As Oscar Wilde almost said, to lose one Cabinet minister is unfortunate, to lose two looks like carelessness. We were still drawing our breath at the exit over Brexit by David Davis, when word arrived that Boris Johnson had taken his ball and gone home as well. It looked as if the British government was […]
Tag Archives | BREXIT
Pinning the Brits down, lifting mercury with a fork and related matters
So – with glacial speed, the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference is to meet next month. There have been people – leaders of the SDLP and of Sinn Féin for a start – who have been urging that this should happen. The body was established so that matters of mutual interest to the two governments could be […]
The DUP and that old-time border
Does the DUP want a hard border? Most of us would rather not think about the answer, but it’s vital we do. Unfortunately, it seems the answer is Yes. And No. Let’s start with No. Even the most economically illiterate DUPer knows that a hard border will make life on this island markedly more […]
Noel Whelan tells Sinn Féin what to do
In his article in today’s Irish Times (‘Sinn Féin must end abstentionism’) ( Noel Whelan shows that he’s not very good at counting MPs and even less versed in policies north of the border. Whelan rightly accepts that Sinn Féin cannot end their policy of Westminster abstentionism, since they were elected on an abstentionist mandate. But he urges […]
The EU says “Enough with the ambiguity. Let’s address the bare, brutal facts, Theresa”
Appropriately enough, the Germans have a word for it – Der Tag,The Day. This is the day when the car containing the Tories and the DUP comes hurtling towards the EU wall of reality. How to devise a frictionless border? Easy, the EU is saying, in clear legal language: let the north of Ireland remain […]
Leo and Mary Lou: two new leaders
Normally when a political party replaces an ageing leader with a leader in his/prime, the expectation is that this will give the party a bounce. People will see the new leader the way we look on the first snow-drops or a tentative daffodil tip pushing clear of the soil: something new and fresh and maybe […]
‘What was Fintan talking about and was it a nice thing to say?’
OK – your starter for 10. Who or what was Fintan O’Toole talking about when he said this in a recent article: ‘We have to be careful about this, however.”? Was it a) A decision about men peeling off their tops in hot weather. b) Prince Philip’s decision to cut back on “working” 110 days per […]
Empathy with unionism: a scary experience
Not many people do empathy. I mean the Full Empathy, where you put yourself as completely as possible in the skull of someone else and try to see the world from their point of view. I’ve been driven to this notion of empathy recently by the small matter of James Brokenshire, British Secretary of State […]
Charlie and Bertie: twin towers of southern wisdom
Brendan Behan thought that the one thing capable of making a bad situation worse was the arrival of a policeman. If he were alive today, he might want to add “Or a dim-witted comment from a major Fine Gael/Fianna Fail politician.” What kind of dim-witted comment you ask, Virginia? In the case of C Flanagan, […]
Martina and what she asked Theresa to do with the border
I’ve just finished taking part in a discussion with Edwina Currie on the Nolan radio show, where we were talking about Martina Anderson’s recent speech in the European Parliament. As you probably know by now, the speech drew attention, not primarily because Martina was talking about the impact of Brexit on the border here, but […]