Republic – Page 9 – Slugger O'Toole

The UK and Ireland are closing in on a border solution

Brian Walker on October 4, 2018, 10:49 am

| Readers 4975

The FT hopefully leads: “Ireland backs Theresa May’s plan for all-UK customs union with the UK”. The story is jointly by-lined by their political editor at Conservative party conference in Birmingham and their Ireland correspondent. She will offer to meet the EU half way on the vexed issue of the Irish backstop, agreeing to Brussels’ demands that Northern Ireland stay part of the single market regulatory area of the bloc. But, in return, she wants the EU to concede to …

Despite the PM’s steadfast support for the Union, Arlene Foster choses this moment to distance the DUP from Theresa May

Brian Walker on October 2, 2018, 12:00 am

| Readers 4120

The Daily Telegraph claims Arlene Foster has given “a major boost” to Boris Johnson’s leadership ambitions in an interview with the paper on the eve of Boris’ appearance at a Conservative fringe meeting. In comments which fail to back the Chequers plan, she has also kept her distance from Theresa May personally. In a major boost for Mr Johnson’s leadership ambitions, Mrs Foster endorsed the “belief” and “spirit” contained in his blueprint for Brexit. One her biggest disappointments is the failure …

Theresa May’s version of the Union is as dangerously limited as the DUP’s

Brian Walker on October 1, 2018, 4:43 pm

| Readers 4479

That ebullient and creative academic Pete Shirlow recently wrote a piece in the Belfast Telegraph discouraging the indulgence of Northern Irish whinging about ourselves as “ a place apart”, and unloved in GB. You can argue this either way. As he says: “ The idea that most people in Britain do not give a monkey’s is as true as it is false… I am sure most people in Britain never think about Northern Ireland, but they probably never think much …

Cabinet may be moving towards Canada. Are the DUP about to back No Deal?

Brian Walker on September 28, 2018, 1:15 am

| Readers 6594

Not normally the keenest of DUP watchers, the New Statesman have their eyes on Sammy Wilson, who is the DUP’s Brexit spokesman in the Commons when it isn’t Nigel Dodds. Sammy is at heart a No Deal man. While I believe Chequers has the legs to move closer to Norway (these images become more bizarre by the day), Canada is now said to be favoured by a cabinet cabal – but not by Sammy, who has spoken against it . …

From Jeremy Corbyn, the chance of a Brexit breakthrough

Brian Walker on September 27, 2018, 12:12 am

| Readers 3089

For some, Jeremy Corbyn had at last managed to deliver the usual old conference guff and sound like a leader. But for many others well beyond the hard Left, Corbyn’s speech took them out of the tight old Tory straightjacket, if just for a moment. The Brexit passage was particularly clever. Whether he entirely believes in or not, Corbyn made an offer to Theresa May that could be the Brexit breakthrough, one that’s compatible with her comments on the plane …

Theresa May’s defence of “the precious, precious Union” takes centre stage

Brian Walker on September 25, 2018, 11:31 pm

| Readers 3419

Let Labour tie themselves in knots over an election or another referendum. Let the Brexiteers demand the abandonment of Chequers. The lady’s not for turning, to coin a phrase. And more: she has rejected their favourite option, a Canada plus free trade deal, because it threatens the unity of the United Kingdom. Those were her essential messages to the travelling Westminster lobby on board the plane to New York for the UN General Assembly. And she invoked the taoiseach twice …

Efforts are mounting to drive a wedge between Theresa May and the DUP over the backstop

Brian Walker on September 25, 2018, 12:27 pm

| Readers 5515

The Guardian has been the only media I can find claiming a British ploy to get round the backstop in these terms. Senior diplomats involved in the negotiations have reacted furiously to the details of a fresh UK proposal for avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland, briefed to the Irish PM, Leo Varadkar, at last week’s Salzburg summit. Under the solution, May will agree to Northern Ireland potentially staying, in effect, in the single market, as the rest of the …

Stepping back from the cliff edge has begun. Chequers is not dead – says the EU

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 11:36 pm

| Readers 4778

The salvage job has already begun and a better verdict sought than disaster. If Salzburg was not all a misunderstanding, it was more like a farce without the laughs. People literally passed each other in the night. Theresa May’s ten minute pitch over dinner, followed by a leaders’ chat over lunch next day without her was hardly the stuff and style of diplomacy. In the gap between the two meals, rumours and spin raised suspicions and fears about British intentions …

Theresa wraps the flag around herself and Northern Ireland. But fresh proposals on the border may test the DUP deal

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 6:38 pm

| Readers 4232

Flanked by two Union Jacks in the State Downing Room of No 10, Theresa May reacted to her mauling in Salzburg with a sharp sense of affront. Let’s face it, a woman can still register hurt dignity more convincingly than a man. The setting was in fact improvised; it had been moved inside from the street because of a deluge. And in a faint but uncomfortable echo of her disaster at last year’s party conference, there was a delay because …

Theresa May takes a big share of the blame for Salzburg but not all of it. How do they all walk back from the cliff?

