ireland
Ogle v Unite: ‘no decision today’ on whether to subpoena Sharon Graham to appear in Dublin
Legal team reserving issue pending analysis of transcripts so far – general secretary could face prosecution for failing to comply if summonsed
Leading Irish union figure Brendan Ogle’s legal team will not make a decision today on whether to subpoena Unite general secretary Sharon Graham to appear at the next phase of Ogle’s discrimination case against the union in Dublin, which is expected to take place in early April.
Yesterday saw a heated argument in the Workplace Relations Commission hearing room about whether Graham will be required to testify in the case. Ogle’s lawyers insisted that she must be legally summonsed to attend if Unite’s legal team does not call her as a witness. Unite’s barrister Mark Harty insisted furiously, and it must be said rather bizarrely, that Graham is not relevant to the case and may not be ‘amenable’ to subpoena, as if such a legal summons is a matter of whether one feels like being summoned. Graham and her alleged words about getting rid of Ogle – who supported her rival Howard Beckett during the 2021 general secretary election – have featured prominently in the case so far.
If a subpoena is eventually requested and issued, the summons is enforceable and failure to appear and give evidence under a subpoena is a prosecutable criminal offence under Ireland’s ‘Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018‘.
Sharon Graham has previously cancelled appearances in the Republic, avoiding members’ anger and scrutiny over the union’s ‘disgraceful’ treatment of Brendan Ogle. The situation caused such outrage in Ireland that union members picketed Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin, Unite’s Community section condemned it as ‘disgusting’ and a whole sector branch threatened to disaffiliate.
After Unite’s legal team said they will not be calling Graham to testify, Workplace Relations Commission Adjudicator Elizabeth Spelman told both legal teams that before a subpoena can be requested, Ogle’s lawyers should write to Graham and ask her to appear, then apply for a subpoena if/when she refuses.
Skwawkbox is in Dublin to cover the case directly. If you would like to help cover the costs of the trip and can do so without hardship, please select from the options below.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
‘Sharon Graham told him to tell me there was no place for me in the future of Unite’
Irish union legend who supported rival in general secretary election tells tribunal he was sidelined on return from cancer battle and never had a positive day at work since he returned – and that he was told that union’s general secretary ‘recognises loyalty’ from those who supported her in election
Irish union legend Brendan Ogle, his wife Mandy la Combre (in beret) and supporters leaving the Workplace Relations Committee today
Today saw an explosive – and often fiery – day in Irish union legend Brendan Ogle’s case against Unite at the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in Dublin.
Ogle, who supported Graham’s rival Howard Beckett for general secretary, and is claiming that the union discriminated against him by sidelining him from his role as senior officer after his return from a battle against life-threatening neck cancer, told the WRC adjudicator that he was ‘reeling’ when he returned and found that his job – which he had been promised would be held for him to return to if he beat the disease – had disappeared and that Unite was trying to move him into a makeweight job that required only three days work a month.
And in the day’s most explosive testimony, he told the court that he had been called to a meeting with Tom Fitzgerald, another senior Irish Unite figure, only to be told that there was no place for him in the union’s future and that:
he’d been told by Sharon Graham to draw up a strategic plan for the Republic of Ireland and I was not to be in it.
Ogle added that the union’s then-assistant general secretary Gail Cartmail had told him that Graham is:
very loyal to [Irish] regional officers who had supported her but many hadn’t… Sharon operates on the basis of loyalty.
This comment raised the obvious question of what Ms Graham does with those who did not support her and how this bears on the treatment Ogle said he was subjected to by the union management.
Unite’s barrister Mark Harty – whose wife Karyn is part of the team from Dentons, one of the world’s most expensive law firms, hired by Graham to represent Unite in this tribunal and in Ogle’s defamation lawsuit against her, Unite and her ally Tony Woodhouse – insisted that Fitzgerald, who still works for the union, would testify he had not said what Ogle reported. However, the authenticity of Ogle’s submission of a photo of a whiteboard layout said to have been sketched by Fitzgerald to show how the union would organise after his departure does not appear to be contested by Unite.
