Irish Border and Brexit

FrancieBrady

If there is a silver lining in every dark cloud the damage from Brexit and a potential hard border may very likely see the end of the DUP.
Their toxic brand of unionism has overall been completely toxic in post conflict Ireland.
Only a few left on the island who refuse to see how detrimental they have been as they cling to the last vestiges of a union that was never wholeheartedly mutual to begin with.

Arlene Foster was Enterprise Minister for nearly seven years in the devolved administration with a brief to grow tourism, an area badly hit by the legacy of the Troubles. However, her only notable cross-border interaction was to pose for the occasional publicity photograph with her counter parts south of the border, while at the same time blocking any substantial cross-border tourism initiative.

For example, the Irish Government’s very successful tourism initiative the Wild Atlantic Way stops at the border, although the island’s Atlantic coast does not. Tourism officials were also frustrated with the DUP minister refusing to bring a tourism strategy to the Northern Ireland Executive, as she thought it too “green”. The strategy targeted more visitors from the Republic and suggested an emphasis on the Irish aspects of the Northern Ireland brand.

The frustration of tourism officials on both sides of the border over this period was palpable. As one official put it to me: “If Arlene Foster had to choose between cross-border tourism or no tourism, she would pick no tourism.” And so she did.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of this ‘hard border’ approach to all-island co-operation was the constraining of IntertradeIreland, a body set up under the Good Friday Agreement to foster cross-border trade. The cross-border body is allowed to do little of real consequence and with several DUP party members now on its board, it is focusing on advising Irish companies around Brexit. It is a great irony that the body set up under the Good Friday Agreement to facilitate trade on the island is now facilitating Brexit.

http://www.eolasmagazine.ie/brexit-queen/

Junkyard Tom

FrancieBrady wrote: »

If there is a silver lining in every dark cloud the damage from Brexit and a potential hard border may very likely see the end of the DUP.

How would you see that play out?

FrancieBrady

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

How would you see that play out?

A shift to the UUP and a further share to the Alliance.

If the DUP are seen as the party who advocated for what will wreck the north's economy and fail to deliver the Tory electoral bung as well then they will suffer. There is no scorn like the scorn of a unionist out of pocket - when they have alternatives.

Watch as the DUP try to blame everyone and anyone.

blanch152

FrancieBrady wrote: »

If there is a silver lining in every dark cloud the damage from Brexit and a potential hard border may very likely see the end of the DUP.
Their toxic brand of unionism has overall been completely toxic in post conflict Ireland.
Only a few left on the island who refuse to see how detrimental they have been as they cling to the last vestiges of a union that was never wholeheartedly mutual to begin with.


http://www.eolasmagazine.ie/brexit-queen/

That would be great news, any reduction in the vote share of any of the two sectarian parties is only for the best.

Junkyard Tom

FrancieBrady wrote: »

A shift to the UUP and a further share to the Alliance.

The UUP are practically the same as the DUP so any transfer to them would be inconsequential.

Watch as the DUP try to blame everyone and anyone.

Oh that's a given. I think 'Fenian Fear Factor' and Unionist efforts to prevent/reverse the soft unification of Ireland and the 'greening' of the northeast will keep the DUP/UUP vote buoyant.

FrancieBrady

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

The UUP are practically the same as the DUP so any transfer to them would be inconsequential.



Oh that's a given. I think 'Fenian Fear Factor' and Unionist efforts to prevent/reverse the soft unification of Ireland and the 'greening' of the northeast will keep the DUP/UUP vote buoyant.

Watching the UUP in the last while, I think they get it. The suprematist state is gone. Sectarian politics is gone.
Sure there will be plenty of the Never Never politics but they are pragmatists in a way the DUP's hidebound supremacy isn't.
The DUP would turn the lights out rather than see the inevitable.

Junkyard Tom

FrancieBrady wrote: »

Watching the UUP in the last while, I think they get it.

The UUP should be all over the DUP accusing them of putting 'the union' at risk via Brexit, risking the business/agriculture sectors with demands to be out of the customs union, energising the nationalist vote leading to the loss of a unionist majority, inspiring people to take up learning the Irish language due to their mean-spirited attempts to suppress it.

Nothing.

FrancieBrady

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

The UUP should be all over the DUP accusing them of putting 'the union' at risk via Brexit, risking the business/agriculture sectors with demands to be out of the customs union, energising the nationalist vote leading to the loss of a unionist majority, inspiring people to take up learning the Irish language due to their mean-spirited attempts to suppress it.

Nothing.

Rome wasn't built in a day.
But in the debates during the last assembly elections and the Westminster one, it was beginning to be said.
The point will not be lost on unionists anyway, as anyone can see it.

FrancieBrady

If Britain has signed up to the guiding principles on Ireland at the EU IMO a sea border it is.
They won't say it publicly until the very last minute to keep the peace. If a deal on everything is ready to be done the DUP will find themselves snookered.
Interesting times.