Brexiteers don’t care for their own people, never mind the Irish and Good Friday Agreement
LET’S blame the peace process and its Frankenstein’s monster offspring, the Good Friday Agreement, for erecting a roadblock against a hard Brexit – that’s the latest position adopted by extremist Tories. They are playing with dynamite.
I have lived through civil war in Northern Ireland, and I have lived through peace. I know which I prefer. The Good Friday Agreement is a triumph – the most positive and far-reaching political achievement in my lifetime and yours.
British people who opted for Brexit didn’t tick a box saying dismantle the Good Friday Agreement, too – mostly, the consequences didn’t cross their radar. Any attempt to explain there would have been ramifications for the Irish settlement would have been rejected as scaremongering. Now that the question of the Irish Border can no longer be dismissed, Tory arch-Brexiteers have a cunning plan. Attack the Good Friday Agreement.
What they’re doing isn’t just irresponsible, but lethal. The hardliners don’t care – they believe themselves to be insulated from the repercussions, unlike people living on the island of Ireland. Let the Irish revert to civil war, they shrug, filing it under ‘Price Worth Paying’. Ireland would be the major loser in terms of peace, prosperity and stability, of course, but these blinkered ultras are forgetting Canary Wharf, Brighton and other atrocities on their soil.
Consider the pronouncements issuing from staunch Conservatives in the British political firmament, although also from maverick Labour MP Kate Hoey (who appears to be auditioning for membership of Ukip). The Good Friday Agreement has “failed”, according to MEP Daniel Hannan. It has “outlived” its use, says former cabinet minister Owen Paterson. It needs a “cold, rational look” claims Ms Hoey.
Notice a pattern? There’s more. High Tory Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has leadership aspirations, is cavalier about violence reigniting. “Some have recklessly speculated that Brexit would be a cause for the resumption of terrorism,” he confided to ‘Daily Telegraph’ readers. The recklessness entirely on his side.
Busy penning the Good Friday Agreement’s obituary, these people are all but offering the use of their office equipment to shred it as they seek to prioritise their hard Brexit above our hard-won peace. Is there nothing they won’t sacrifice? Apparently not. Swathes of their own population don’t matter to them, let alone the Irish.
The Good Friday Agreement has not failed. It has transformed Ireland, north and south. It has put us on a friendly footing with our near neighbour, Britain. Above all, it has ended 30 years of conflict: a generation has grown up free from warfare.
Crucially, it was supported in two plebiscites by the people of this island. That’s the will of the populace in action – not Brexiteers spinning to dismantle an international treaty because they find themselves inconvenienced by its conditions.
The agreement represents a barrier to a hard Brexit. An invisible Border was negotiated and accepted. But a cynical attempt is under way by the hard-right to turn public opinion against the agreement, hand in hand with a false suggestion that Britain unilaterally can set it aside.
My friends, you cannot. Change is only possible if both parties are willing. The agreement is composed of two interlocking documents: an international pact held in the UN and signed by the sovereign governments of Ireland and Great Britain, and a multiparty agreement reached by most of the North’s political parties. The DUP was the only major party to oppose it, but could not halt the tide.
A blindingly obvious solution to Britain’s current difficulties regarding the Irish Border exists: allow Northern Ireland to remain in the customs union. That would remove the need for a hard Border and preserve the Good Friday Agreement. However, DUP politicians are throwing up their hands in horror: they regard that as loosened ties, their ideological stance blinding them to all but union with Britain. The DUP has committed itself to preventing “internal barriers”, ie between the North and Britain.
The idea that the North is indivisible from Britain in every regard is nonsense. Northern Ireland has its own banknotes which aren’t accepted in British shops. British laws don’t apply wholesale in the North – for example, gay marriage and abortion are legal in Britain but not in Northern Ireland. Consequently, the DUP view that the North can’t be treated differently by staying within the customs union bears no scrutiny.
The cynicism of Tory arch-Brexiteers, the blindness of the DUP, the self-serving motivations of both are not just disheartening but downright dangerous. They must be challenged.
Their position regarding the Irish Border is contradictory, and rather than engage with
A cynical attempt is under way by the hard-right to turn public opinion against the agreement, hand in hand with a false suggestion that Britain can set it aside
the illogical elements, their solution is to throw doubt on an agreement of outstanding historical importance. “I, for one, will not have the Good Friday Agreement torn up just to facilitate a very awkward negotiation that’s going on between the United Kingdom and the European Commission,” SDLP leader Colum Eastwood told Ms Hoey during an exchange before a Commons select committee. His party, along with the Ulster Unionists, were pivotal players when the agreement was negotiated. The DUP walked out.
Then, as now, the latter is not acting in the best interests of the region its members claim to love. Despite the party’s religious underpinnings – Sammy Wilson says he believes it was God’s will they should hold the balance of power in Westminster – the party is prioritising its own interests above those of the community. The 10 Westminster MPs don’t want Stormont operational while they have Prime Minister Theresa May’s ear.
Baroness Paisley, DUP vice-president, has given a number of interviews this week urging the resumption of power-sharing at Stormont. Her intervention is a reprimand to Arlene Foster, manifestly not in control of the party. Ian Paisley’s 86-year-old widow doesn’t mince her words. “It’s a mess,” she said, slicing through the indoctrination – happening currently within the support base – that direct rule is preferable. “The way to clear up a mess is to go back to basics.” Negotiate: cut out all the “nonsense” and “pride”, said the plain-speaking Baroness.
We must presume that not everyone within the DUP shares the Westminster gang of 10’s predilection for direct rule, and for that ray of hope I thank Baroness Paisley. Direct rule would be Orange rule because of the DUP confidence and supply agreement. It is a non-starter.
As for Tory fundamentalists (and Ms Hoey, who ought to know better), any actions to reintroduce a Border will have a negative outcome. The Good Friday Agreement may not be perfect, but it is an outstanding improvement on the alternative. Hands off