Ogle spoke harrowingly of his fight against cancer and its effects on him and went on to say that after his return – expecting to come back to a job held open for him on the promise of Graham’s predecessor Len McCluskey – that he had not had a single positive day at work. He also described how he applied for a regional secretary job as a means of resolving the issue, only to find on his arrival for interview in London that the interview panel was being chaired by Woodhouse, one of the figures who he says defamed him during a talk at Unite’s biennial Irish conference.
Barrister Harty’s aggressive approach and frequent interruptions of Ogle’s attempts to answer led to numerous confrontations with Ogle’s legal team and a fiery sidebar meeting in a separate room marked by shouting and a walk-out by Ogle’s lawyer saying she would not be talked to in that way. Harty had tried to question Ogle about claims that do not form part of the current case and, when challenged about relevance, had insisted that these questions were ‘central’ to Unite’s case. The dispute led to the sidebar meeting – and on the return of the lawyers and adjudicator, he told Ogle,
Mr Ogle, we’re just going to move on
before asking questions on another topic.
Harty also at one point – appearing to think this was some kind of trump card – demanded to know why Ogle had not told his wife Mandy la Combre to remove social media posts criticising Unite’s treatment of him. The exchange prompted one observer later to observe,
He was basically asking him, ‘Why didn’t you control your wife?’
Harty also appeared to imply that Unite was doing Ogle a favour by moving him to a less senior role in Dundalk after an occupational health report said Ogle was fit to return to his ‘senior officer’ role, because Ogle’s doctor had warned stress might be bad for his health. Ogle responded that the occupational health report was specific to him working in Dublin. Ogle lives in Dublin, but travelling to work in Dundalk involves a daily 100-mile round-trip.
Ogle also told the court that Unite Ireland’s lawyer had told him that the Dundalk role of ‘education and legal’ involved only a day or two’s work – and added that the education part of the role needed only a day’s work because union education in Ireland is not funded by employers in the way it is in the UK, leaving him effectively sent fifty miles away for just three days’ work a month. Unite’s barrister tried to have this evidence ruled out as hearsay.
Ogle told the tribunal that he had consistently refused to sign any agreement sidelining him to Dundalk, but that the union ‘had acted as if I had signed it’.
The day also featured a heated argument about whether Graham will be subpoena’d to testify in the case, with Ogle’s lawyers insisting that she must be legally required to attend if Unite’s legal team does not call her as a witness. Harty insisted furiously and bizarrely that she is not relevant to the case and may not be ‘amenable’ to subpoena, as if such a legal summons is a matter of whether one feels like being summoned.
Sharon Graham has been heavily criticised among union members and activists in the union – and by more than one Irish politician – for Unite’s treatment of Ogle, one of and perhaps the highest-profile and effective union figures in Ireland. The situation caused such outrage that union members picketed Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin, Unite’s Community section condemned it as ‘disgusting’ and a whole sector branch threatened to disaffiliate.
Ogle’s testimony and cross-examination continue tomorrow.
Skwawkbox is in Dublin to cover Ogle vs Unite. If you would like to help cover the costs of the coverage, see options below.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
McCluskey: looking after Ogle after cancer was ‘Unite culture when I was general sec’
Former Unite head says he felt uncomfortable testifying against his old union and didn’t want to be critical of successor Sharon Graham – but testimony to employment tribunal in discrimination case was still explosive
Len McCluskey did not want to be photographed as he left the WRC in Dublin
Long-time former Unite general secretary Len McCluskey testified to the Irish Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in Dublin today in union legend Brendan Ogle’s discrimination case against the union now run by Sharon Graham. Despite McCluskey’s obvious discomfort having to testify against his old union and his expressed determination not to speak critically of his successor, his testimony was infused with explosive criticism nonetheless. McCluskey was not thrown off course by hostile questioning from the union’s expensive legal team from Dentons, the world’s largest law firm, which has been engaged by Graham and Unite for both the tribunal and Ogle’s separate defamation claim. The adjudicator in the case is former war-crimes prosecutor Elizabeth Spelman.
