[ad_1]
The prospect of Northern Ireland, along with Great Britain, formally exiting the European Union around the fascinating time of New Years Eve was the subject of considerable recrimination in the North as the clock struck that historic midnight moment.
Even the DUP, which campaigned for Brexit, had little to celebrate; instead of lamenting how Boris Johnson, finally getting his farewell from the EU, had created a border in the Irish Sea.
There was also talk of how leaving the EU can embolden nationalists seeking to leave the closer union of Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
The Northern Assembly held a special meeting on Wednesday to discuss the impending parting of the roads. Some DUP MLAs tried to polish the proceedings a bit, but all said it was a daunting three-hour political debate in which Winston Churchill’s name was verified multiple times, and from different Brexit points of view.
Arlene Foster said that “to paraphrase Winston Churchill, it is not the beginning of the end but the end of the beginning.”
Wearing her Prime Minister hat, she acknowledged differing political views on Brexit and hoped that “ultimately our focus should be on working together to support our businesses and communities.”
Changing into his DUP leader hat, he complained about how the British government’s Northern Ireland protocol had created that Irish Sea border, a protocol that his party rejected and unsuccessfully opposed.
Ulster Unionist Party leader Steve Aiken requested an intervention, presumably to say “we told you so,” but Ms. Foster was not willing to give in.
When he had a chance to speak, Mr Aiken regretted that Northern Ireland would be a “separate place” due to protocol.
Alliance economics spokesman Stewart Dickson, lamenting Brexit, also quoted Churchill with his comment that “if you destroy a free market, you create a black market.”
Still, he added: “I am European and no one will take it from me.
The Assembly couldn’t get enough of Churchill. DUP’s Mervyn Storey, bravely looking for some glitter in the dead of winter, offered his quote: “A pessimist sees difficulty at every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. “
There will be a chance, Mr Storey predicted.
Sinn Féin health spokesperson Colum Gildernew replied that Churchill “could hardly have meant that you would create the difficulty in finding the opportunity.”
Sinn Féin MLA Declan McAleer pointed to the references to Churchill, but said he preferred comments from another senior conservative, Michael Heseltine, who said: “We must welcome the news that Brexit does not end in chaos of no- according to the feeling of relief. of a convicted person informed that his execution has been commuted to life imprisonment ”.
There was so much Churchill that People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll felt compelled to say that he would not quote the former prime minister and wartime leader because “he was an imperialist butcher who believed that the British Empire was superior to the people here and everywhere. countries that the British Empire colonized around the world ”.
That drew some whispering from unionist banks, although Mr. Carroll, like Ms. Foster, did not allow any dissident intervention from that sector.
On the other hand, the secretary of the North, Brandon Lewis, gave interviews to Zoom to several journalists. When asked by The Irish Times about SDLP leader Colum Eastwood’s argument that Brexit could hasten the end of the North’s union with Britain, he said he “fundamentally” disagreed with this view.
Like Storey and Winston Churchill, and unlike Gildernew, and unlike most other politicians, he saw opportunities. “Northern Ireland is going to have this phenomenal benefit of being not only part of the UK’s single market and customs territory, but also the ability to trade freely with the EU,” he said.
Back in the House of Assembly, the SDLP MLA, Matthew O’Toole, took a more depressing view of Brexit. “It is the greatest act of self-harm in the history of modern states,” he said.
[ad_2]