Irish government is expecting the UK govt to intervene...
In all likleihood Johnson will like the idea of having the EU stand up and threaten the UK. It will both distract from his recent negative headlines and also help boost British nationalism against the EU.
Of course, it won't be good for Northern Ireland but neither the DUP nor the British government care about NI.
Big question now is what the British Govt is going to do? Takeover and implement themselves?
From midnight they will be in default of their obligations and the single market will have an unprotected border.
You can count the days on one hand the rest of the single market will tolerate this.
Poots throws a grenade on the NIP (and subsequently the peace process)...
Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I'd leave Givan and Bojo off Micheal Martin has reluctlantly decided to go. No such problems attending poppy ceremonies or celebrating 100 years of partition. Only going for political reasons, hope he's given a hostile reception by the murder victims families.
She's carrying on where Lord Frost left off. What mandate do they have to warrant her time?
In other news, it appears neither the DUP First Minister Paul Givan, nor the PM Boris Johnson, will be in Derry to mark the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday tomorrow.
They are doing that right now
They are more media savvy than most Unionist parties so the wonder is that they didn't do it sooner.
I listened to Talkback on BBC NI which was discussing Beattie's comments. Many callers were practically giving Beattie credit for the episode, saying he had handled it well. One of the contributors said the fact he was in the army ought to excuse his comments as that was the culture, and an ex-army officer called in and backed up this line of reasoning. I'm not surprised he's kept his position but I am surprised he sorted the issue out in 24 hours.
A quick check by a journo found three SF MLAs with similar problems:
SF have had this over and over again, you'd definitely think they'd scan through all reps accounts for dodgy content and delete!
@Mr. Nice Guy Raises serious questions about what this means for the upcoming election. Will those tempted to give the UUP a vote now think twice if he stays on, and if so, who will they turn to?
I'd say some DUP voters might just be more inclined to give them a shot.
In any other country, those tweets might blow the doors off Beattie's political career; in Northern Ireland they may just swing him to an equally fruitful one with hardliners. As @L1011 says the "I was young and an idiot" excuse doesn't really apply here. He's also of the right generation to "get" social media too, so he can't even plead ignorance IMO about how the tech. works. Does make you wonder, Twitter aside, how many sitting politicians have used TheJournal, Boards, or any other online outlet's own internal commenting systems to post some incendiary remarks.
He was in his late 40s when posting those tweets, so none of the "I was young and I've matured" cover.
UUP seem doomed in terms of finding a sane long-term leader. Suspect the problem is so many of the politically astute soft-u unionists have left to Alliance.
Those tweets sound like the real Doug Beattie. His later change to a softer position was likely more political in nature hoping to bring back some of the alliance voters to the UUP. The funny thing is he will likely now be a perfect fit for the TUV. They will love those tweets.
UUP leader Doug Beattie's position in big trouble after a series of tweets from a decade ago resurfaced. Too many of them to repeat here - on BBC Talkback they said there are around thirty that have come up - but a search on Twitter brings a bunch of them up. He's facing accusations of racism, misogyny, anti-Irish remarks, being transphobic, and more.
He sounds broken listening to him now on BBC NI trying to explain this. I do find his defence of this quite desperate. He said it was 'a different time, ten years ago'. Was 2012 really that different in terms of attitudes? Don't think so.
Raises serious questions about what this means for the upcoming election. Will those tempted to give the UUP a vote now think twice if he stays on, and if so, who will they turn to?
NI is less than 3% of the UK's population. Their representation in Westminster consists of 8 DUP who can be bought (most of the time) (7 SF who don't vote) leaving just 2 SDLP and 1 Alliance MPs out of 650.
Crashing Stormont or even the constant thread of doing so would mean that those who don't want to be ruled by decree from Westminster may start looking south.
I think you hit the nail on the head there with their real reasons.
Crashing Storming won't change anything in terms of the NIP as London will be governing NI and, as we saw in the past, will rule without consideration for DUP or TUV policies (e.g. abortion).
