Expedient demise of the Executive? January 17, 2017
Posted by WorldbyStorm in Uncategorized.trackback
A comrade suggested the other day that there was something remarkably convenient about the timing of the RHI controversy (scandal, debacle?) in the North. And moreover this was underlined by Arlene Foster’s refusal to even step aside (as Peter Robinson had previously) for a brief period of time. His thoughts were that given the choppy waters a post-Brexit referendum UK was sailing into this removed one focus point of criticism from the game – no Executive, no elected administration (or parts of same) able to point up the democratic deficit in relation to the fast march to a hard Brexit across the UK despite the majority vote to remain in Northern Ireland. Sure, the Scottish government would play that part of articulating the argument about that deficit but now it would be more isolated. They thought SF had missed a trick in relation to this.
I wonder whether Foster could have been prevailed upon to fall on her sword in this way. I’d have been doubtful previously, but these days…
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Just a few fleeting thoughts on the theory…
At the moment, the question seems to be not whether Brexit will occur but at what level of animosity. (And I use animosity because it nicely frames how the Brexit side is using emotion as a tool to frame the entire PR nmachine to persuade people that Britain is taking back it lost power from those damned furiners.)
To think that SF will or could have had any impact on Tory policy is a somewhat tenuous idea. I can’t see May and the Grandees taking any notice of what they consider bed bugs having anything to add to their Brexit party.
If I was a SNP operative, I could see being isolated as a favourable place to be. It creates an existential situation that the Scottish electorate will have to face rather than thinking there is an out some time in the future or that they can mitigated the full effects of Brexit.
LikeLike
Hilarious moment on Radio 4 this morning when the interviewer upbraided Mairtin O’Muilleor for saying he didn’t consider Westminster to be his government.
LikeLike
Can we see a time when scots would have that level of internalized independence?
LikeLike
And externalized …
LikeLike
Brexit alters the relationship between Ireland’s two political entities. A sectarian head count election will probably result in direct rule for some time by the British proconsul, the aptly named Brokenshire.
Sinn Fein with a substantial power base in both entities will have an important role as the new relationship between North and South is negotiated.
Meanwhile as Churchill’s bust is returned to the White House, Boyd Barrett is proposing that Kenny not present Trump with the bowl of shamrock on St. Paddy’s day. This departure from tradition would send the wrong message to the markets just when Trump seeks to strengthen Anglo-American ties and weaken the EU, and with Ireland’s position, North and South, unclear. .
LikeLike
the Brexit referendum was not run on the basis of any sub-units results Its was a UK referendum.
LikeLike
“No deal for Britain is better than a bad deal for Britain,”
Says May – and for Northern Ireland?
LikeLike
“Sinn Féin has dismissed the Prime Minister’s vow to maintain a common travel area with the Republic of Ireland after she said the UK will leave the European single market.
Speaking following Theresa May’s speech in which she set out her objectives for Brexit negotiations, Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd said the UK leaving the single market and customs union “creates a hard border on the island of Ireland”.
http://www.itv.com/news/utv/update/2017-01-17/hard-brexit-equals-hard-border-sinn-fein/
LikeLike