I’ve never met Diane Dodds but she strikes me as a pleasant little woman. Not given, as far as I can judge, to outbursts of rage or spleen, Which is probably just as well, since she’s married to Nigel Dodds, something most of us wouldn’t wish on our worst enemy. But Diane has been thrust into the headlights of late, since she’s the DUP MEP in Brussels.
In recent days she’s been engaged in the extraordinary activity of arguing herself out of a job. When Brexit comes – if Brexit comes – our little NEN, as part of the mother-ship UK, will no longer have representation in the European parliament. So goodbye Diane, although no doubt she’ll leave clutching a decent pension.
But the interesting thing is not that Diane’s leaving – it’s that she doesn’t want anyone else from our NEN to take her place. This must be one of the few instances where a politician has been in favour of power being taken away from their home area. The south of Ireland, under new EU rules, will have two extra European seats, and there is serious consideration being given to passing these to our little NEN.
Diane doesn’t like that sort of talk.”Any attempt by an Irish government to allow for the election of representatives to speak on behalf of Northern Ireland would renege upon commitments given as part of the Northern Ireland peace process”.
So how would two MEPs being passed to our NEN set the peace process at risk?
“It would effectively reverse the decision of the Irish people to rightly give up the false claim to jurisdiction over UK territory that had previously made up parts 2 and 3 of the Irish Constitution.”
The newspaper that reports Diane’s words doesn’t give us any description of what she did immediately after delivering the lines. Perhaps she put back her head and laughed long and hard. Perhaps she hung her head and silently asked her Maker to forgive her for what she said. Maybe she just sat and blushed. Because you’d need to have some bodily response to that bit where she talks about “the false claim to jurisdiction over UK territory” that was made by Articles 2 and 3 of the Irish constitution – that is, the ones that laid claim to all of Ireland.
Diane, I know, is a peace-loving person. And I’ve no reason to doubt she is of average intelligence or better. But she must know that when it comes to false claims to jurisdiction over places, it’s not the south of Ireland that’s leading the parade. It’s the UK mothership. She must also know that having two MEPs representing the interests of our NEN would be a plus, since it might allow problems peculiar to our NEN to be heard.
But we all know what is really behind Diane’s words and the DUP’s clenched-teeth opposition to the two MEP seats being given to us by the south. Number One, it means that the south has done us a good turn, and they might expect a matching gesture of goodwill, and the DUP doesn’t do good will or generous gestures. Number Two, it would mean that our NEN would be different from the rest of the UK, which would be without a single MEP. Any difference would mean another couple of nuts and bolts that hold our NEN in the Union would have been loosened. And the DUP couldn’t have that.
Except that they have no choice. Our NEN, by a clear majority, wants to stay in the EU; Diane and the DUP are resolutely marching the opposite direction. Stand by for further ping-and-rattle sounds as the UK slowly comes apart.
When they were courting, I don’t imagine Nigel sang “The Times They Are A-Changing” into Diane’s ear. But he might now.
Comments are closed.