Unite’s lawyers tried to portray McCluskey’s insistence – that Unite was always going to keep Ogle on full pay if he was able to return to work from treatment for life-threatening cancer, regardless of the duties he was able to carry out – as somehow outlandish. In a bristly cross-examination, McCluskey told the tribunal he was astonished that anyone would contend that it was bizarre not to want someone to be penalised for being ill and that such a matter of basic decency was part of the ‘union’s culture when I was general secretary’.
Sharon Graham has been heavily criticised among union members and activists in the union – and by more than one Irish politician – for Unite’s treatment of Brendan Ogle, one of and perhaps the highest-profile and effective union figures in Ireland. Ogle, who backed Howard Beckett rather than Graham during the last Unite general secretary election, returned from successful cancer treatment expecting to take up his old duties, but was ‘sidelined’ to a lesser position in Dundalk, over fifty miles from his Dublin base. The situation caused such outrage that union members picketed Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin, Unite’s Community section condemned it as ‘disgusting’ and a whole sector branch threatened to disaffiliate.
Unite’s lawyers claimed the union’s policy was to ‘red-ring’ the salaries of ill employees for two years only, but McCluskey said that this had not been Unite’s practice when he was in charge. The union’s legal team also tried to claim that Ogle’s position had been created specifically for him, presumably implying that this was some kind of ‘grace and favour’ position, but McCluskey angrily rejected this, pointing to the union’s changes in Ireland during its disaffiliation from the Irish Labour party over the party’s support for austerity, the organisational changes this necessitated, and the extensive approval of Unite’s executive for the need for such a position and for Ogle’s appointment as the most suitable candidate by a distance.
McCluskey told Skwawkbox that he felt very uneasy testifying against the union he and his team had built, but had been forced to do so because Unite had included claims about him in its submissions to the tribunal in the case.
Ogle’s testimony began this afternoon but is expected to continue into tomorrow.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Skwawkbox is in Dublin to cover Ogle vs Unite discrimination tribunal
Irish union legend claiming discrimination by Graham-run union after return from cancer treatment. Skwawkbox will report from Irish Workplace Relations Commission
From Tuesday, the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) in Dublin will hear the discrimination case brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle against Sharon Graham’s Unite, for abuse Ogle – who supported Howard Beckett during the 2021 Unite general secretary election – says he suffered at the hands of the union management after his return from a successful battle against life-threatening cancer.
Ogle, who is also separately suing Graham, her ally Tony Woodhouse and the union for defamation, has alleged that he was abused by the union after his return from treatment for cancer – and after he made ‘protected disclosures’ to the union about its failures to adhere to covid protocols during the pandemic.
Graham and her representatives have been accused of ‘disgusting’ behaviour toward Ogle – and anger in Ireland at the situation became so great that an entire sector branch threatened to disaffiliate entirely from Unite, the well-known ‘Right2Water’ campaign said it will no longer work with Unite, Unite’s Community section in Ireland condemned the ‘injustice inflicted’ on him and members picketed general secretary Sharon Graham’s long-delayed visit to Dublin.
Skwawkbox is in Dublin to cover the proceedings, including Tuesday’s session where Graham’s predecessor as general secretary, Jeremy Corbyn ally Len McCluskey, is expected to take the stand to testify. Graham herself has been subpoenaed by Ogle’s legal team to give evidence, despite allegedly trying to get out of appearing.
Graham is using one of the world’s most profitable law firms to defend the defamation suit – and also, as Skwawkbox revealed, in the tribunal case. Her tenure as Unite boss has been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in misogyny and bullying complaints. She is currently being sued, along with an ally and the union, by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for defamation.
She has been exposed using proxies to order the cancellation of showings of the film ‘Oh Jeremy Corbyn/The Big Lie’, which exposes the political abuse of antisemitism accusations against left-wingers in the Labour party, and discussion of Asa Winstanley’s forensic book Weaponising Antisemitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn. Proxies were similarly despatched to try, unsuccessfully, to cancel a Unite ‘fringe’ event at Labour’s conference earlier this month in support of Palestinians.
Ogle’s barrister told the Workplace Relations Commission adjudicator last November that she expected the union would be required to ‘produce’ Sharon Graham to testify, along with a string of current and former senior Unite officials and employees.
If you would like to help cover Skwawkbox’s costs of attending this week’s session, which is expected to be the first of two or three at the WRC before the case is adjudicated, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thank you for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
Graham suspends official who refused to cancel pro-Palestine Labour conference fringe
Simon Dubbins told Graham’s proxies she should come and tell him herself if she wanted Unite Palestine solidarity fringe cancelling.
CORRECTION: Dubbins is ‘under investigation’, but not suspended..
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has suspended a senior Unite official who refused last October to cancel a solidarity fringe even for the Palestinian people that he had arranged during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool.
Graham sent underlings to tell Simon Dubbins, Unite’s Director for International Affairs, that the event must be pulled – but as Skwawkbox revealed exclusively at the time Dubbins refused, telling the proxies that if Graham wanted the event cancelled she should come and say so herself. She didn’t, and it went ahead.
The official reasons for the suspension have not been revealed, but Unite insiders have linked it to the fringe event.
Sharon Graham has been slammed for her actions – and inaction – relating to Palestine and the Israeli regime’s genocide in Gaza. She has been publicly silent about the slaughter, but has been criticised for banning Unite officials and national banners from pro-Gaza protests, banned and smeared films and books exposing the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam – and an email from her official union address to an angry member dismissed the genocide perpetrated on the people of Gaza.
Ms Graham’s tenure as Unite boss has also been marked by a string of other allegations – which neither she nor the union has denied – including alleged destruction of evidence against her husband in threat, misogyny and bullying complaints brought by union employees. She is also embroiled in both an employment tribunal for discrimination and a defamation lawsuit brought by Irish union legend Brendan Ogle for the union’s treatment of him and comments made about him by Graham and her close ally Tony Woodhouse.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
McDonalds, Starbucks, others admit Gaza boycott hitting profits
Firms admit losses or even cut ties with Israel
The chief executives of food chains McDonalds and Starbucks have admitted that the global boycott of their stores and products because of the firms’ support for Israel is hitting their profits. McDonalds in Israel provided free meals to Israeli soldiers participating in Israel’s mass slaughter of Palestinian civilians, while Starbucks has sued a union representing some Starbucks workers – the firm has engaged in union-busting efforts – for a post on the union’s social media account expressing solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
Other firms have suffered similarly and have even cut ties with Israel because of widespread grassroots anger over the genocide in Gaza. Swiss-based shipping firm Kuehne & Nagel has ceased transporting materials for Israeli weapons firm Elbit Systems and Japanese giant Itochu has announced it will end all collaboration with the same Israeli firm by the end of this month, citing the International Court of Justice’s damning findings against Israel last month in the case brought by South Africa.
January also saw controversy in Ireland after Dublin airport closed its Starbucks but continued to sell the firm’s products under a different brand.
The longstanding ‘boycott, divestment and sanctions’ (BDS) campaign of peaceful resistance to Israel’s apartheid and illegal occupation rattles Israel to such an extent that it set up a specific government department to combat and discredit it. Now, with the Houthi blockade of Israel-bound shipping hitting Israel’s economy, BDS is biting even deeper.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
‘A United Ireland Border Poll is a Case of When Not If’
History was made in Northern Ireland this week when Sinn Féin’s Vice President Michelle O’Neill became the first nationalist to hold the title of First Minister. Celebrating its success, party leader Mary Lou McDonald said that a United Ireland was “in touching distance” – a sentiment starkly contrasted by the UK's Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris who commented: “Not in my lifetime.” Is Ireland on the path to a border poll?
Politically, Northern Ireland is unrecognisable when compared to its inception. Established with an in-built Protestant majority, unionism maintained its preordained position as the region’s dominant political power for almost a century.
Today, however, unionism has lost its majority at Stormont, Westminster, in local government, and subsequently the office of First Minister – held by a unionist in every mandate since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement 23 years ago. The office of First and Deputy First Minister might be equal, but the symbolism of the titles has meaning.
