October 14th sees Bonkers Boris deliver his Queen’s Speech to the recalled dysfunctional British Parliament. It will be the eve of the Ides of October.
Much reading of the runes will take place between now and then.
We will all be slightly clearer about what a ‘backstop which isn’t a backstop’, looks like. That other thing which, in DUP group-think, ‘dare not be mentioned by name’.
Arlene, scowling among the Terrible Ten, will emerge, if Deputy Dodds allows it, all smiles (sic), saying ‘new arrangements’ must be endorsed by a new Stormont Executive.
Ball served to SF.
Time to take the auguries, bearing in mind Brexit has changed all and changed it utterly, and O’Dowd’s solo-run tilt, is but a sign of things to come. Discipline will reassert itself, (for a time) between the nones and ides of November. O’Dowd’s ambition will inevitably die on the Altar at Derry’s Ard Fheis. Outside the SF epistemic bubble, however, lie bigger realities.
Irish Nationalism (well ahead of Sinn Féin) is irrevocably beyond the Six County internal solution context; Scottish Nationalism is on its way to Independence Referendum Mark II; Welsh Nationalism will be at decision time; and English Nationalism and its DUP rump will be off to the Brave New World where Britannia, secure in its own Echo-Chamber, will once again Waive the rules.
On the day before the Kalends of November Boris and the Brexiteers will have slipped, blinked, sunk or swam, or they will have ditched the Redundant Ten. They may also be forced to keep swimming on the tide of an enforced extension.
Alea iacta est!
12 Comments
A regional assembly will not be permitted to veto EU legislation. End of.
The DUP have backed themselves into a corner. No one is going to help them out of it.
If one really was a Nationalist then it might be expected that English Nationalism would be just as acceptable as the Irish, Scottish or Welsh variety without the need to be pass remarkable about it.
But P, whoever, you are? I happen not to be a Nationalist. I am a Republican, a Socialist and an Internationalist. So being pass-remarkable about English, chuavinistic, proto-facist Nationalism, is in my opinion totally permissable as English Nationalism is not concomitant with any of the others.
Ah, I understand better now.
Glad to have elucidated P. By the way who are you? I’m old- fashioned and like to know who I’m addressing. Or would your identity be a ‘matter of national security’s? Surely not?
“By the way who are you?”
Sometimes I ask myself the same question.
Well since Belgian regional assemblies have veteod EU legislation in the recent past your comment is early plainly ignorant or a willing lie
Joe and P do you not think anonymity robs you of the expectation of being taken seriously. I’d prefer not to have anonymous comentators. Much better to have the courage to stand by what you say.
Ah, Gearoid, personally I think that being taken seriously depends on whether or not a person stays on topic and engages with the conversation in hand, which I clearly did, until you became overly concerned about a name typed on an online forum.
Would it make a difference to you if I said my name was Philip, or Patrick, or Philomena, or Paul, Patricia, Peter, Gaius Cassius, Marcus Brutus, Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, or much anything else? You’d be no further on. You’d still have no idea who I was, or whether or not I was telling you the truth.
But here’s the thing: I took the time to engage with you and asked why you seemed to take a different view of the English than anyone else you mentioned. It was an honest question, with implications. Your reply offers an opportunity for further discussion. What kind of Republican are you, for example? Is your Republicanism linked to a particular national identity, or does being an ‘internationalist’ mean that you are not concerned about nation states?
Personally speaking, I’m an Ulster Unionist and one who believes in the benefit of nation states; and oddly enough, what that means is that this Unionist would prefer to live in a sovereign, independent, United Ireland than either a UK or a Republic of Ireland which had lost it’s sovereignty to an internationalist empire like the EU.
You see, Gearoid, I know your name, but your lack of answers means I know nothing about you or what you think… and then you complain to me about anonymity.
Ok P I’ll think of you as Gaius Cassius Longinus, given your conspiritorial mind. Nationalism and Internationalism are in my mind interdependent. It’s a complex topic and couldn’t be adequately dealt with in a forum like this. As to my Republicanism I am an Irish Republican who aspires to a 32 County Irish Republic based on the Proclamarion of 1916. I am opposed to chauvinism and in favour of a universalist approach rooted in the sovereignty of Nation states. I view Ulster Unionism as a post-colonial abberation, imbued with the worst traits of Jingoistic, chauvinistic, imperialist and monarchical Little Englandism. Hope that helps Gaius.
“I view Ulster Unionism as a post-colonial abberation, imbued with the worst traits of Jingoistic, chauvinistic, imperialist and monarchical Little Englandism.”
Do you think that there is any hope that you might change your mind?
The above seems like a rather monocular view of my community, and I can assure you that I have a much more open and appreciative view of my fellow Irishmen – all of them: be they Protestant, Catholic, Newcomer, religious, atheist, republican, nationalist, unionist, monarchist, whatever.
In many ways there’s little wrong with the Proclamation, and a United Ireland is a perfectly good idea; but when its ideals are pressed into a singular view of what it means to be Irish (which, to be honest, looks at times like mere anti-Ulster Unionist and anti-English sentiment), then it’s more difficult to reach after inclusion on the island.
I’m every bit as Irish as you, and it’s a valid Irishness, as is yours. I’m also British (in exactly the same way as others view themselves as Irish and European–or Internationalist) and it would be a step in the right direction if we could move beyond seeing only the perceived “worst traits” of our communities.
Spartacus.
I totally agree Gaius! You’ll get no argument from me on any of that.