Jim Allister's parents were from County Monaghan. How many of that mind are almost literally irredentist, coming off the nearly vanished Protestant minorities in the three Ulster countries that were allocated to the Free State? Still, the old joke about "the workers united will never be defeated" has been that no one would ever find out whether or not it was true. But had we reckoned without action co-ordinated among 16 trade unions in Northern Ireland?
The DUP are not Tories. That was the UUP. The DUP is a thoroughly populist affair in relation to its target electors. Offer it enough money for them, and it will sign up to almost anything. Including a First Minister who believes the IRA Army Council to be the sovereign body throughout Ireland. And including the permanent regulatory alignment of the United Kingdom with the European Union, because what has been announced today cannot work any other way, and it is on this that the British Government has insisted. You can be an Ulster Unionist, or you can be a Brexiteer. But you cannot be both.
And it is rather a high number.
ReplyDeleteNo regulatory alignment is required since only green lane goods labelled UK-only and travelling within the UK are exempt from checks.
ReplyDeleteThe British Government has agreed to examine any divergence in regulation for its effect on the internal border between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Any divergence in regulation would always be able to be presented as having some such effect. So that's that. There will be no such divergence.
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