There were news reports yesterday that Northern Ireland is facing food shortages because hauliers and their customers do not appreciate, or believe, that there is now a Customs border in the Irish Sea. Johnson's outright lies on this issue are fuelling the confusion.
I tweeted this in response:
Northern Ireland is facing food shortages because Boris Johnson keeps insisting there is no border in the Irish Sea and there is. But then the English have never given a damn about the Irish going hungry.
— Richard Murphy (@RichardJMurphy) January 6, 2021
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Great Britain now means England.
The people of N.Ireland are expendable when Boris needs to save face.He caved in to the EU following the build up at ports following Macron’s dastardly but clever ploy at blocking movements under the guise of the variant strain of Covid.
His attitude to N.Ireland offers succour to the insidious Sinn Fein in their aspirations for Irish unity.
This will be well noted by the First Ministers of Scotland and Wales.
Sin Fein is supported by a significant part of the Norther Ireland population – and every border constituency
I am no lover of its past. Might we deal with the present?
And Gibraltar….they voted to remain, so now they are!!
Both in Scotland and in Northern Ireland it’s becoming a real struggle to see how being in the United Kingdom benefits us. The Tories are breathtakingly incompetent.
You know they’re going to be surprised and indignant when Northern Ireland leaves the UK. “After all we’ve done for them,” they’ll say.
I’m struggling to see the value of remaining in the union, sitting in Northern England…
Again, my brother who drives lorries from Ireland has confirmed that his paperwork at previously easy to clear borders has increased. It is also being handled by customs people at Fishguard and Holyhead and Dover not wearing masks and gloves as they look through it and check it. He sent me a picture of it – it is quite a wad. No wonder things are slowing down.
Lies? Oh yes – indeed.
You’d think they’d be making more of an effort to protect the hauliers. Don’t they want trade?
I don’t understand why the left are so quiet on the issue of a united Ireland – something they have supported for a long time. Brexit is the perfect opportunity. And I suspect the vast majority of people in England, Scotland and Wales would not object.
I have always been in favour of the idea
But for decades it was hard to say so in a positive way because of IRA violence
The 1916 Rising established the cult of the Mythical, Mystical Republic (MMR). De Valera led his followers out of the Dáil in 1921 because the Treaty didn’t deliver his version of the MMR — Ireland: Gaelic, Catholic and Free. He eventually got devotion to the cult of the MMR in the form a United Ireland (UI) enshrined in the Constitution in 1937 — until the relevant articles were replaced in the 1998 referendum ratifying the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement. However, Sinn Féin (SF) remained, and remains, devoted to the cult of the MMR — and justified its campaign of violence from 1970 to 1998 on that basis. It has now bolted on the People’s Democratic Socialist tag to the cult of the MMR.
The old 2 and ½ party system in the southern jurisdiction, Ireland, has imploded into a shambolic governing rump with SF as the main opposition. There is no longer a functioning competitive democracy as SF, on its own, will not be able to muster the popular support to win power and no other party (other than the anti-capitalist, anti-western fringe) will touch it with a barge-pole.
So it looks like a UI will require an extension and expansion of the current power-splitting in NI with power split among some configuration of the current governing rump, the DUP (or a successor) representing unionists and SF.
Its a clear majority of people in NI that have to be happy with a single state solution in Ireland, and there’s no sign of opinion breaking that way at the minute. Believe it or not, there are a lot of ‘small u’ unionists in NI who’d fear rule by a set of Dublin public-school boys in a tax-haven economy more than rule by a set of London ones.
Labour could fill a vacuum in NI for a non-sectarian, cross-community, left of centre party, the place is crying out for it, the exhaustion with the bigot brothers of SF/DUP is palpable. A well resourced campaign could yield up to a dozen Westminster seats for them and break the sectarian log-jam in NI politics.
But for now obscure historical reasons they don’t. Happy to take membership subscriptions from NI but totally forbid any organisation for representation there. Imagine a party of the left deliberately disenfranchising one and a half million UK citizens because of where they live.
