Friday 31 May 2019

The Border and the Backstop


On the final pages of his detailed "Legacy of a Century of Irish Politics" Irish historian Diarmaid Ferriter writes:

[The] draft agreement on British withdrawal from the EU . . included a protocol relating to Northern Ireland  covering a backstop - in the even t of the EU and  UK failing to agree  to  their future relationships  by 31st December 2020 - to avoid a hard border in Ireland.  This detailed that in the absence of a future deal, the whole of the UK  would stay aligned with the EU customs union instead of just a specific rule applying to Northern Ireland  as originally proposed.  The UK also agreed under he terms of this new backstop that Northern Ireland would remain aligned with a limited set of rules relating to the EU's single market.

I've quoted this in full as I'm not sure that many of us know precisely what the backstop is, although we've heard it talked about a  lot.

Ferriter goes on:

In response UK Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab resigned and in his resignation letter complained  that the agreement compromised the 'integrity' of the UK  by indicating that Northern Ireland need special arrangements in relation to post-Brexit trade.  This plaintiveness about the purity of the UK and distaste for specific arrangements for Northern Ireland  flew in the face of the history  of Northern Ireland and the British, Irish and European relationships with it.

Ferriter does not here spell it out, but the "specific arrangements" for Northern Ireland within the UK incudes a continued ban on abortions an same sex marriages, some 20 to 25 per cent of its GDP coming from transfers from the UK Exchequer (lots more than we get in Yorkshire) and, wait for it, proportional representation by single transferable vote in multi-member constituencies.

Ferriter than claims:

Despite Raab's  assertions the reality was  that Brexiteers  who offered no coherent  alternative to the draft agreement, did not cherish Northern Ireland; rather it was a convenient  tactic  employed in a distinctly English power game  which also saw them cheering on the DUP in its trenchant opposition to the draft agreement.

And finally, the killer analogy:

There was an element of history repeating itself, with some British Conservatives insisting on 'an extreme and dangerous strategy as they had done  in encouraging Ulster rebellion  against home rule  from 1910 to 1914 to try and gain the upper hand  in domestic politics  rather than because of a passion for Ireland.

 This last is a reference to "Curragh Incident" of 20 March 1914, when British Army officers threatened to resign or accept dismissal (ie Mutiny) rather than deploy against the Ulster Volunteers, forcing the government to cancel planned troop movements.

So the Tories have a history of stopping at nothing, including urging to army to mutiny, in order to gain their ends.

Plus ça change . . .

5 comments:

  1. Despite Raab's assertions the reality was that Brexiteers who offered no coherent alternative to the draft agreement, did not cherish Northern Ireland; rather it was a convenient tactic employed in a distinctly English power game which also saw them cheering on the DUP in its trenchant opposition to the draft agreement.

    This is bizarre. How can it not be cherishing Northern Ireland to cheer on the DUP, when the DUP is the single party involved which most cherishes Northern Ireland's position as part of the Union, and which would be most prepared to go to any lengths to make sure that Northern Ireland never, ever becomes part of the Republic?

    Surely the real 'not cherishing Northern Ireland' would be to continue down the path of fudge established by Major and Blair, which seems designed to blur the constitutional position of Northern Ireland and lead, eventually, to a united Ireland?

    Would you accept an alien power having a say in the running of, say, Yorkshire? If not, but you are prepared to countenance the same in regards to Northern Ireland — then I don't think you can claim to cherish Northern Ireland at all.

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    1. To be fair to you, Ferriter is expressing an opinion rather than stating a fact (Are we back to Nietzsche again - there are no facts, only interpretations?) He is expressing the plausible interpretation that the Tories who cheered on the Ulstermen and encouraged the army to muting were doing so for political advantage in the rest of the UK rather than genuine concern for Northern Ireland. You are entitled to their view they wished to support this then majority of bullying settlers (albeit from way back) who had grabbed the best land for themselves and went our of their way to deprive the Roman catholic minority of their political rights by Gerrymandering and economic fair-does by keeping the best jobs for the Protestants. Neither motive seems particularly noble.

      Moving on to today, if you read Ferriter's book you find documentation which shows that most mainland politicians know very little about Ireland (didn't one recent Secretary of State confess as much?) and probably care less.

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    2. Moving on to today, if you read Ferriter's book you find documentation which shows that most mainland politicians know very little about Ireland (didn't one recent Secretary of State confess as much?) and probably care less.

      Oh, I'm sure. My favourite story is of the new secretary of state who was shown a map of Northern Ireland, colour-coded according to majority demographic: orange for loyalist, green for republican.

      He asked: 'And who lives in the big blue bit in the middle?'

      Mainland politicians know very little of Northern Ireland. That's why they should be listening to the DUP, who do know what's what (after all, they live there) and are committed to keeping Northern Ireland part of the Union.

      That's why — as was my original point — 'cheering on the DUP' can't be seen as not cherishing Northern Ireland. If you cherish Northern Ireland, and are committed to keeping it part of the union and making sure the island of Ireland is never united under a non-British government, then the DUP are exactly who you need to listen to.

      (Well, or the UUP — I'd probably have said to listen to them over the DUP, back in the day, but they seem to have self-destructed / colonised the DUP, and so the DUP are all that's left).

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  2. I like the orange, green and blue story. Hadn't heard that.

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