Rishi Sunak will hope he gets a deal on Northern Ireland today.
So do I. Most especially for the people of Northern Ireland. It is about time a politician did the right thing by them.
Let's be clear though. Northern Ireland voted to stay in the EU. It was the likes of Sunak, by supporting Johnson's folly on Brexit, who created the mess that at so many levels has been witnessed there since Brexit happened.
It is the Tories, with their fear of their own DUP inspired right wing, who have exacerbated and exploited this mess. It is they who will still oppose it and seek to create instability as a result.
And it is Sunak who has dithered all along on this issue.
And now, with staggering political incompetence, Sunak apparently wants to involve the King in this agreement. I presume he thinks this would imply it was Unionist and that this might dissipate concern amongst some in Northern Ireland. All I see is a play to sectarianism and the politicisation of the royal family which cannot be good for them when the runes suggest the UK is coming to its end as a union.
Today will no doubt reveal twists and turns. It may not even deliver. But there is one thing we do know. This is that none of this was necessary. We need never have left the EU. It was fools like Sunak who argued that we should. He does not deserve any plaudits for sorting out the mess that he and Boris Johnson created.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
One of the worst acts of self-harm this country has ever foisted on itself continues to give its negative returns.
The DUP – well – what can you say? They should be taken to court under the trades description act – there is nothing democratic about them – they should be named the Opportunistic Union Party
I do hope that people realise that we’ve had a coup in this country led by some deeply flawed human beings and paid for by lots of dodgy money.
If Sunak does pull something off, will we see any success that reflected in the polls I wonder? It has an air of desperation about it.
Rachel Reeves this morning on radio 4 said ‘that ship has sailed’ meaning Labour won’t revisit the decision to re-join the single market. This was just after she said that services had been ‘shortchanged’ by Brexit making it difficult for financial, musical and other services to sell in Europe.
Yet polls have shown consistently over the last four years that a majority think Brexit was a mistake, and the lead among those who think so has grown from a few percent to about twenty percent. We know it is costing us tens of billions-estimates vary.
Can Labour not ‘listen to the people’ and, at least, say they will review the results?
That claim is the epitome of political nonsense
Nonsense indeed.
I can understand the political desire not to open up a Brexit debate – the distribution of voters around the country is a danger. Young remainers are piled high in the cities but in small town and rural seats it’s a different story – “hardcore” Brexiteers are a significant force. If they are fully mobilised and if voter suppression (via ID requirements) proves to be serious then it could mean Labour fails to win.
Having said that, there is no need for Labour to be so rigid. There is a narrative that could work…..
“Red tape is tying our small exporters in knots. The reality on the ground is that it is damaging – more damaging than, perhaps, most people thought it would be when we chose to leave the EU. We need to explore ways to improve this and that is what a responsible Labour government would do”
No need for details – indeed detail would arm its opponents. But it would give wiggle room to agree an effective rejoining of the Single Market at a reasonably early stage.
That would work….
It makes sense when you understand that the Tories are now effectively UKIP in all but name whilst New New Labour occupy the ground once held by May era Tories. So for New New Labour the road to victory relies on attracting the UKIP vote Johnson appealed to in order to gain power.
Sunak will have to rely on Labour and SNP votes to get any “deal”, whatever that is (the ERG and DUP will be against anything suggested)., through Parliament. The Tory right-wing won’t be happy and will be bound to kick up a hell of a fuss, delaying things yet again.
I see that even the Daily Mail (see today’s front page headline), doesn’t know which way to jump. I would describe this level of brazen dimwittedness as ‘end-game’ territory for a Party and Government that has run our of road; but the truth is, Britain is now so far ‘gone’, the road to perdition is clearly never going to end.
Meanwhile, we need an Australian start-up which seems only to have appeared in 2021(?), in order to make a fist of building batteries in the UK, and actually have any power for all the electric cars we urgently require. We have taken deindustrialisation so far, it seems we can’t do anything at all now, except services. Yet our domestic service industries are on their knees, and have insufficient labour (largely because of Brexit); and the growth of services in the UK has never delivered the required, or promised productivity gains. Our neoliberal, Conservative led economy is a forty year, failed experiment; we are living though a period, not of relative decline in the world; but of now sharply accelerating decline.
John Warren is right – I agree.
I thought that things might plateau – but as we have seen, ‘inward investment’ is just a flag of convenience for warehousing wealth or just laundering it or passing it on.
How these Tory bastards can fly the union jack and pretend to be for our country is beyond me when you get to the truth of the issue.
We need a political party of nation builders in our next government not a demolition squad which we’ve had since 2010.
Nor do we want Bodgit & Scarper which is increasingly what Kier Stymied’s Labour party looks like – who’ll just patch us up on the cheap and cross their fingers behind their back.
Well, Sunak has a deal.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-windsor-framework
Seems he has the ERG onside so he’ll be able to get it through parliament, but how will the DUP react?
They have a sort of veto
It’s weak, but it may be enough
It looks a clever trick, but whether it is enough who knows.
Northern Ireland has a veto over becoming subject to future EU regulations, which is what the DUP want – but only if Stormont functions which needs the DUP to accept that they will be the second-ranked party and I suspect that it is avoidance of that which has been their main motivation.
No one foresaw that ploy.
To be fair, the EU has been very brave in allowing external agency in rule-setting. But it puts the DUP in an interesting Catch-22, they don’t like EU regulations applying to NI but can’t oppose it without blocking one of the very things they want.
There is also the ERG, but with Baker and Heaton-Harris batting for the government there is a reasonable gamble that the number of rebels will be manageable. And Starmer has been helpful in saying he will support a resolution, Tory opponents will know they will be fighting a losing battle and have more to lose than gain.
Interesting times. While I am not sure Sunak governs for the good of the country, this is a battle I would rather he didn’t lose.
I like your analysis