I think you seriously misread things if you think Labour could win anything in NI
Sorry, but that makes no sense at all
I understand that Brandon Lewis explained recently that there isn’t a border in the Irish Sea. He also said Donald Trump is a good friend of UK.
Tells me all that I need to know.
For me in the Brexit ‘debate’ it was seeing Patrick Kielty do a TV programme where he visited the various communities on the NI / Ireland border, that reinforced my view on just how bad Brexit is.
In a very real way, prior to Brexit, the island of Ireland was becoming united in as much as it was so much more at peace than any time in modern history.
For several years the inevitable break up of the U.K. has been centred on Scotland leaving. Now I think it’s entirely conceivable that a united Ireland will happen first.
Politicians at WM, and the British establishment in general, seem willing to fight tooth and nail to keep Scotland in the Union. The SNP position is to await WM granting another referendum on WM terms. It looks like being a long road to independence.
The historical support of some people in Northern Ireland for the Union, now seems exactly that. History. It has no connection to the modern world and remaining in the U.K. now appears more of a hindrance to improved quality of life than any benefit.
Adding food shortages to the current complex, half baked arrangement for Northern Ireland, combined with WM taking it for granted, can only lead to the public there looking for a better solution outside of the U.K.
I very nearly responded by paraphrasing all that Gordon McKendrick wrote. I’d only add that Irish reunification has Irish media to speed its arrival. Scotland has one independence-minded newspaper against the BBC and a hostile UK press. I’m backing Reunification to win this race, which saddens me because the longer Scotland is held in this Union, the harder the Union will make separation.
Possibly this is a silly and parochial question edging off topic, but, were NI’s situation eased by reunification, and NI better served from its South, what might happen to the Belfast – Cairnryan crossing? Another Brexit-shaped dent in SW Scotland’s economy to add to its seed potatoes and coastal fishery?
Good question…
The English attitude to the Irish has not changed since the potato famine of the 1840s or the Black and Tans of the early 20th century.
What Happens to the Irish Border Now Britain’s Out? How Brexit Impacts the Irish Border – TLDR News
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGLagjHoc64
Reports of the speed of supply chain re-organisation suggest that most of Northern Ireland will be supplied from Eire by the end of 2021. The 150,000 lorry movements across the “land bridge” from Eire to EU are rapidly moving to sea routes.
I believe you
It’s a mess, an ill thought through botch job by a lazy, weak liar of a PM to get him out of a sticky situation….which typically lands him in a much stickier one sometime later.
Johnson’s mess, but others are culpable.
The DUP could have avoided this blow to their core purpose by switching their support in the then hung parliament to a Customs Union type deal. In Oct 19 it became apparent Johnson would sacrifice NI but the DUP didn’t react, they got muddled over their priorities and placed Brexit above Union.
The EU & RoI’s willingness to weaponise the border and use it as a leverage tool in Brexit negotiations was equally reprehensible. Claiming to protect the peace by suggesting the threat of violence against the peace if they didn’t get their way was cynical in the extreme.
Neither side really give a damn about the people of Northern Ireland, they were just tools to be used as in a game of chicken. Johnson lost, but it’s not his, or Varadkar’s, supermarket shelves that are empty tonight.
The EU made clear from the outset that it had to protect its single market and customs union. It didn’t “weaponise” the border. It was Britain creating the land border.
It’s a disgrace that the Labour Party has not organised in Ireland. A complete abdication of responsibility. Ireland has needed a non sectarian socialist party since 1916 and has been shockingly let down by the Labour/Socialist movement.
Labour abandoned Ireland last June when it could have shown leadership in the border. It did not.
Apparently according to my brother, ports like Liverpool are backing up as stuff going into Northern Island tends to come through Scotland from Europe. This could all change. He’s used Dublin and he says its a mess – only half ready and unable to cope competently – causing huge delays which he says are inexcusable.
He reports that drivers with refrigerated trucks on the Northern Ireland run have been running out of diesel whilst waiting for customs clearance and loads being spoilt because of delays (he comes in from Rosslaire to Fishguard – where he was asked for money). Morale is very low in the haulage industry at the moment and he says the business is also pulling its hair out.
