Last week, Boris Johnson came back from Brussels with his new Brexit deal, but he couldn’t win MPs vote as the House of Commons pushed on an amendment that delayed Brexit again. Why? What’s the reason why MPs keep on sabotaging Brexit?

“The first rule of politics is supposed to be – in the words of President Lyndon B. Johnson – learning to count”. BoJo has showed he perfectly knows that. Coming back from Brussels, end of last week, he was gathering the numbers of votes he needed to get Brexit done, but “Super Saturday” (Oct the19th) hid a trap. MPs voted for an amendment tabled by the Tory Oliver Letwin and in response, the government cancelled Saturday’s vote on the actual deal itself. A delay on Bojo’s plan…

Brexit Starts After Brexit

Brexit doesn’t mean only leaving the EU after a deal is voted in the UK’s parliament. This is just the beginning. The political debate, which started 1,200 days ago, is discussing the frame, the divorce starting point. What the separation between the UK and the EU means has yet to be established.

The deal and the bill that parliament is now debating on includes four clear issues; the new organization to monitor the right of EU citizens in UK, Northern Ireland, the supremacy of the European Court of Justice on UK law and the money UK has to pay to leave (Article 50).

When the Parliament approves a deal, all the uncertainty of these last three years will be overcome. But a new uncertainty will rise soon; the one related to the transition period which is supposed to last until January 2021. During this phase, the UK and EU will renegotiate the rules of the game. That means, for example, free trade deals between the UK and the rest of the world and a new Jumbo Free Trade Agreement with the EU, that still wants to be a special partner. Experts say that it will take another five years to work out what the new economic relationship with the EU will be like.

Economic Impact Analysis

40 months have passed since the referendum was voted and Boris Johnson is fighting in his political purgatory for 88 days. “Let’s get Brexit done and let’s move on,” and “this is the biggest democratic exercise in British history” are the strong claims he’s been using to win. His effective propaganda is disruptive and has been able to sell his project well. But the bill that the UK has to pay to leave is still too high.

Some MPs have asked the chancellor for an updated economic analysis of the consequences of Johnson’s deal on UK. The last government’s long-term economic analysis was published in November 2018. The Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU) made a comparison between the rival Brexit scenarios designed by Theresa May’s and Boris Johnson’s deal using information from the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority. The study showed that a deal akin to Johnson’s would cost the economy 6.7% of GDP over 15 years, which is equivalent to around £130 billion ($167.5 billion) in lost income by 2034. This amounts to people on average being £2,250 per year poorer 15 years from now. May’s deal was considered to have a much milder negative effect on the economy, with the report saying the cost would be nearer to 2.5% of GDP over the same period.

Asked about this numbers, PM has always answered that “democracy has a cost and this the bill UK has to pay to regain its sovereignty”.

The independent think tank called UK in a Changing Europe has also published an analysis comparing the Johnson and the May deals. It found the PM’s would be likely to reduce GDP per capita by between 2.3% and 7% over the next ten years, compared with remaining in the EU. That compares with 1,9% to 5,5% under May’s deal.

The lobby group for the engineering and manufacturing industries, Make UK, has also showed its concerns. Members are worried about the lack of commitments to maintaining the closest possible trading relationship with the European partners. Being excluded from EU regulatory institutions could reduce their influence and raising costs of manufacturers working in the aerospace, automotive, food and drink, chemicals and pharmaceuticals sectors.

And what about companies relying on immigrated workers? The Daily Mail published the concerns which emerged in a National Farmers’ Union survey showing that the shortfall, in part fueled by Brexit uncertainty, is striking the industry.

“A third of growers say they have been forced to leave 100 tons of fruit unpicked – around 16 million apples – because of a labour shortfall,” the newspaper said. The shortage of pickers and packers, most of them coming from East Europe, is also hitting vegetables growers ahead of the Christmas period, “with industry leaders fearing supplies of Brussels sprouts, cabbages, cauliflowers, kale and mushrooms could be affected,” the newspaper concluded. (Immigration to the UK for work is fallen to its lowest level: -18% last August, -20% last September).

Bank of England governor, Mark Carney, shows optimism saying the UK is primed to rebound from uncertainty with higher level of investment and growth, though he alerts that lower levels of trade with the EU would restrict any recovery.

