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Betrayed again!
British policy is dictated by
British interests. It has always been so. The fact that Prime
Minister Boris Johnson has again betrayed unionists over Brexit should
have come as no surprise to anyone with even the most rudimentary understanding
of how British policy works. The British Prime Minister Palmerston spelt it out
most clearly almost 200 years ago when he said: “We (England) have no
eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and
perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow...” Irish
Republicans and others who have had first-hand experience of British duplicity
have a name for it – perfidious albion.
The surprise is that so many
unionists are surprised by the turn of recent events. Have they no memory of
the twists and turns of Theresa May in her relationship with the DUP? Do
they not recall the many warnings given, including by this writer that the deal
reached between the DUP and Theresa May in the summer of 2017 would end in tears?
The DUP thought they had it made. They believed that the confidence and supply
arrangement which would see them keep May in power would ensure them enhanced
influence at the heart of Westminster.
Less than a year later it was
starting to fall apart. As the British negotiated the Withdrawal Agreement in
October 2018 Arlene Foster warned: “There cannot be a border down the
Irish Sea, a differential between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. The red line
is blood red.”
With the British and the EU
close to a Withdrawal Agreement Theresa May employed the bureaucratic
gobbledegook language of the Sir Humphrey Appelby character in Yes Minister and
wrote to Arlene Foster talking about “specific alignment solutions in
some scenarios.” Arlene Foster interpreted this as preparedness on the part
of the British government to embrace “the idea of a border down the
Irish Sea.” Foster wrote a letter back to Theresa May in which she
said that “The Prime Minister’s letter “raises alarm bells for those who
value the integrity of our precious union.”
When the announcement of the
Withdrawal Agreement was made some days later Sammy Wilson went into verbal
overdrive. He described it as “a punishment beating for the UK because
they dared to vote to leave the EU.”
The DUP stopped voting with May. It
even voted with Labour. The DUP turned its back on May and embraced Boris
Johnson as the saviour of the union. Two months after Foster’s “blood
red” comments Boris Johnson was given a rousing welcome at the DUP party
conference in Belfast. He warned against the North being left behind as “an
economic semi-colony of the EU”; attacked any suggestion of regulatory or
customs checks between the North and Britain describing them as; “damaging
the fabric of the Union”; called on the British government to “junk
the backstop”; and in a bizarre reference to the Titanic warned
against the EU being allowed to set the rules for the North. Johnson
said: “The Titanic springs to mind and now is the time to point out the
iceberg ahead.”
Two years later and the Johnson
government has driven the ship right smack into the iceberg and the DUP is
facing mounting criticism as more and more people come to realise the failure
of its strategy and the disastrous impact Brexit is going to have on the
North’s economy and their lives. Under Johnson’s leadership all of the
commitments he gave two years ago to the DUP have been abandoned. Worse, from
their perspective, there will be a border down the Irish Sea; customs posts
will exist in northern ports and airports checking goods coming from Britain;
and the North will remain within the EU single market.
One consequence of all of this is
that the words “betrayed” and “betrayal” have again been dusted off by
political commentators and unionist politicians. The former UUP press officer
and commentator Alex Kane was scathing of Boris Johnson last week. He wrote
that the “sheer scale of this betrayal is unprecedented”.
The trouble is it’s not. In March
1972 the British government scrapped the Unionist regime at Stormont. In
November 1985 they signed the Anglo Irish Agreement with Dublin. Hundreds of
thousands marched in protest. Remember, ‘Never, Never Never!’ In December
1993 John Major signed the Downing Street Declaration with Albert Reynolds. In
September 1997 the DUP walked away from the talks process because Sinn Fein
joined it and stayed outside the process until 2007.
But then unionist political leaders
since the Home Rule Bills of the 19thcentury, and especially the DUP
in the last 50 years, have frequently relied on claims that unionists are being
sold out or betrayed to mobilise support in opposition to any meaningful
reforms. This tactic facilitated the creation of paramilitary groups like the
UDA, UVF and Ulster Resistance.
Last week the Belfast Newsletter
wrote in an editorial: “The Prime Minister will always do what is right
for him personally, then for his party, and then for England.” That
same comment is true for every British Prime Minister.
Remember the old adage? ‘Fool me once shame on you – fool me twice
shame on me’. How should it go if you have been fooled so often and so
shamelessly over so many decades? DUP-ed again?
So, if you are a unionist and are
fed up with British politicians and unionist politicians, playing you for a
fool, and betraying and using you in their own interests, consider a different
future – a different approach. Consider engaging in the growing conversation
about a new Ireland – a shared Ireland – in which new constitutional
arrangements will protect and promote your interests. Remember, for Boris
Johnson and others like him there is no precious union there is just eternal
and perpetual English interests.
Gunboat diplomacy
Brexit is the outworking of a
little Englander mentality that harks back to the days of Empire. It believes
that by cutting itself off from its ties with the European Union a ‘sovereign’
Britain can attain the power and prestige it once enjoyed as the Empire on
which ‘the sun never sets’.
A key tactic of British imperial
strategy for much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and part of the
20th century, was the use of gunboat diplomacy. This was used
when the British Empire wished to extend its economic and political influence
and power, or curb the desire for independence by others, without the necessity
of a full scale military intervention. British gunboats would be sent in to
blockade ports and threaten governments. It was the brazen use of intimidation
and the threat of greater violence to achieve its objective.
Of course the British were not
alone in using this tactic. All of the European colonial powers used similar
tactics. However, as the largest Empire ever in the history of humanity, and
with a navy providing it with unrivaled power, the use of gunboat diplomacy
allowed the British to hold hundreds of millions of people across the world in
thrall to its demands and exploitation.
Last week gunboat diplomacy was
resurrected by the British government. The weekend headlines in the British
tabloids spelt it out “We’ll send in gunboats.” Four military
vessels are on standby to take to the seas around Britain to defend its
fish. One headline spoke of “Royal Marines abseiling from
helicopters on to French vessels” and “arrest fishermen.”
Will the EU or indeed any of its
member states feel moved to change their stance by a threat to use gunboats?
Unlikely. What this does signify is that the narrow minded little Englander
mentality that narrowly won the Brexit referendum in 2016 continues to be a
potent force within the British political system. A further reason for Scotland
and Wales to increase their efforts to achieve independence and a potent
reminder to United Irelanders of the importance of achieving the unity
referendum contained in the Good Friday Agreement and of winning that
referendum.
Hail The Antrim Hurlers.
Well done Antrim. Well done the
legions of hurling enthusiasts who kept the faith in lean times and passed on the
skills and love for hurling to new generations. Well done Darren Gleeson and
the management and backroom team. Well done all their predecessors and our
county board. But especially well done to our warriors who battled tenaciously
against a stubborn Kerry side; who never gave up until the ref
finally brought Sunday’s game to a close and with it an All Ireland win for our
glorious county. Aontroim Abú. Thank you Antrim Hurling Champions. Fáilte
abhaile Joe Mac Donagh.
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