While unionism continues its steady decline across each electoral office, Northern Ireland’s largest nationalist party, Sinn Féin, has become dominant at local and assembly levels. This new administration also includes a nationalist opposition leader, as the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) takes up the mantle.
In tandem with politics, the concept of identity is also shifting in Northern Ireland. The 2021 Census showed an eight-point drop in 'British’ identity in 10 years, while Irish and Northern Irish identities are on the rise. It was the first census in the history of Northern Ireland to show a Catholic majority. Northern Ireland is demonstrably less British, and less unionist, than it’s ever been before.
So, what do the polls say?
Following the EU Referendum, Northern Ireland has seen a significant uptick in polling centred on the subject of a United Ireland. As with most polls, the results are a mixed bag.
In 2022, 41% of respondents to a LucidTalk poll indicated they would vote “yes” to a United Ireland if a vote was held today, and a further 10% said they “would or may” vote yes in 15 to 20 years’ time. In the 2022 Northern Ireland Life and Times survey, 48% indicated that they want the region to remain within the UK in the long-term. Support for a United Ireland in the NILT poll rose to 31% – more than double the percentage reported in 2015 before the 2016 EU Referendum.
While polling ultimately hasn’t revealed consistent majority support for a United Ireland, polling has also failed to show reliable support for maintaining Northern Ireland’s position in the United Kingdom, with percentages of those who would vote to remain consistently failing to reach even half the vote share.
A point for consideration about the question being asked – “if a border poll was held today would you vote to remain in the United Kingdom or for a United Ireland?” – is that, at present, there is no official plan, no vision, and no detail as to what a United Ireland might look like, people are being asked the question based on limited information, ideology and emotions.
Polling results might change considerably when a plan emerges. A United Ireland with an NHS-style healthcare system? A new constitution? New governance structures and an ambitious all-island economic plan?
The new First Minister has said she believes a vote on Irish unity could occur within a decade: "There are so many things that are changing. All the old norms, the nature of this state, the fact that a nationalist republican was never supposed to be First Minister. That all speaks to the change".
In contrast, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “It is not constitutional change, it is delivering on the day-to-day things that matter to people”. While Heaton-Harris ruled out a vote in the next decade.
But just what is the UK Government’s role when it comes to constitutional change?
The Good Friday Agreement outlines how “the power of the sovereign government with jurisdiction [in Northern Ireland] shall be exercised with rigorous impartiality”. The Agreement and the 1998 Northern Ireland Act place a legal duty on the Northern Ireland Secretary to call a border poll “if at any time it appears likely to him that a majority of those voting would express a wish that Northern Ireland should cease to be part of the United Kingdom and form part of a united Ireland”. So, unless Heaton-Harris has a time machine, he is disregarding the fluidity of this duty.
The Agreement outlines that the constitutional future of Northern Ireland is “for the people of the island of Ireland alone, by agreement between the two parts respectively and without external impediment, to exercise their right of self-determination on the basis of consent”.
There is a serious question as to whether the current Government is discharging its duties under the Good Friday Agreement. Instead of “rigorous impartiality”, we have an unashamedly pro-Union Government that not only repeatedly expresses support for Northern Ireland to remain in the UK, but created an entire command paper that speaks only to unionist concerns and interests.
The 'Safeguarding the Union’ command paper, which lured the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) back into power-sharing, includes 17 references to unionism and zero references to nationalism. It was a one-sided negotiation that delivered one-sided results and departed entirely from the spirit of cooperation and parity of esteem in the Good Friday Agreement.
There is an unbridled hypocrisy is decrying the aspirations of nationalists, while parroting one’s own divergent political aspirations.
Meanwhile, on the ground, preparation for a border poll is already well underway. Universities across the UK and Ireland are conducting research on constitutional change. At a civic level, pro-Union and pro-United Ireland campaign groups have already been established, and political parties are getting ready.
