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

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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 … Read more

Brexit NI: Should nationalists look outwards or inwards?

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Good edition of The View last night. This was the second of two excellent sections, the first on the future of the UUP and this part with Tom Kelly and Andree Murphy slugging it out over tomorrow’s Beyond Brexit event at the Waterfront. “Brexit: ‘The DUP’s hardline policies could be the quickest road to a united Ireland’” by “Brexit: ‘The DUP’s hardline policies could be the quickest road to a united Ireland’” is licensed under “Brexit: ‘The DUP’s hardline policies … Read more

Whether it’s badged SDLP or Fianna Fáil there is still one hell of a mountain to climb…

119 Comments | Readers 1926

So, finally, it has arrived. What did we learn from yesterday’s launch? Well, it’s to be a civil partnership, not a marriage. Although Micheál Martin refused to be drawn on the matter of elections, the focus seems to be more about policy, than candidates per se. Policy, as I’ve remarked before, would be nice.  But it would also be an oddity in Northern Irish politics. As one political insider remarked yesterday, “Northern Ireland voters don’t give a damn about policy”. … Read more

Fianna Fail and SDLP announce joint partnership

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Fianna Fail and the SDLP met today in Belfast to launch their new partnership arrangement. The partnership will have three key themes 1) A politics that works -This will address Anglo-Irish relations, the current political situation in Northern Ireland and a new economic model. 2) Better public services-This will address reforms to key areas such as Health and Education. 3) Uniting Ireland’s people-This will address greater cooperation on the island and the arrangement for a future poll on unity. Specific … Read more

On Brexit be careful, for you tread on my myths

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For British and Irish readers alike, Fintan O’Toole is a leading scourge of Brexit, delving deep into British history and culture to explain its mainsprings.  For champions of  diversity  suffused with Brit guilt about unresolved issues of empire and the shifting sands of identity, there’s a  thrilling novelty about an Irishman with his history of victimhood,  even one with  such a  cosmopolitan outlook, diagnosing British ills and offering lessons from Ireland’s new minted – and more confident- present. Thank God … Read more

“In those 40 days Parliament must pass 9 Parliamentary bills and amend 600 other bits of legislation…”

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Moving on from panic in Dublin, it’s interesting how things are flurrying about in Westminster, which is not yet even in a position to invoke WTO Rules, reports Fleet Street Fox… She writes: To Brexit calmly and cleanly on March 29, in those 40 days Parliament must pass 9 Parliamentary bills and amend 600 other bits of legislation. Now, that’s a squeeze at the best of times. When the legislation involves things which make the whole nation argue furiously without coming to any … Read more

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

193 Comments | Readers 4413

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 … Read more

This can be an exciting new project, the days and weeks ahead will determine the breadth of opportunity

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“Somewhere along the course of the road our conversations have drifted. They’ve centred too much on us as a party and not enough on the fate and future of the country. That stops here and now. Colum Eastwood’s first address to party members as leader remains, I believe, one of the most consequential from an SDLP Leader in over a decade. After winning a decisive victory over Alasdair McDonnell, it set the right tone for a party which had suffered … Read more

“The time for sleep-walking, false confidence and even pretence has passed.”

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Not sure what’s triggered it exactly, but it sounds like Dublin is getting itchy over some of the conversation taking place over the backstop. No doubt all members of the cabinet have been briefed to keep schtum. Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed found himself in hot water this morning on Morning Ireland when asked to explain why the government was making plans for a hard border with the UK at the ports (where, to be sure, the volume of trade … Read more

The Ulster Unionist Party: Country Before Party?

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The first thing to say in respect of this book is a big thank you to the leadership of the UUP from all five authors. The UUP has undergone some tough times over the last two decades but the five most recent leaders could not have been more supportive of the survey of party members underpinning this volume. The book includes extensive interviews with the UUP’s five most recent leaders: Trimble, Empey, Elliott, Nesbitt and Swann, to analyse why the … Read more

Fianna Fail/SDLP merger downgraded to a policy-sharing exercise. It appears the north must wait (again).

