We need the re-instatement of democracy – however imperfect – in the North right now
When you come to think of it, there is something deliciously ironic about vigorous support now being loudly offered by Sinn Féin to the cause of Catalan secession. That a prosperous north-eastern province of a country, wealthier than and claiming to be culturally and historically distinct from the rest of the country, should assert the […]
The hard-line Tory brexiteers are baying for political and economic disaster
In 2000, Michael Gove, then Home Editor of The Times, attacked the Good Friday Agreement in a Centre for Policy Study paper “The Price of Peace” from a deeply Tory/Unionist perspective. He was, of course, perfectly entitled to do so, especially at a time when the Provisionals had not yet disarmed and long before the […]
There is a horrible logic to a pre-emptive strike on North Korea
Donald Trump, as I have written here before, is itching for a military confrontation with “somebody, anybody”, to enable him to take on the mantle of Captain America – and to re-establish America’s “greatness” in arms. He recently threatened to annihilate North Korea in a speech to the UN General Assembly. And this week he […]
The European project belongs to the member-states that comprise it – not the other way round
Scarcely had our new best buddy, Guy Verhofstadt, landed back in Brussels when his name appeared on a draft resolution in the European Parliament proposing that Northern Ireland should remain part of both the Single Market and the Customs Union after the UK leaves the EU. This, the parliamentarians argued, was the only way in […]
Verhofstadt is not minding Ireland’s back on Brexit
Three Oireachtas committees gave a joint hearing to Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament coordinator on Brexit, on Thursday. He used the occasion to evade all difficult issues, to give assurances to Ireland on which he cannot deliver, and to engage in overblown rhetoric and grandstanding which was, in the end, meaningless. Most memorably, he said […]
Irish voters will never go for Junker’s centralised super-state
Coulrophobia, apparently, is the new name for an old condition –fear of clowns. Those of us who remember the brilliantly scary portrayal by Jack Nicholson of the Joker in the 1989 Batman movie or by Heath Ledger in the 2008 Dark Knight movie didn’t need a new fancy word to describe the feeling. We have […]