Great Britain Could Dwindle Becoming Britannia

Even some of Theresa May’s worst enemies tend to consider her deal better than Johnson’s one. She knows that and that’s the reason why she decided to speak in the House of Commons during the “Super Saturday” debate. “Standing here, I have a distinct sense of déjà vu,” she said, given that her deal had been rejected in the same chamber three times while Johnson’s was about to be killed for the first one.

There’s a big difference, though, between the two options and it is called “Northern Ireland”.

The Backstop issue wrecked May’s deal. Boris overcame it, but is this enough to win the Irish people doubts?

The bill that the Unionist Party has to pay looks too high at the moment; the DUP refused support to the PM’s deal feeling betrayed. Moving the Irish border into the sea to overcome the backstop as suggested by May’s deal wrecked the dream of the integrity of the UK (and betrays the spirit of the 1988 Good Friday Agreement).

“These proposals are not, in our view, beneficial to the economic well-being of Northern Ireland and they undermine the integrity of the Union,” DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said.

Experts think that Northern Ireland is on its way out from the UK feeling a semi-detached part of it. The softer Brexit envisaged only for Northern Ireland looks like a soft offer to stay in the EU. The EU is just waiting for that and the UK is risking to start losing pieces. The second piece to get lost soon could be Scotland, as Scottish people didn’t vote for leaving the EU in 2016 (62% wanted to remain). Scotland is threatening to leave the UK and is working on a new referendum.

The conclusion is: how much will it cost this democratic process called Brexit?

L'articolo Why is Brexit starting after Brexit? proviene da InsideOver.

As 31 October edges closer, No. 10 seems to have reached a new deal with EU leaders. The Prime Minister believes this new Brexit Bill will pass through the House of Commons even without the support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The DUP opposes the new deal as it doesn’t deliver the possibility for Ulster to give a veto over the new customs arrangement. While this deal dictates for Northern Ireland to remain within the UK’s customs territory, it also aligns Ulster to the EU single market. According to DUP statements, the new contingency plan violates the Good Friday Agreement as The Northern Ireland Assembly will get a vote every four years on trading matters by reaching a simple majority, unlike the current system, which requires a majority of both unionists and nationalists to pass rules.

The Troubles

However, the Irish border is still the most crucial point as it’s likely to become an ideal ground for potential criminal activities while also igniting old grudges between Unionists and Republicans in Northern Ireland. Parliament rejected Theresa May’s deal three times, pointing out that the Backstop was a betrayal of the 2016 referendum result. Boris Johnson’s hostility towards the Backstop has been the trademark of his political campaign, though the renovated Brexit deal cedes Ulster to EU as much as the Backstop draft agreement would have done.

The significance of the Good Friday Agreement is unavoidably bound to the conflict that, through the centuries, it has shaped Ireland’s political layout. Three successive phases have occurred leading to the conflict known as The Troubles. The seed of these enmities can be traced back to the late 15th century and the Plantation of Ulster, during the reign of James VI. The colonisation of North-East Ireland ensured the dominance of the Anglican Church in Ireland as Scottish and English people settled in the area with the specific purpose of expropriating the native Irish of their arable lands. Following the colonisation, an Ulster Protestant community, still bound to Great Britain and previously settled in the province, heightened divisions among colonists and Catholics. In the latter part of the 16th century, the introduction of Penal Laws sharpened discrimination against Catholics. The Acts of Union 1800 abolished the Irish Parliament, founded in 1297, and merged Ireland with the United Kingdom while at the same time, led to the end of discrimination and persecution against Catholics by promoting their Catholic emancipation.

The second phase, between the 19th and 20th century, marked the rise of two political factions in Northern Ireland: Unionists and Home Rule Movement backers. The latter were keen to restore an Irish Parliament to promote a measure of self-government. This historical period saw the contraposition of paramilitary groups from both sides such as the Ulster Volunteer Force and the IRA (Irish Republican Army). Nationalists reached self-determination through the establishment of the First Dáil, the Irish Parliament, in 1918, and The Irish War of Independence fought between 1919 and 1921. The conflict ended with a ceasefire in July 1921, though violence continued in the area of Belfast, which had previously become part of Northern Ireland under British Law, along with six other counties. Unionists, most of whom were Protestant, decided to remain within the United Kingdom as established by the Government of Ireland Act 1920.