68 Comments | Readers 1952

The much vaunted, anticipated and protracted news regarding the apparent coming together of Fianna Fail and the SDLP looks set to be reduced to a policy sharing exercise in the short-term later this week. A number of news outlets are reporting tonight that Fianna Fail are downplaying talk of a merger or alliance, emphasising instead that the initiative looks set to merely involve the sharing of a number of policies. The Irish Independent has even quoted a senior Fianna Fail … Read more

Review of Guy Beiner’s “Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster”

66 Comments | Readers 1524

“This is the past and it has to stay in the past. We don’t want to see any more of it.” Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster, Guy Beiner, Oxford University Press, 2018. Over the weekend the PSNI were called to manage an incident with a car bomb within the Walls of Derry. The car was parked in Bishop’s Street, just by the courthouse and directly across the road from the Masonic Centre that … Read more

Opinion may be swinging but even DUP supporters favour a soft Brexit. What are the DUP doing to help bring this about?

99 Comments | Readers 4039

Polling results on Brexit vary widely according to the questions asked and the sequence of events in Parliament and between the UK and the EU, a major analysis of recent polls has found. Mrs May’s persistence with her deal despite last week’s massive majority against it suggests  that even the most dramatic results can be regarded as  unstable or heavily conditional. Some results however are clear enough. Unionists and nationalists are deeply divided on whether there should be a second … Read more

Methinks thou does not protest enough…

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Last Tuesday as the MP’s voted overwhelmingly to reject Theresa Mays’s Brexit deal, I voiced my support of the People’s Vote by attending the protests in Parliament Square which was happening as the votes were cast in Westminster. As well as the large vocal crowd that had gathered, I listened to a number of speakers voice their Brexit anger with speakers ranging from the usual Politicians and Celebrities but also frontline NHS staff and factory workers. Two students from Belfast … Read more

With the Conservative and Labour leaders now under internal pressure, MPs on both sides of the chamber move to take control

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. The moment of Brexit decision has shifted yet again – closer and closer to default crash out of the EU on 29 March. Theresa May has confirmed that plan B is plan A – basically the deal that was so massively rejected a week ago. But the dynamics have changed. Next Monday she will move a neutral motion to the Withdrawal Bill taking note of her statement today. This will allow amendments to be moved with alternative  proposals for … Read more

How a “no deal” followed by a blame game might suit some players…

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Wolfgang Munchau on how all parties to the backstop might conspire to let it drown… and then blame someone else: A no-deal Brexit is clearly not rational. But if you look at the incentives of each individual decision maker, you may find there are worse options than no deal for each one of them. For Mrs May, the very worst outcome would be to end up with no Brexit at all. For Mr Corbyn, a no-deal Brexit might be the … Read more

“The bomb in Derry should instead act as a reminder that there are those on our island who will never be in favour of the peace process”

161 Comments | Readers 2126

The recent events in Derry have been disconcerting to watch. Trying to make sense of it isn’t easy but Allison Morris in today’s Irish News really strikes a chord. She says on the link between Brexit and this bombing; The bomb in Derry should instead act as a reminder that there are those on our island who will never be in favour of the peace process. Rather than look to the Brexit referendum as a reason for this, it would … Read more

“We need a collective response to Brexit across the entire Northern Ireland community and not a partisan one.”

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As the news flows quicken and we get to what we hope will be the crunch point of Brexit in the Irish News Tom Kelly proffers sage advice on the role of civil society in Northern Ireland. He opens with Kweisi Mfume who played a key role in the Civil Rights Campaign in the US in the 1960s:  “Even if they are not reaching out to us, we are going to reach out to them anyway and involve them in a meaningful … Read more

“Northern Ireland must be treated as an integral part of the UK, until a border poll determines otherwise…”

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Since the unionist voice is almost it’s worth reading this piece into the Slugger record, from Owen Polley in the Irish Times… If the withdrawal agreement’s version of the backstop comes into force, Northern Ireland will be prevented from leaving the single market and the customs union with the rest of the UK. In order to ship goods into the North, companies from Great Britain will have to complete a customs declaration because, by law, they will be operating from … Read more