Brian Walker on September 21, 2018, 1:14 pm

| Readers 2441

Salzburg has turned out to be a Suez moment, a sudden and unexpected blow to the government’s prestige delivered by the discovery that UK does not possess the political and economic weight to make a deal with the EU so special that that it violates existential Union rules. The shock is all the greater because the EU decided that, too close to deadline, the British had allowed themselves to be deceived by too much diplomatic fudging; and this had tempted …

No breakthrough for May at Salzburg. More moves on the border needed and concessions on the single market

Brian Walker on September 20, 2018, 11:52 am

| Readers 1277

God knows where we are now. Groping towards a solution probably. We’re unlikely to get much more clarity from Salzburg by the end of the day. The suggestion of a second referendum by the Maltese and Czech leaders made an interesting diversion but little more. The Irish Times headlined “stark divisions” between May and Varadkar in advance of their breakfast meeting today but added: Sources close to the prime minister accepted, however, that London would be bringing forward proposals on …

Brinkmanship on the border: May squares off before EU leaders as Barnier revises his plan

Brian Walker on September 19, 2018, 11:19 am

| Readers 3823

To herald her appearance at today’s EU summit at Salzburg, Theresa May has presented a bullish case for her Chequers plan where it matters most – to the Germans. In an article under her name in the heavyweight paper Die Welt, she insists that Chequers contains the border solution without resorting to the EU’s legal draft of the backstop. Say it quietly but she may be pushing at a door, if not wide open, just left ajar. Pardon the cliché, …

New November “deadline” for agreeing withdrawal terms puts pressure on all sides

Brian Walker on September 18, 2018, 1:51 pm

| Readers 2305

The mantra “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” may be joined with a new one, “ nothing changes until everything changes.” This applies in spades to the border backstop wrangle. Rather than face crunch point at Salzburg on Thursday, EU leaders have confirmed that the terms for UK withdrawal will be settled at a special Brexit summit in November. So that’s all good, then. But the backstop still nags and Theresa May has said nothing to wish it away, …

As the practicalities of the border issue are wrestled with, the pressure on the DUP is mounting. Are the hardline Brexiteers preparing to rat?

Brian Walker on September 11, 2018, 11:41 am

| Readers 3946

Now what? On the border issue, the EU Commission and the Brexiteers are coming closer together than either to the government, according to the Guardian. This report shows that both sides are getting down to the practical options, instead of political grandstanding. Do the options appeal to the DUP? Downing St are sticking with ” no EU officials” at British ports but for how long? Does ” no EU officials ” rule out categorically different rules for the island of …

The EU may shoot Boris’s fox and bail Theresa out

Brian Walker on September 10, 2018, 11:06 am

| Readers 2537

The FT has discovered a blink of light for Theresa May amid the general Brexit gloom. The Daily Telegraph is among other papers lifting the story, labelling it, “Operation Save Theresa.” The EU is preparing to give its Brexit negotiator new instructions to help close a deal with Britain, in a conciliatory move that will bolster Theresa May as she suffers savage attacks from Brexiters at home. An informal summit in Salzburg this month between the EU’s …

The time has come for the next Assembly to vote on a border poll

Brian Walker on September 6, 2018, 12:01 pm

| Readers 3336

In a brave attempt to discuss a border poll dispassionately, Newton Emerson is tentatively suggesting that it might be a good idea to hold a sort of test poll outside the terms of the GFA “to clear the air.” Unfortunately his analysis is better than his prescription, as a poll of any sort under official sponsorship, even one declared in some way not to count, would inevitably still stimulate the seven year itch among nationalists he rightly identifies , to …

From the London broadsheets, rare interest in Irish developing positions is to be welcomed

Brian Walker on September 5, 2018, 10:42 am

| Readers 4040

The criticism is well made that British interest in Irish positions is generally self serving and fails to recognise their independent validity. Any slight shift in this is to be welcomed. The London broadsheets have paid Sinn Fein the rare compliment of taking seriously the party’s think-in at Cavan. It’s worth noting that they have yet to broach the notion that a Brexit solution would be so much easier if Northern Ireland were to join the Republic. Quite apart from …

The arrest of two journalists is a symptom of a bankrupt system for dealing with the Troubles legacy, with no solution in sight

Brian Walker on September 4, 2018, 12:11 pm

| Readers 1899

The arrest and interrogation of two journalists suspected of stealing documents in connection with the making the film documentary No Stone Unturned on the Loughinisland murders, is a perfect example of how the current handing of the Troubles legacy is deeply unsatisfactory. In the present vacuum, the PSNI, which still retains front-line legacy responsibilities, seems to feel bound to be seen doing something, even in cases where they look self interested, counterproductive and downright foolish. On the face of it …

Border issues are difficult enough without manufacturing a phoney one

Brian Walker on August 30, 2018, 8:52 am

| Readers 4605

In response to Fionnbhar’s post, Newton has said most of what needs to be said. Debate over tariffs and regulations has been conflated with security to a ludicrous, irresponsible degree. Whatever shape Brexit takes, it can be made clear now that terrorist threats will be dealt with as they are dealt with already – by intelligence-led policing across Ireland. The latest kerfuffle over a open or a hard border is just one example of a prevailing paradox. That in a …

Could the lights go out next March?

Brian Walker on August 22, 2018, 8:46 am

| Readers 5397

The inanities of managing Brexit reach new depths. Times exclusive Emergency Brexit energy talks as ministers hide no deal plans Greg Clark, the business secretary, has held urgent talks with officials in Dublin on an emergency agreement to keep the lights on in Northern Ireland after a “no-deal” Brexit. Downing Street wants to avoid publishing its plans for a worst-case scenario that include importing thousands of generators north of the border. The electricity industry has operated a single wholesale market …