Let's bookmark this view and we can return to it in the next existential crisis for Ireland and the EU.
The next existential crisis? I don't recall us having a previous one!
As Seth asked, when was the last one? By all accounts bookmark what you like but if you seriously think Britain is somehow a better & more equitable choice than a known, codified partnership with equals, enshrined in legal frameworks - then I can only call your opinion fantasy. You brought up the one thing that proved Ireland's clout via the Lisbon Treaty, yet remarkable how the myth persists that we were "forced" into a 2nd referendum.
Oh no, the big scary French and Germans... you do know there are 25 other nations in the EU, right? And have themselves frequently used their voices to get their respective priorities focused on? This is why, for instance, Sweden remains outside the Euro for the foreseeable future. Or how, for better or worse, Hungary have managed to stall sanctions and commitments to reduce Russian energy dependency.
We have a voice, we have clout. Stop assuming every political arrangement is like that of Britain's.
What I enjoy most about Lisbon is that people seem to believe only Ireland had a vote. They forget that their own governments just signed off on it while Ireland got some adjustments and reassurances and then passed it. And then Ireland is used as some example of the EU not being democratic, when it's the only? country that had a referendum on the treaty.
There was also a plan for an EU constitution but French and Dutch rejections via referendum killed that stone dead.
Very difficult for the DUP etc to keep making fallacious claims. Well, it would be if journalists would challenge them publicly.
Why? Even if journalists call them out, their base will slavishly accept them regardless. Anyone else will be dismissed as pushing a Nationalist Remoaner agenda.
In the twenty-first century, you can't fight populism and demagoguery with facts.
Doesn't for a second excuse piss poor journalism.
Never said it did. Various Tory claims have been dismantled in the media and it's made not a shred of difference.
The Tories polling has dropped A.
Not because of their populism, it's because of partygate. The Tories lean heavily on older voters who were disproportionately more likely to die from Covid. Same voters had no issue with his antics previously.
Their bull about Brexit isn't a factor? I doubt that.
Not really. Remainers like myself were never going to vote Tory. They get by on gerrymandering, FPTP, absentionism amongst the youth and popularity with the old.
I'd be 100% certain the continued undermining of the bullshit 'benefits' of Brexit is having an effect on Tory support. Media here should be much more vociferous in challenging Unionist fantasies about the harm the Protocol is doing.
It's the DUP who object to the protocol, not Unionists. The UUP and the Alliance both support the protocol even if they might want to alter it somewhat.
The UUP grudgingly accept a 'protocol' of some sort is going to be necessary, the do not support the current one as they want it hollowed out and fundamentally changed. The Alliance are not a 'Unionist' party.
The Alliance are neutral which would mean continuing the Union by definition even if not avowedly Unionist. Grudging acceptance and renegotiation is better than the DUP's paleo-Unionism.
You took issue with 'Unionists' ( I use a capital 'U' to denote a political party) opposing the Protocol - they all do. The Alliance is not a Unionist party.
All Unionists oppose the protocol? Source please.
All Unionist parties do. Not all unionists do though.
All Unionist parties did sign a letter opposing the Protocol, Cap.
I'm not foolish enough to interpret this as meaning all Unionists oppose the Protocol (I know many who don't), however as far as their political voice goes, Unionism is opposed to the Protocol.
I won't delve in too deeply, but I'd also greatly oppose your statement that APNI are somehow Unionist by default when they ACTIVELY promote themselves as neither Unionist nor Nationalist. I think a sign they do that well is the regularity with which hardline Republicans accuse them of being Unionist while they're simultaneously being accused of being basically Shinners by hardline Loyalists.
The treachery of the Tories writ large. Theresa May is withering in her comments on the Protocol Bill in the HOC and then ABSTAINS in the vote?? What a coward she was and is.
Principled until it becomes inconvenient. I'm personally disappointed in her. She seemed to care about the Union but won't lift a finger for it.
72 Tories abstained in the end - which given how tight the vote was, could have been useful. Spineless cowards the lot of them but more fool the newspapers for headlining May's "backlash" when it was all just hot air in the end.
Good to see this. The government need to step up this messaging into the UK.
Will be interesting to see what happens EU relations if Boris goes.
3 PM since 2016 - hard to divorce that kind of chaos from Brexit and how it has been handled.
This is, what, the fifth consecutive Tory PM's scalp claimed by the EU.
Relations can only improve I would think. Truss probably doesn't know where Brussels is, Sunak won't care one whit for NI, Hunt might opt for closer alignment and Rees-Mogg is an amalgamation of the vengeful spectres of nineteenth century workhouse owners who demand revenge for child labour laws.
I would imagine Rees Mogg will fade into obscurity once Boris goes.
Truss would be the worst. She is in trade war territory. The rest, not so much
If it is one of Boris's loyalists I can't see how an early election will be avoided. Two, maybe three parties trying to behave as one.
Brexit has rent it and a whole more asunder.
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