UK Cabinet: “Northern Ireland” Is Leverage In Brexit Negotiations With The EU

Leverage in Brexit talks with the European Union. That is is how senior officials in the government of the United Kingdom view the nationalist and unionist communities in the north-east of Ireland and the peace accords which have kept them relatively safe over the last two decades. The admission was made during a stormy meeting of the UK Cabinet in London, as Politico notes:

Both the Times and the Guardian tell how Attorney General Geoffrey Cox — the U.K. government’s chief legal adviser — told Cabinet yesterday the proposal would see Northern Ireland “torn out of the U.K.” and mean “the U.K. has no leverage in future talks.”

So much for Prime Minister Theresa May’s “precious, precious union”. Meanwhile, Jeffrey Donaldson of the Democratic Unionist Party, the parliamentary allies of the governing Conservative Party in the House of Commons, has made this contribution to the ongoing Brexit debate:

“…the Union is more important than anything else.”

So who’s fooling who?

There is a fundamental misunderstanding about the #DUP – one that is offensive. These are MPs who enter public service, often under threat of death, who have seen friends killed in cold blood – and who put the Union before all else. To suggest otherwise is to re-write history….

— Mark Pritchard MP (@MPritchardUK) October 13, 2018

2 comments on “UK Cabinet: “Northern Ireland” Is Leverage In Brexit Negotiations With The EU”

GW

October 17, 2018

Absolutely it is – essentially this part of the British negotiating position amounts to a protection racket move: “Nice peace process and open border you’ve got there – shame if anything was to happen to it…”

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Grace

October 17, 2018

Right now a lot of people from outside Europe and the UK who’ve watched the whole Northern Ireland don’t know what to think. Those of us who remember the “song” we heard when Troubles still raged, are finding this utterly incomprehensible. At the time a lot of people seemed extremely upset by Troubles and talked as if not wanting all the bombings and killings to continue was their sole agenda with regards to Ireland.

I’m not sure if what I’m looking at here is:

a) An extreme case of historical amnesia (possible since terrorism in the US during the 1970’s, during other periods, and even Timothy McVeigh have largely been forgotten-unlike 9/11).

b) If the Britons I’ve met or talked to (same with everyone I know) simply aren’t all that representative of Britons at large. (Also very possible since, I’ve never met an actual Tory and nobody else I’ve spoken to has met any Tories.)

c) We’ve been “had” to one degree. And if some Britons actually didn’t put certain things on the table when talking to people in the US, Canada, Mexico, Latin America, or South America because they knew it wouldn’t win sympathy and might even offend people.

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