The rise of IRA

The critical situation at the border in Northern Ireland was far from being solved as fighting and rioting continued until the outbreak of the Irish Civil War between 1922 and 1923. The new conflict threatened the creation of an Irish Free State, which nationalists nevertheless proclaimed in December 1922. Indeed, the Anti-Treaty IRA deemed the new treaty to be an act of treason of the Irish Republic as the Anglo-Irish Treaty made Ireland an autonomous dominion of the Crown. The head of state was the British Monarch. The war ended with the confirmation of the Irish Free State, but the death toll was greater than the previous war.

By the 1960s, discrimination against Catholics were the order of the day as the unionist government in Northern Ireland endorsed Protestants in local elections by minimizing Catholic delegation, while also demonstrating unfavourable public housing allocation policy.

The sectarian conflict displayed the features of a political struggle instead of religious strife in which both the Irish language and Irish history were banned from school while the Sinn Fein party was not allowed to participate in Northern Ireland elections until 1974. Between 1968 and 1969, tensions increased as the Ulster government forcibly suppressed all Catholic demonstrations. Frequent rioting occurred in Derry, as Belfast unionists burnt down Catholic districts in Belfast, and the British Army built walls to separate sectarian communities in Belfast. The Northern Ireland government lowered public housing bias and gerrymandering towards Catholics, though it also introduced new severe measures such as the internment without trial in 1971.

Bloody Sunday

The conflict reached a new peak of violence on January 20, 1972, when a British commando shot dead 14 people by trying to halt a Catholic civil rights protest in Londonderry. The killings, known as Bloody Sunday, represented one of the most dramatic events to occur throughout The Troubles. As a reaction to Bloody Sunday, Provos (Provisional Irish Republican Army) gained more approval from civil society; hence, an increasing number of nationalists joined up. In the same year, Provos countered their opponents with a grenade attack by setting off 22 bombs in Belfast’s downtown. Seven civilians and two soldiers died in the incident, which went down in history as Bloody Friday. The use of explosives became the modus operandi on both sides, causing the death of 350 Catholic and 88 Protestant civilians between the years 1974-1976.

The IRA internees lost their status of war prisoner while detained in Maze Prison by being given the status of a common criminal. Blanket protests and defacing prison’s walls with their faeces were the only tools IRA prisoners had to protract their remonstrance against the detention. Hunger strikes became significantly popular among IRA prisoners in Maze prison throughout the 1980s. Following a series of bomb attacks perpetrated by the IRA in 1984, the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement, which enabled Ireland to have a consultative role in Northern Ireland government. Opposition came from loyalist wing, and violence spread once again through renewed bombing. The ceasefire in 1997 permitted all political sides to begin peace talks whereby the Social Democratic Labour Party, The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, the UUP, the Ulster Democratic Party, and Sinn Fein came together to find a diplomatic resolution. All political parties signed The Good Friday Agreement on April 10, 1998, which established a power-sharing Assembly in Northern Ireland, the withdrawal of British troops, and the establishment of a boundaries cooperation. Notwithstanding the new pact’s signature, The Real Irish Republican Party detonated a bomb in Omagh causing the death of 29 people. The IRA permanently laid down its arms in 2005, along with unionist and loyalist paramilitary organizations.

The Irish Backstop

The Irish Backstop was a draft agreement planned to avoid a hard border in Northern Ireland. The Backstop would have kept Northern Ireland within the single market hence bound by the entire EU customs Code and EU customs territory. On October 10, 2019, the UK and EU did not ratify the Backstop as a new deal was about to be disclosed. Northern Ireland opposed the Backstop as it believed it would be treated differently from the rest of the UK. Moreover, hard Brexiters saw the Backstop as a gimmick by European leaders to indefinitely bind the UK to the EU single market.

Albeit the Backstop has been removed from Johnson’s new deal, Northern Ireland will remain in the EU’s customs zone as tariffs on products entering Northern Ireland will not be applied as long as they don’t cross the border. In recent months, it appears both the UK and EU have made contradictory declarations for a firm political strategy in the mutual interest of emerging unperturbed yet unwilling to negotiate.

