Leo, unionism and the hanging tree

‘Radical’ and ‘reasonable’ – do those two words have the same meaning? Even a similar flavour?  Not to my nostrils, and yet except the two can come together and make nice, Stormont will stay shut for the foreseeable future and maybe forever (stop crying, Virginia).

The radical thing comes, of course, from the DUP. They say they’ll not go back into government except radical changes are made to the protocol.  The reasonable thing comes from Leo Varadkar. The politically born-again Taoiseach has said he’s in favour of being not just reasonable but flexible as well. The British prime minister’s office has said it has always favoured being flexible.

Will the two views converge? Certainly the two words seem unlikely to meet. If someone is doing a gymnastic routine,  you might well say “Hey, I’m impressed – that’s really flexible movement. Wow.” But to declare someone’s gymnastic routine radical, they’d need to put their left leg over their right shoulder and suck their big toe. Or something of that nature. Not a routine you’d see every day.

But Leo is not stopping with just ‘flexible’. He says mistakes were made ‘on both sides’ with the protocol, that it was ‘too strict’ in its original form, and he’s looking forward to travelling north “early in the new year” and talking to all parties, particularly unionists.

Will unionists welcome him for talks? Not if we’re to believe the graffiti. One example that’s quoted in the media:

‘An Ode to Leo Varadkar

We have a noose, we have a tree

Just need a neck, whose will it be

Set foot in Ulster, cross that line

We guarantee that you will hang’.

(No, Virginia, they don’t clarify if this unhappy fate will befall Leo if he visits Donegal, Monaghan or Cavan. Graffiti artists here aren’t always that astute geographically.)

Anyway, you do get the feeling that Leo is thinking of doing an encore. You remember the back-stop blind alley, and how a few words from Leo with the British prime minister got everyone out of the cul-de-sac? It seems Leo would like some more of that political capital, and to emerge once more as the man who bridged the gulf between unionists and the EU.

But has anyone asked Jeffrey Donaldson or Jim Allister or Doug Beattie if they agree with the graffito?  I mean, they’re all opposed to violence, aren’t they? Or threats of violence? Speak up, guys. We can’t hear you.

(No, Virginia, I have no idea where this tree is growing. Maybe the wall artist was taking artistic licence.)