Starmer is right to call out Johnson on Protocol
I TOTALLY concur with the British opposition leader Keir Starmer after he accused Boris Johnson of having betrayed the people of Northern Ireland.
It was good to hear him express this opinion during his recent official engagements in the North.
Boris Johnson , David Frost et al seem to be impotent when it comes to negotiating in good faith. The choices now facing unionists are binary in that they are going to have to accept a customs border on the island of Ireland, or a customs border in the Irish Sea.
The vast preponderance of neutral observers would appreciate and give their imprimatur to food checks happening at the ports.
It would be ludicrous to countenance a multiplicity of checkpoints on this island. If this were to happen, the collateral damage that would ensue could very well be catastrophic, which of course would be in direct contravention of the Good Friday Agreement.
The Protocol is here to stay. This is the hard fact of life that unionists will now have to accept.
It would help if the Tories who negotiated this deal with their EU counterparts were more transparent and honest about this with their unionist colleagues.
It would also be a wonderful breakthrough if unionists could one day accept that the citizens of the Republic have no desire whatsoever to colonise them.
It’s always been my understanding that a shared and respectful island is what the majority of our citizens yearn for.
It seems to me that this might be a time for unionists to tread with enormous caution and reflect on decisions that they are now going to make.
Unionists now need to realise that the majority of people support the Protocol as this agreement offers the people of Northern Ireland access to the EU and British markets.
JOHN O’BRIEN, Co. Kilkenny.
DUP’s false apology
TYPICAL of its 50-year history, the DUP continues to speak out of both sides of its mouth.
Last week, we had its third leader in three months, Jeffrey Donaldson, apologising to all and sundry for any hurt or insult caused by the party in the past.
Fast forward to last Friday where a contentious giant bonfire had been built beside the peace line in Belfast.
The PSNI, in turn, refused to police its removal.
Donaldson visited the site and declared that the bonfire, along with its bigoted effigies, should be allowed to go ahead because it was part of Loyalist tradition. Get a morality check Jeffrey!
DECLAN MOORE, by email.
Save our hedgehogs
IT’S sad to see hedgehogs getting flattened on the roads – an unintended side effect of modern civilisation. In past times they had little to bother them apart from when misguided humans battered them with sticks or kicked them.
Unfortunately it’s not just road traffic nowadays that our spiky friends have to contend with. Pesticides kill them too, resulting in prolonged and excruciating deaths for the poor creatures.
Substances used to control garden pests end up dispatching these nocturnal creatures that do more than any pesticide to keep slugs, worms, beetles, caterpillars, millipedes and snails at bay.
They devour these unwanted visitors whenever and wherever they find them.
Being protected under the 1976 Wildlife Act doesn’t prevent the poisoning of this harmless and helpful mammal that should be made welcome in every garden.
Human care and discretion are required to keep the hedgehogs alive. I’ve read of a woman in England who goes out of her way to lure them into her garden for the specific purpose of pest control.
People became more aware of the hedgehog during lockdown, and hopefully that will boost awareness of its plight.
Its habitat needs protecting too in this age of slash and burn, and rampant urbanisation, especially the hedgerows that sustain its fragile existence.
Let’s do everything possible to preserve this wonderful creature, a treasure of our wildlife heritage and the gardener’s best friend. JOHN FITZGERALD,
Co. Kilkenny.
Delay the Olympics
THERE is the well-known philosophical question, ‘If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?’ This could be extended this summer to: ‘If no one goes to the Olympics, did they happen?’
The Japanese government has decided that there will be no crowds at the 2021 Olympics, which seems a wise and quite expected decision. What will really be different? The athletes will still be able to compete unless there are positive cases and then events will stop and eventually maybe the competition will stop.
There will still be winners and some records will probably be broken, but at what risk to the athletes’ and officials’ health?
Perhaps it would be better to come back in 2024 for the safety of everyone, although given how a number of countries are handling the Covid virus that might be 2028 or 2032.
The world has bigger problems than who will win the 100m race and the Usain Bolt record isn’t likely to be beaten for a long time. Sit at home, watch it in safety and cheer through your masks.