For over three centuries, nationalists and unionists have been at war, and more than 3,500 people were killed in the conflicts. The creation of no-go areas amplified the consequences of sectarian strife whereby paramilitary groups and security forces dictated the daily agenda of Northern Ireland. The introduction of new measures such as those proposed in Johnson’s deal, may put the stability of Ulster at risk, as they will provides with border and checks on goods. As long as Brexit remains unfinalised, peace in Northern Ireland is ensured by the permanence of the UK in the European Union. According to a report that The UK in a Changing Europe recently published, the new Brexit deal would decrease income per capita GDP by 6.4%, unlike 4.9% for Theresa May’s deal. The report underlines how the new draft agreement will reduce UK living standards when compared to staying in the EU. While it may be true that the Backstop was a tool to align the UK with an EU customs arrangement, it also was the sole way to guarantee peace.

Despite an anti-EU sentiment being present in British society, the Eurozone debt crisis and immigration from other European countries, have hugely exacerbated Euroscepticism in the UK. Given that a Brexit referendum was highly likely following the 2010 elections, the British ruling class has deliberately neglected the Irish border issue, and in doing so disregarded the role the European Union has played to ensure Northern Ireland’s peace process.

L'articolo Is the Irish Backstop Removal Threatening the Good Friday Agreement? proviene da InsideOver.

EIRE’s Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, told Irish broadcaster RTE that it will be ‘very difficult’ for the UK and the EU to reach a Brexit agreement before the October 31st deadline. This is because ‘big gaps’ remained between the two sides. Although he reassured Boris Johnson during a 45-minute phone call on Tuesday that he would ‘strive until the last moment’ to reach a deal with Britain, he would not do so at Ireland’s, Northern Ireland’s or the EU’s expense. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also informed the Prime Minister that his plans for a deal are ‘overwhelmingly unlikely’ to be approved by the European Council on October 17th.

The Irish backstop has become the stumbling block that is preventing Brussels and London from reaching a post-Brexit deal. Since it was proposed as part of Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement (WA), it has been loathed by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Conservative Party’s European Research Group (ERG).  May wasted her time trying to persuade Parliament to accept her deal, even though it was rejected three times. She also failed to suggest her own alternative to the backstop. May continually delayed Britain’s date of departure and European leaders made clear that the WA was the only deal that they could accept. After taking no-deal off the table, the EU knew the former Prime Minister was never serious about the following motto: ‘any deal is better than a bad deal.’

Since becoming Prime Minister, Boris has recognised how damaging the backstop is to persuading his Westminster colleagues to approve of the WA. During the Conservative Party Conference, he stated how he would replace it. He proposed to replace the backstop with a protocol on Northern Ireland/Ireland grouped around five central points, one of them being a commitment to not implement a hard border between EIRE and Ulster to preserve the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

The Irish protocol aims to create an all-island single market with the same rules north and south of the border for farming, food production and manufacturing. This would mean goods produced and animals raised in Northern Ireland would not be subject to compulsory EU checks if exported to EIRE, and vice versa. Furthermore, the all-island single market can only be triggered if Stormont consent to it at the end of the transition period in December 2020. Boris’s deal would also ensure that this country leaves the Customs Union and the Single Market completely. Because this idea earned the DUP’s and ERG’s support, it shows that the Prime Minister broke the Brexit impasse among his colleagues.

Ireland’s refusal to support this protocol is disappointing because a no-deal Brexit will harm their economy. 2 to 2.5 per cent of their GDP could be wiped out in 2030 and it could be 1.5 per cent lower in general by 2021. Businesses are demanding their share of Ireland’s €10.4 billion corporate tax intake reserved for businesses trading in both directions that could be hit by tariffs after Halloween. John McGrane, the Director General of the British Irish Chamber Commerce, proposed that the Irish Government can shore up indigenous companies most at risk from Brexit. But these are unnecessary costs to the Irish taxpayer just because Varadkar refuses to compromise.