Trucks have been turning up without paperwork which should have been forwarded by computer A document called a T1). A ferry full turned up like this at Fishguard and had not the ferry already left, the port would have sent them back as there is no capacity to ‘store’ waiting trucks. Compromises are being made to keep things running.
And again, even though we are in some form of lockdown, face masks and gloves seem to have been forgotten about.
Going back to an earlier point, by not being able to vote for ‘mainland’ UK parties the Northern Irish electorate are to some extent disenfranchised.
Were they to be able to vote for Lib/Lab/Con candidates the current politics in both NI & the UK may have been different.
I suggest you look at Scotland……
Sorry, but I can’t really skip over that so lazy remark from JP about “Dublin public schoolboys” in the Irish government. I could take him up on the rambling about weaponising the border, but I won’t . As a matter of record, and forgive the pedantry, the full members of the current cabinet are:
Micheal Martin – Taoiseach – educated in Colaiste Chriost Ri (in UK parlance, a state school)
Leo Varadkar – Tanaiste – King’s Hospital (private – in UK parlance, a public school)
Paschal Donohoe – Finance – St Declan’s CBS (state)
Simon Coveney – Foreign Affairs – Clongowes Wood (private)
Norma Foley – Education – Presentation Secondary School (state)
Helen McEntee – Justice – St Joseph’s Mercy Secondary School (state)
Michael McGrath – Public Expenditure and Reform – not public
Stephen Donnelly – Health – not public
Daragh O’Brien – Housing, Local Government & Heritage – Malahide Community School (state)
Charlie McConalogue – Agriculture, Food & Marine – Carndonagh Community School (state)
Heather Humphreys – Social Protection; Rural & Community Development – St Aidan’s Comprehensive School (state)
Simon Harris – Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science – St David’s Secondary School (state)
Eamonn Ryan – Environment, Climate Change; Transport – Gonzaga (private)
Catherine Martin – Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media – not public
Roderic Gorman – Children, Equality, Disability, Integration & Youth – not public
Of those I can find about, three out of 15 went to private school. If all the rest went too, it would still be only seven out of 15. In addition, five of the 15 are from Dublin. – so not a cabinet overrun with Dublin public schoolboys.
I’m perfectly fine, Richard, if you choose not to publish my comment because it’s not on topic, I’m a journalist so I have to get things spot on or else I’m in trouble.
Appreciated Ralph
There is no doubt an Irish elite, but this is not its issue
The issue as far as I can see is how either Neo-liberalism or populism has inculcated into the Left and Right, whatever their social back ground.
Fair play Ralph, but perception can be everything and looking in from the outside there appears to be a very strong South-Dublin elite running things and two indistinguishable brands of centre-right conservatism sharing a political duopoly.
It’s no accident the Republic of Ireland is described as ‘the largest tax-haven in the world’, and not everyone in NI is wild about being subsumed into this.
In the context of Andrew James point over the (UK)left being quiet on the issue of ‘uniting’ Ireland it’s important to point out that for the vast bulk of the NI electorate the choice of nationalism(s) goes beyond flag waving and sentimental balladry.
And it can come down to stuff like “Do you want to pay €50 to visit your GP?”, or losing automatic access to GB universities, or losing the BBC, and access to the NHS – free vaccines are well underway in NI now, still none in RoI – or ending the career opportunities with the British Army and UK civil service….etc, and those are real concrete reasons that no Irish nationalist has ever begun to address.
No one calls Ireland the largest tax haven in the world because it very clearly is not
Just check the evidence
The U.K. is much bigger
You offer some other irrational bases for decision making as well
I have as a result decided you are not making a useful contribution to debate and a, deleting other deeply prejudiced and unhelpful comments
Paul Hunt has scathing words for SF and says nobody will touch them yet we all have to move on. Arlene Foster and the DUP have managed to work with SF and together are running a devolved government in Northern Ireland. They may both be holding their noses but they are doing it. Cooperation with SF will happen in the South too in time.
Remember that pretty well all parties in the Republic came out of the war of Independence and the Civil War. Some renounced violence 100 years ago, others 25 years go. Time passes; new generations look to the future.
