DUP MPs TOLD TO ‘GET OVER YOURSELVES’
Posted by Jim on November 17, 2018
The DUP leadership is completely at odds with civic unionism after a
draft Brexit deal won praise across the north of Ireland, particularly
from farmers and business interests who see significant advantages in
proposed arrangements to facilitate trade with both Britain and the EU.
Even before the text became known, DUP MPs had vowed to vote against it
in the Westminster parliament. In doing so, they fully aligned
themselves with Tories who are implacably opposed to the EU and who are
seeking to topple British Prime Minister Theresa May.
By doing so, they effectively withdrew their critical support for
Theresa May’s minority government and upended the delicate balance of
power at Westminster.
Ironically, the draft deal, published on Wednesday night, complies with
unionist demands for no trade barriers between the Six County and
Britain.
The deal between London and the EU also provides long-delayed
legislation for the ‘backstop’ of no remilitarised border through
Ireland. Beyond an initial transition period, it will ensure businesses
in the north of Ireland have full access to markets across the EU and
Britain, making the Six Counties a bridge between the two trading areas,
rather than a barrier.
The draft Protocol document also contains a section on rights of
individuals in the north of Ireland, and ensuring that those rights
continue to be protected. It specifically allows for the continuation of
the North’s Human Rights and Equality Commissions.
By scheduling customs authorisations to take place directly at
businesses, the major tangible change under the Brexit deal will be an
increase in agricultural safety and hygiene inspections. After years of
difficult negotiations, that outcome has been widely hailed as a good
one for both parts of Ireland.
Despite a full year of vacillation by the British Prime Minister,
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar insisted Mrs May had “honoured her promise” on
the border backstop, initially made last December.
“No international negotiation gives one side everything it wants,” he
said.
This was an acknowledgement that the Dublin government had failed to
prevent the introduction of a proposed review mechanism, which could see
an arbitration panel decide to bring the backstop deal for the border to
a premature end.
“That backstop must be maintained and protected,” said Sinn Fein’s Mary
Lou McDonald in a statement this weekend.
“It provides the bottom line and is our insurance policy against the
worst excesses of Brexit, which we know will be a disaster for this
country.
But a DUP MP sparked angry exchanges when he insisted the deal was a
disaster for unionists, and that the overwhelmingly unionist Ulster
Farmers group were “wrong”.
Chief executive Wesley Aston of the powerful Ulster Farmers Union (UFU)
had said his group was supporting the deal, and asked the DUP to vote
for it it comes before the Westminster parliament. He also warned that
the other option, a no-deal scenario where Britain cuts all ties with
the EU, would be “absolutely disastrous” for the agri-business and
farming industry in the North.
“I don’t believe they have read the detail of this, they have not read
the 500 pages,” Jeffrey Donaldson said. “There are serious
constitutional and economic implications of this deal for Northern
Ireland”.
There have been increasingly hostile reactions from business, farming
and manufacturing interests to the DUP’s rhetoric and stance on the
deal. Former UFU president Ian Marshall accused Donaldson of being
“disrespectful” to the farming community, while business leader Richard
Hogg of Manufacturing NI said that unionist politicians should ‘get over
themselves’.
Tory hardliners had worked to consolidate a coalition in favour of their
planned coup against Theresa May, with dire warnings of ‘Dublin Rule’.
Former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, without having read the text,
claimed it was “vassal state stuff” because Britain would be required to
remain in compliance with EU regulations while in the Customs Union.
“For the first time since partition, Dublin – under these proposals –
would have more say in some aspects of the government of Northern
Ireland than London,” he said.
Notorious ‘Brextremist’ Jacob Rees-Mogg also foresaw a British “vassal
state” enslaved by Dublin and Brussels.
“It is a failure of the government’s negotiating position, it is a
failure to deliver on Brexit and it is potentially dividing up the
United Kingdom.
“It is very hard to see any reason why the Cabinet should support
Northern Ireland being ruled from Dublin.”
Some DUP MPs sought to relive the outrage which greeted the Anglo-Irish
Agreement of 1985.
“Leo Varadkar.. has ostracised and angered unionists to a similar
level,” sad Ian Paisley. A glowering Sammy Wilson compared EU
bureaucrats to the IRA: “If the EU think that what the IRA couldn’t
achieve, they’re going to achieve, they’ve got another thought coming to
them.”
Prominent loyalist Jamie Bryson called for a “mobilisation”.
“This ‘deal’ will not be tolerated or accepted,” he said. The PUL
[Protestant Ulster Loyalist] community of NI will never permit what this
deal enables – Dublin to de-facto rule over over NI.”
Meanwhile, Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has urged Sinn
Fein to take its seats in the House of Commons for the key vote on the
draft Brexit treaty.
The DUP’s ten seats at Westminster remain influential, and pressure on
Sinn Fein to take their seats has resurfaced.
Although it recognises British rule in the north of Ireland in 1998,
Sinn Fein has never taken its seats, which would involve swearing an
oath of allegiance to the English queen. The move would likely be seen
as a betrayal by some nationalists, but potentially welcomed as a
pragmatic initiative by others.
Coveney saying that the lack of nationalist MPs in Westminster was
“skewing the debate”.
“If this vote in Westminster is lost by two or three votes and Sinn Fein
are standing outside speaking to the media, but not voting, I think
people will rightly ask some pretty serious questions of them.”
In response, Mary Lou McDonald accused Coveney of “playing to the
gallery” during his Fine Gael party conference, which is taking place in
Dublin this weekend.
“He knows Sinn Fein has an abstentionist policy, he knows full well that
the British parliamentarians have to arrive at their decision, he knows
that Sinn Fein cannot ride in on its white charger and make all of this
go away.
“The Tanaiste has urged measure in the comments that people make in
terms of seeing this deal over the line. I think he needs to practise
what he preaches.”
She also urged Taoiseach Leo Varadkar to be cautious in his public
statements after he sought to take credit for the deal on Wednesday night.
“I think the Taoiseach and Tanaiste as they speak to their party
conference this weekend need to bear in mind that Brexit is for keeps,
it is not done yet, we are still in the middle of a very, very dangerous
scenario for this entire country,” she said.