The Taoiseach would do well to listen to Bertie Ahern, who is one of his predecessors. The Irish Times reports that Ahern believes Boris’s proposals should be examined carefully before he calls an election claiming that the EU rejected them. He called on Brussels and the Irish Government to clarify their position on the Prime Minister’s protocol. If Dublin and the EU refuse to budge on the Irish backstop, the impact a no-deal Brexit could have on Ireland will be devastating. They will only have themselves to blame if the UK quits the trading bloc without a deal on October 31st.

L'articolo Why Varadkar Should Listen to Boris’s New Brexit Proposals proviene da InsideOver.

Until Prime Minister Johnson suspended the UK Parliament, the Irish border posed the biggest question in the Brexit negotiations. The topic has become known as the ‘Irish Backstop’. Currently, citizens of both Irelands enjoy a seamless transition when driving between Northern Ireland (‘NI’) and the Republic, their change in location marked only when the road signs morph from ‘miles’ (NI) to ‘kilometres’ (Republic). This fluidity of movement, and the resultant erasure of fences, is a result of the Peace Process. But this hard-earned progress of the past twenty years is now under threat by possible Brexit policies.

When Northern Ireland, as part of the UK, exits the EU, it will share a border with an EU member state, necessitating what is known as Hard Border. Hard border would entail customs checks for citizens and goods moving between the Irelands, as well as the resurrection of fences. As hallmarks of the British rule in Northern Ireland, it is feared that fences would inflame tensions anew and cause the island of Ireland to return to the decades of fighting known as The Troubles. In the space of three decades, The Troubles brought 15,000 bombs, 3,800 fatalities and 36,000 shootings. There was an average of ten killings per month. No surprise then, that negotiators and diplomats have been thinking up every possible solution to avoid a hard border in Ireland. One suggestion is to scan lorries using technology, so that no physical customs checks need stand between the two Irelands. Another option is to scan the goods vehicles away from the border, but the remote scanning points may become targets for attacks instead.

While British politicians are desperately trying to resolve the Irish Backstop, something has been happening that could save them the task.

The Belfast Agreement, more commonly known as the Good Friday Agreement, was finally reached on April 10th, 1998. It permits those born in Northern Ireland to choose British citizenship, Irish citizenship or both. In 2017, the year following the Brexit referendum, over 80,000 Northern Irish residents applied for Irish passports, the highest annual figure on record. While the backstop has complicated the Brexit process, it may achieve what William Gladstone never could: the reunification of Ireland. Naturally and intrinsically, simply from people voting with their feet.

What do the Irish passport applications reveal?

To answer this, we must consider Benedict Anderson’s definition of a nation: ‘an imagined political community’.

Their record applications for Irish citizenship shows how Northern Irish citizens see their homeland as unconfined to the six counties of Ulster. Rather, they identify and connect with a geographical space that transcends the Irish border, as well as the wider family of the European Union. While they used to say, ‘Ulster says ‘No’’, their line is now, ‘No border’ and the Irish

question of the 1990s has remodelled into a new Irish idea of progressivism, Freedom of Movement and –crucially- as part of the EU.

The Irish MEPs and diplomatic core in Brussels secured the Irish border as one of the three red line issues in the Brexit negotiations. This alone demonstrates Ireland’s eagerness to engage with the EU. Given that Northern Ireland voted 55.8% in favour of remaining in the EU, the two Irelands appear to be on the same page in matters of foreign policy.

So why is the above enough to reunite Ireland?

When debating whether or not Britain should join the Euro, people on both sides mentioned something called the Eurocreep. This was the argument that the Euro was already operating in the UK because big firms with UK bases already conducted their business in and –more importantly- thought in Euros. It is a similar situation with Ireland. By rejecting Hard Border and binding each other closer together by imagined –or rather, mental,- association, it’s easy to see how a reunited Ireland would form in the collective mind of the island’s inhabitants and return a positive result if NI held a referendum on reunification with the Republic. The Good Friday Agreement permits such a poll to take place if ‘it appears likely’ that most voters (in Northern Ireland) would want to ‘form part of a united Ireland’ and give up their part in the UK. As well as a shared mentality between its peoples, Strand Three of the Good Friday Agreement could do a lot to reunite Ireland.