On the pro-United Ireland campaign side there is Ireland’s Future, which has held several conferences, including one in 2022 that was attended by 5,000 people, and included representatives from 10 political parties. On the pro-Union side, there is both Uniting UK – set up by a former Ulster Unionist Party MLA Philip Smith – and Arlene Foster’s Together UK Foundation.
In 2020, the SDLP launched the New Ireland Commission to prepare for constitutional change, and for two years Sinn Féin has been holding a series of people’s assemblies across the island of Ireland.
Within the Irish Government there is both the Shared Island Unit, which examines cross-border relationships and opportunities, and Ireland’s second chamber, Seanad Éireann, which recently held a public consultation on constitutional change.
Ireland’s national paper, The Irish Times, has also launched a series examining a United Ireland. None of this would have been imaginable even five years ago and yet the debate has permeated into every seam of the social fabric.
There won’t be a border poll tomorrow, but Northern Ireland is closer to a vote than it has ever been before. It is not a case of if the people of Northern Ireland go to the polls – it’s a case of when. The ground is already being tilled, the politics is transforming – the missing components are a vision of what unity looks like and a plan to reach it. Once those are arrived at, the polls may quickly start to change.
Emma DeSouza is an Irish writer, commentator and campaigner
Patronising Unionists are a gift to Irish unity
I hope the new First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, likes being patronised because she was in abundance yesterday.
First, there was Rishi Sunak, of whom the Guardian reports:
Rishi Sunak has urged the new Northern Ireland executive to focus on “the day-to-day things that matter to people”, not constitutional change.
And the same report made clear that:
In an interview this morning Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader, said that he did not agree with O’Neill about a referendum taking place within a decade and that she was wrong to raise the issue. He told Sky News:
“I don’t agree with that at all. I think that Michelle O’Neill, instead of focusing on a divisive border poll – she says she wants to be a first minister for all, well that means the unionist community …
Let’s move forward together. Let’s focus on the issues that really matter to people. They’re not interested in a divisive border poll.”
It’s quite remarkable that after two years of total political pettiness that Donaldson should tell O’Neill that she should stick to day-to-day issues and not pursue her political interests.
Sunak was equally patronising.
If they think their comments help the cause of keeping Ireland in the Union I think both are very seriously mistaken. I can only see O’Neill reacting by telling them where they can shove their opinions, and to be candid, rightly so.
Labour’s way back in?
I’ve always thought that adopting the Northern Ireland rules provides Labour with an acceptable way out of the EU dilemma. After all Northern Ireland is (for now at least!) actually one part of the UK… To adopt Northern Ireland rules throughout the UK clearly would not be ideal – but it would be a start…... Read more
The days of the Union are over
Unlike many, I am not inclined to celebrate the return of power-sharing in Northern Ireland as yet.
I heard Sam Coates on Sky last night saying that the EU are still in the dark about what the supposed new agreement between the UK government and the DUP might mean, and I think there is very good reason for caution as a result. If there was no reason for checks on food and other items moving from GB to Northern Ireland, I cannot see why a provision for such checks was included in the Windsor Agreement, and I cannot see what changes might be taking place now that the EU can agree as a result. But I might be wrong, of course: maybe a route has been found.
That said, I think that Sinn Fein is now right to say, as it is reported that they have in the Guardian, that:
a united Ireland is “within touching distance” as the party prepares to claim the post of Northern Ireland first minister for the first time.
This is a seismic change that fundamentally challenges the whole basis on which Northern Ireland was created. It was always meant to be a protestant enclave; now it will have majority rule by a nationalist. To diminish the significance of that would be impossible.
Sinn Fein does, however, overstate its case. It is the most popular party in Ireland now, but the reality is that the powers that be there, represented by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael, are doing all they can, including entering into their own power-sharing agreement, to keep Sinn Fein out of government. The fact that the coalition government between these two normal enemies is a miserable failure is not helping their cause, but Irish reunification may not be on the cards just yet.
That said, the day when it will happen has to now be on the horizon. I won't deny that I would be pleased to see that happen.
Next will be Scotland. Wales might take a little longer. But the days of the Union are over: the imperialism inherent within it will be its downfall. The only question is how long it will take for that to happen.