courtesy of the DUP by the way. Rather sadly, the big losers of the day were the supporters of a second referendum. But what sort of victory? It required turning 180 degrees from insisting hers was the only deal, to agreeing to renegotiate the “significant and legally binding change to the withdrawal agreement” she insisted was impossible only …

No Deal alarm is rising on both sides of the border

Brian Walker on January 26, 2019, 12:12 pm

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Ah the old, old days! With so much concentration on the Westminster bubble, it’s easy to forget that the pressures of Brexit operate in several directions. Cracks in the facade of unity among EU 27 are appearing on the surface as the prospect of No Deal by default refuses to go away. Irish alarm is by no means unique. As everybody always knew, solidarity with EU 26 leaves the Republic uniquely exposed to a particularly inelegant game of political poker …

The DUP seem poised to bail out Theresa May. Will the EU be impressed?

Brian Walker on January 25, 2019, 11:52 pm

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After that cosy little dinner at Chequers, the Downing St spin machine duly delivered straight to The Sun THE DUP have privately decided to back Theresa May’s Brexit deal next week when she toughens it up, in a major breakthrough for No10. The Sun can reveal that delicate deliberations are now ongoing between the Ulster unionist party’s leaders and the PM. In a crucial shift, it has emerged that the DUP are now willing to accept a backstop as long as …

Brexit panic surfaces in Dublin but the EU is implacable on No Deal consequences

Brian Walker on January 23, 2019, 9:12 pm

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Last night I managed to survive the Ivan Rogers Experience, ( YouTube) a remorseless dissection of the entire Brexit debate which was as depressing as it was impressive. With good reason, Rogers is known as the Eeyore among Brexit experts. He was the UK ambassador to the EU who quit in disgust six months into Theresa May’s premiership. Remorselessly he spelled out the defects of every option now facing the UK, including remaining or re-applying. He laid about him with …