Michael D should order someone to print his expenses spreadsheet and publish it post-haste
ARLENE FOSTER has a harshness to her politics that is entirely unattractive. She appeals to a Northern unionism that is permanently cranky and lacking in confidence, a tribe characterised by a preference for isolation rather than engagement.
Her default position is therefore dark and sinister and her politics reflects the ever-present threat that exists in the North. It’s a reminder of past horrors and a warning of the potential for repeat performances in the future.
On Wednesday Arlene Foster coarsened the Brexit debate in a manner that was profoundly worrying.
In a BBC interview she said Northern Ireland must not be treated differently to other parts of the United Kingdom following Brexit. That means no border down the Irish sea in order to ensure a frictionless movement of goods, services and people between North and South.
The famous ‘backstop’ will not be at the expense of the North being effectively severed from Great Britain and joined into an all-Ireland economic zone against its will.
When asked how red that ‘red line’ was, she replied: ‘The red line is blood red.’
However, by saying that, and by obvious implication mentioning the ‘war’, by wilfully prompting us all in the direction of past miseries, Arlene Foster was, in fact, doing us all a favour.
FOR all its ugliness the language used by the DUP leader underscored a glaring truth – Brexit presents a clear and present danger to peace in Northern Ireland. That’s something that has been ignored for too long. It’s an inconvenient truth.
And the elements of political failure that encouraged events to spiral out of control in the past in Northern Ireland are still with us.
Unionist and Nationalist leaders in the North, the DUP and Sinn Féin, still compete under the rules of a zero-sum game – gains for one side automatically mean losses for the other. Sectarianism is still visceral. Communities, after nearly 3,700 deaths and countless numbers injured, physically and mentally, are more divided now, along tribal lines, than ever before.
Meanwhile, powerful personalities inside the Tory party, such as the fantastically absurd Boris Johnson and the even more ridiculous Jacob Rees-Mogg, have neither fondness nor sensitivity for the North, or the cross-border relationships based on the Good Friday Agreement that underpin peace.
Clearly, Johnson and Rees-Mogg will put their own political interests above those of Northern Ireland or Ireland generally, the same as British politicians have always done.
Also, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has displayed a glaring immaturity and absence of political subtlety in his approach to the Brexit negotiations. He has never failed to call out Britain at every turn when the illogicality of their position has been exposed.
The Brits are in a serious bind that is entirely of their own making.
As Michael O’Leary put it recently; Britain’s decision for Brexit means they simply cannot expect to maintain the benefits that membership of the EU entails. Otherwise, every other Member State would do the same. The President of the European Council Donald Tusk was even scornful – Britain will not be allowed to cherry pick its way into a new favourable trade agreement that undermines the Single Market and the Customs Union.
We’re heading into what could be an economic calamity. Bad politics, up North, in Britain and in Dublin could turn this into a political disaster that shatters the peace we now enjoy.
Taoiseach Varadkar needs to resist his blaring across-the-barricades criticism of Britain. It should be more arm around a shoulder of a friend in trouble rather than the current finger wagging and threats that Britain may end up with no withdrawal agreement at all.
Arlene Foster’s blood-red line is a dreadful intervention. But we ignore the starkness of her message at our peril.