The unionists are doing what they can to distance themselves from the damage they themselves wanted. They also want to look tough in front of the home crowd given their diminishing voter base.
The same poll showed SF on 25% (+1) and DUP on 17% (-1). I do wonder if this business of 'let's crash Stormont over the protocol' is really just a smokescreen for 'let's crash Stormont because we don't want a nationalist as First Minister'.
If Stormont gets brought down by an increasingly desperate Donaldson, I think it would be extremely difficult to bring it back. None of the ideas being put forward by the DUP look positive for the future of the union.
What option do they have? None.
What options did they have? All. They had Theresa May bent over a barrel between 2017-2019. They could have insisted on full access to the EU's single market and customs union, parity in subsidies for farmers going forward, more investment for NI or whatever. They could have forged a new vision for Unionism based on internationalism like Republicans have done. Instead, they settled for a bribe, a meaningless pledge and tubthumping.
NI's fundamentals were irrevocably changed on the 23rd June 2016. The DUP chose to deny this and stick to their standard No! No! No! routine and, shock horror, it hasn't accomplished anything. Worse, they've drawn the attention of the rest of the UK and Europe to their toxic beliefs and electoral tactics.
So, no. They're in a corner but it's one they cheerfully marched into themselves. No nationalist since the foundation of NI could have damaged the union so badly and in so little time. I'm almost impressed.
But what option do they have? They feel completely British, and therefore their only friend is GB. So the Tories dump on them, again, but what is the alternative? They have none. So they put up with whatever they get because if they lash out they may be dumped and then they will be on their own.
They cannot run the risk of the GB government, whomever it is, taking the view that NI, by dint of DUP, is really too much trouble and sure let's have a vote. Once that even begins being talked about the fundamentals of NI will completely change.
Just like in ROI, he doesn't have to give up the MP seat first; its just sort of the done thing in the UK to stand down before the election for the other role rather than on election like here. I'm fairly certain he won't - he should be very safe getting in, although he may end up knocking out either Edwin Poots or Paul Givan!
The risk is that he wouldn't get a DUP candidate across the line in the Westminster by-election, in his super-unionist constitency. Majority was cut by over 10k last time, resurgent UUP + angrier than ever TUV snapping at his heels; further tactical voting by SF and SDLP voters (many of which clearly voted Alliance last time) and Alliance could take it.
Brexit will impact Northern Ireland very negatively. In economic terms, there will be carnage. If there is any compensation through union with the mainland, then it will have to be a very strong ideology to sustain it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't feel sorry for them. It's just interesting to watch them get continuously ignored or punished by their masters only to go straight back for more. It's the masochistic obedience that I find unusual.
Abused? They did this entirely to themselves. They've destroyed Unionism and done more to secure a United Ireland than any nationalist. They did a dirty deal with Theresa May, sold their souls for £1 billion and then reneged on the deal for reasons of ideological purity.
What a fool I was. I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative Party into power.
Edward Carson.
In terms of your first line, there does not appear to be any other reason for them to want it to be brought in and it only benefitted the DUP.
As for the second statement, the DUP took a deliberate strategy in terms of Brexit that would have made the people of NI worse off. Despite knowing that Ni was better off under the NIP, they continued (and still kinda continue) to demand the removal of the NIP which would massively damage the NI economy. They also appeared to be encouraging the return of sectarian violence to NI. None of the DUP should be given the privilege of representing the people of NI in either Stormont, Westminster or even in a poxy little residents assocation - they are a cancer on NI.
Wow, that's grim. Really that blatant?
He shouldn't stand then.
Jeffrey was afraid of giving up his MP seat as he entered an election that could see him not getting elected to Stormont.
Why did the DUP want double jobbing, what was the strategy?
In an all Ireland vote for re-unification, you could be sure that the threat to the economy would be the major argument for the no side in Ireland. I'd follow that up with the threat of renewed sectarian violence.