The third Strand ‘established the British–Irish Council and the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference to encourage co-operation and develop good relations between Britain and Ireland. These are forums where the two Governments discuss Reserved Matters which are not the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Assembly.’ In having a platform for the discussion of matters that exclusively affect the two Irelands, they have laid the foundations for operating together politically if they ever reunited. Since both are very pro-EU nations, taking their shared affairs to Brussels would be unlikely to cause any problems. They may benefit from the Union’s support for minority languages and allow Ulster-Scots to flourish alongside Irish Gaelic.

The new and shared progressive Irish idea can only have been helped by the recent gay marriage and abortion referendums in the Republic that saw the country turn its back on its traditional Catholic values, thus eroding the religious divide that once defined Irish division. It seems the island of Ireland is heading towards reunification and, like the current border arrangements, its transition will be seamless.

L'articolo Could Brexit Reunite Ireland? proviene da InsideOver.

Rioting, bombing and headline-grabbing murder attempts are all part of the dissident’s arsenal. The murder of Lyra McKee, shot because she was standing beside a police vehicle doing her job as a journalist, highlights their activity in Northern Ireland. In 2014, I was lucky enough to hear Lyra speak at a forum in Dublin. She spoke, and we listened, fascinated by the power of this young woman as she captured the room. Now Lyra is gone, murdered when doing what investigative journalists do best: observing what is happening and making sense of it for others. What does not make sense is her death.

The Good Friday Agreement, signifying peace between the Irish and British authorities to end the Irish Troubles, was signed in April 1998. Despite this, violence is seeping into Northern Irish society once again. Why has it come to this, after all the hope of fragile but intact peace during the last 21 years? In the year between March 2018 and February 2019, there were 37 shootings. There were 1.3 kilograms of explosives, 45 firearms and 3333 rounds of ammunition seized in Northern Ireland. Why are the young taking up arms again? Where are the politicians? Is political complacency leading to violence?

A Renewable Heat Incentive Scheme seems an unlikely and unexciting cause of political unrest. The 2012 RHIS in Northern Ireland had a fatal flaw: it was not capped. The idea was to encourage the use of alternative heat sources, such as wood-burning boilers. Companies soon discovered that the more alternative fuel you burned, the more money you got in subsidies. Another bonus was that the subsidies were very generous. ‘Cash for Ash’ wasted over £400m in overspend. The Minister responsible? Arlene Foster, now the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party.

In March 2017, the power-sharing initiative between the DUP and the republican Sinn Fein collapsed due to the scandal. Stormont, the seat of government, has been empty ever since. The two sides cannot agree on putting the government back together, and Northern Ireland currently holds the world record for not having an elected government in place. Nobody in power means no leadership, with no one steering the country along the thin line of peace.

While the Cash for Ash scandal was developing, so was Brexit. The British Government is the overseer of devolved power in Northern Ireland, but since 2016, Brexit has occupied the ministers in London.

Prime Minister Theresa May is losing votes in Parliament, her ministers are resigning, and she is under constant pressure just to stay in office. The result is that Westminster is paying little or no attention to what is happening in Stormont. The Irish Backstop, guaranteeing the open border between the North and Southern Ireland is, ironically, delaying Brexit and increasing the uncertainty.

As an added irony, Northern Ireland voted against Brexit, but the largest party, the DUP, campaigned in favour of it. The two main Northern Irish parties are busy not doing anything, as they cannot do anything without a sitting parliament. The UK government cut their salaries in 2018 as a nudge towards talks, but with little effect.

When there isn’t a government in power for some time, stasis takes over. For Northern Ireland, this means there is little action on job creation, economic development, youth services and help for the disadvantaged. Civic engagement and trust in politicians are evaporating, and some young people in Northern Ireland are turning to dissident groups, because what they promote makes sense to them.

Political gains so far are minimal; there was a win of one seat in the May 2019 local elections and more people turned out to protest against the dissidents than support them. What they do have is the power to corrupt and incite violence. Bertie Ahern, the Taoiseach at the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, spoke recently about the Real IRA, the dissident group behind a lot of the violence, and the need for politicians to act:

The Real IRA are recruiting in Northern Ireland. They are not a huge organisation, but they are a dangerous one, so politicians have to be centre stage, said Ahern.

There isn’t a government of any colour in Northern Ireland to condemn the rise in violence. The majority of people involved in the unrest probably never knew the Troubles, and don’t know how quickly disorder can lead to murderous hate. