On behalf of Relatives for Justice, and all the families, we cannot thank you all enough in securing this important intervention at this crucial stage in terms of legacy and seeking to ensure truth and accountability for human rights violations perpetrated by the armed forces of the British government and its agents. As we’ve often say it is US intervention that makes all the difference as the UK seek to ignore and bury the truth about its actions whilst only raising those of republicans. They do however care for their international standing and reputation on the world stage and the regular interventions of Congress, prompted by your great work, therefore carries significant weight. Keeping a vigilant eye and holding them to account in Washington is key.
New British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed an over-the-top
Cabinet of Brexiteer ultras and right-wing extremists. In the process,
he has also replaced Karen Bradley as Direct Ruler in the north of
Ireland with the former Tory Chief Whip, Julian Smith.
Among his more controversial appointees are infamous Vote Leave campaign
guru Dominic Cummings, whose tactics of technological manipulation were
exposed in ‘The Uncivil War’ docudrama, as Special Advisor; and Priti
Patel, who proposed the Brexit strategy of cutting off food supplies to
Ireland, as Home Secretary.
The announcements were seen as a statement of war with the EU, with the
British civil service, with Remain voters and Tory moderates, and also
with Ireland, despite his sacking of widely discredited Bradley in
favour of Yorkshire MP Julian Smith (pictured, right).
Revealing her departure earlier today, Bradley said it had been “an
enormous privilege” to “represent this special nation and integral part
of our precious union”.
Johnson set the tone of his premiership on Tuesday with a declaration
that his leadership of the Conservatives would be known by DUDE
(deliver, unite, defeat, energise) — the final E added, he said, as an
insurance against a DUD acronym.
His cabinet changes are being seen as the most sweeping in recent
British political history, replacing seventeen ministers, more than half
the Tory cabinet, sacking some while others had resigned in advance.
In a campaigning speech today, Johnson said he is confident that his new
cabinet will defeat “the doubters, the doomsters, the gloomsters”.
Speaking on the steps of Downing Street, he warned the European Union
that he was prepared to withhold Britain’s 39 billion pound divorce bill
and repeating his demand that the backstop deal to prevent a
remilitarised border through Ireland should be renegotiated.
He declared the “people who bet against Britain are going to lose their
shirts because we are going to restore trust in our democracy.” And he
joked: “Never mind the backstop, the buck stops here!”
The 26 County Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he looked forward to meeting
Mr Johnson to discuss Brexit but stressed that the commitment of the
Dublin government and the EU to the backstop remained unchanged.
“I look forward to having the opportunity to sit down one to one and for
our teams to meet and to see if they can put a little detail behind
those slogans and statements,” he said.
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said Johnson’s initial Downing Street address
“was bloated with bluff but short on solutions to the challenges of
Brexit.”
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald said she has written to the new British PM
seeking a meeting to discuss Brexit and the Stormont Executive.
“I have reminded the new prime minister of the requirement of the
British government to honour and implement their commitments under the
Good Friday and subsequent agreements,” she said. “Agreements that are
incompatible with Brexit. The people of the North voted to remain within
the EU and that vote must be respected.”
Give Boris Johnson a chance as PM urges DUP’s Dodds
Boris Johnson with DUP’s Nigel Dodds and Arlene Foster at the party’s conference last year
July 24 2019
DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has urged the public and politicians to give Boris Johnson a chance to prove himself as Prime Minister.
The North Antrim MP was speaking after Mr Johnson received widespread criticism after winning the Tory leadership contest on Wednesday.
Mr Johnson is set to move into Number 10 on Wednesday evening after Theresa May resigns as Prime Minister.
After his victory Alliance leader Naomi Long said that the UK needed a “statesman not showman,” while SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that he had “coasted into Downing street on a wave of Brexit bluff and bluster”.
However, Mr Dodds told BBC Radio Ulster that Mr Johnson had significant experience and should not be written off so easily.
“Whether the Tory party chose Jeremy Hunt, Boris Johnson or whoever, it is entirely a matter for them,” Mr Dodds said.
“When he was Mayor of London Boris Johnson delivered a considerable amount, running one of the biggest cities in the world with a massive budget, so he has some kind of track record.
“On the Brexit issue there’s a lot of division, but people do see him as a centrist in terms of Tory policy and in terms of his outlook on things.”
The DUP deputy rejected the idea that the incoming-Prime Minister was an “extremist right-winger”.
“I think that people need to give him a chance and see. It certainly isn’t the case that Theresa May’s premiership over the last couple of years has been covered in glory. I think people really want to see Brexit over the line and done and dusted. “
The North Belfast MP also addressed the renew of his party’s confidence and supply agreement with Mr Johnson’s government, with negotiations due to take place in the coming days.
Mr Dodds said that the DUP had three priorities, strengthening and advancing the union, the delivery of Brexit and the restoration of Stormont.
“He shares those priorities, we’ll work with him in the coming days to achieve those,” he said.
“Well also raise with the government, as we always do, a host of issues which affect our constituents including the health service and the rest and clearly the job situation in manufacturing in Northern Ireland at Wrightbus is important, we’ll certainly be raising all of those issues.”
The DUP deputy leader said that he believed Mr Johnson had the right approach to deliver Brexit.
“He has said that October 31 will be it and I think if you don’t have a deadline and don’t keep no-deal on the table then you won’t get anywhere.
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“That’s what has devilled the negotiations that Theresa May conducted, it’s now clear that Theresa May had never even put that on the table and if you’re doing a negotiation that’s not the right approach.
“Boris will bring a different approach, people recognise that he’s serious about getting this done and for the sake of the country I think everybody recognises this needs to be done.”
Asked if he expected the DUP to have a place on the Brexit negotiating team, Mr Dodds said that he believed the new PM would adopt a more “collaborative” approach than his predecessor.
“One of the problems Theresa May ran in to, not just with ourselves, but her own party, was that she kept a very, very tight circle of advisors, not political people, she was very much directed by civil servants,” the North Belfast MP said.
“I think he will ensure that as we go along people are heavily involved. The extent of that remains open for discussion.”
Seminar The Way Forward in the Teacher’s Club on July 27. The following is the prospective running order.
Opening remarks: Cathaoirleach
John Joe McCusker, Republican Sinn Féin, (background of Éire Nua and relevance to non-nationalists/Republicans)
Anthony McIntyre, Independent Workers’ Union
Speaker from Provisional Sinn Féin
John Rees, Republican Sinn Féin, (making Éire Nua relevant to a younger generation in a revolutionary setting)
Seán Bresnahan
Speaker from 32-County Sovereignty Movement
Speaker from Direct Democracy
Des Dalton, (Éire Nua and Saol Nua as a Republican vision of the type of new Ireland that is required … also including a brief consideration of the ownership of history and the importance of understanding how partition was imposed, almost 100 years ago.)
There will be a Questions & Answers session after each contribution. Please let us know the name of your speaker.
Is sinne
Dónall Ó Ceallaigh Líta Ní Chathmhaoil Ard-Rúnaithe
Boris Johnson has won a final Tory leadership runoff, defeating his opponent Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt with the support of more than two in three of the Conservative Party membership.The Etonian class clown with a reputation for jingoism, bigotry and humbug anecdotes is expected to take over as British Prime Minister tomorrow, pledging to unite his fractious party and “deliver Brexit” by the latest deadline of October 31.There has been a muted reaction in Ireland to his election, which was never in doubt. The DUP leader Arlene Foster offered her congratulations and said she looked forward to discussing with Mr Johnson the “shared objectives of strengthening the union, delivering Brexit and restoring devolution”.The SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said that the election of Mr Johnson was a “worrying step toward a hard no-deal Brexit and a hard border in Ireland”.“Johnson has coasted into Downing Street on a wave of Brexit bluff and bluster. It won’t be long until he crashes into the rocky reality that the European Union will not sacrifice the interests of Ireland to appease a man who has lied and slandered its institutions in an effort to secure power,” he said.Fine Gael’s Simon Coveney offered his congratulations to Mr Johnson in a tweet, saying that the Dublin government would “work constructively” with him and London “to maintain and strengthen British/Irish relations through the challenges of Brexit.”Sinn Féin’s Martina Anderson warned that the “ship is sinking” and yet the Tories had decided to appoint “a new Brexiteer captain”. Johnson is duty bound to uphold the 1998 peace deal in the North of Ireland, she said.“When Boris is appointed British Prime Minister tomorrow, he will become the leader of a government that is the co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, bound by law to safeguard it and ensure its full implementation.“A no-deal Brexit is fundamentally incompatible with the Good Friday Agreement. Any British Prime Minister who fails to acknowledge this is wilfully ignoring their international obligations. This is the definition of a rogue state, which cannot be trusted to act in good faith in any trade negotiations anywhere in the world.”She said the deal forged between the EU and Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, must also be respected.“The Withdrawal Agreement remains the bottom line to protect the Good Friday Agreement and to ensure there is no physical infrastructure on the British border partitioning Ireland,” she said.“Instead the people of Ireland will be subjected to Boris and his conspiring cohorts of little Englanders and the DUP.“We have another way out of this mess that ensures all of Ireland, north and south, remains in the EU. We know the way to get there, its clearly outlined in the Good Friday Agreement.“Nationalists and republicans are already having inclusive and respectful conversations about the form and shape of the new Ireland. So join that conversation agus le cheilé bainfimid amach Éire aontaithe (and together we will achieve Irish Unity).”