Agreed
Whatever else one might think of him, Liverpudlian William Ewart Gladstone was a towering influence in the history and politics of these British Isles. One thing he hugely cared about was Irish independence, and was massively concerned about the Irish going hungry, engineering the repeal of the Corn Laws to achieve this. He tried many times over a long career to get independence for Ireland through Parliament, but was thwarted constantly by what we’d today call “deep state”. To lazily tweet, “…the English have never given a damn about the Irish going hungry” is somewhat disingenuous, I feel. As with today, certain elements of “deep state” at the time had their own agendas. De Valera would not have got a look in if Gladstone had had his way, and Ireland would not have had to suffer in the first half of the 20th century.
I’m a Scot, born, bred and resident. But it gives me no pleasure to bring you, an Englishman, up on this.
I agree with much of what you say in these pages, Richard, but with other parts I disagree. Thank goodness for healthy debate, and please, please keep it going. We sure need people like you just now (and forever) – people amenable to frank and open discourse and amicable disagreement.
In the spirit of this, in connection with the breakup of the union of the UK, whilst it might be inevitable, it may not be desirable in the long run. One can never know the future, so should be very careful about what one wishes for. To be desirable it needs proper debate and respect, without which much resentment will breed. I fear that there will not be proper debate, and far less respect; both will simply be replaced by emotion. Indeed this is all I’ve seen so far, apart from in your pages.
Just my two pennorth.
I have to disagree with you, precisely because Gladstone failed due to the reasons you note, which make my case
De Valera was a terrible leader for Ireland – keeping it in poverty. But I am not sure the issues are related.
Yes the UK govt has little time or sympathy with NI ,it was largely an inconvenient issue in the Brexit talks. But if NI does not want a hard border, which seems to be the case, then the next logical step is towards a United Ireland, which political implications aside, is probably the best answer for all concerned. It is going to come at some point in any case for sure, history seems to be heading that way.
Living in the NE of England, personally I would take any city ruling over this region than London to be honest.,,as long as it was in the North : )
It is not just NI which is suffering. Expats in EU are being charged customs duties on goods ordered from UK, on delivery.
I am waiting to see if duties will be demanded for some compression socks ordered from Denmark.
Our hooligan government has not got a clue what it has done!
Brexit has created a UK internal market that is smaller than the sum of its parts. Quite incredible.
Is it constitutional to have one part of the UK trading on different terms than the rest? Given we don’t have a written constitution it’s probably a moot point but I wonder if Scotland could now put forward a legal challenge to be allowed to trade on the same terms as NI or leave the union?
Ireland has cleverly offered NI the ability to stay in Erasmus and EHIC. The process of integration has begun. All NI residents can apply for an Irish passport. Many Catholics have already done so but you would expect many more unionists to become pragmatic now and take up the opportunity to improve their travel and freedom of movement options. It makes economic sense. The everyday reality of an easier life will win out.
Ireland should consider devolution and offer it to Stormont as well as the regions.
Given the reality of a United Ireland within the next decade and a good possibility of an independent Scotland; the unknown known will be the notion of Little England nationalism amidst the veneer of diversity of ‘multicultural society’. A bilateral trade deal with Modi’s India will go a long way to paper up the cracks in the political economy of these old ‘friends’
Except many of us have considerable concerns about Modi. The reasons are easy to find.
The level of disenfranchisement in Northern Ireland is even greater than suggested.
Sinn Fein hold 7 of the 18 seats held by NI MPs in the UK government. While they do have a certain presence in Westminster in that they have offices and do take part in behind the scenes negotiations, they refuse on principle to take up their seats in Parliament, to take part in public debate or to vote. When I write to my Sinn Fein MP in his capacity as an MP, he does not reply. When I then contact his office and ask why, I’m told that the party has a policy of abstentionism and that he cannot represent me or take up my query. It’s a consistent problem and has happened many times.
The constituency I live in might as well not have an MP at all.
What I am told is that the biggest practical obstacle to a United Ireland is that the Republic does not have free health care in the way that Northern Ireland does.
The Northern Irish are probably not that keen to give it up & the Republic is presumably equally not keen to revise its own system
Bigger problems have been overcome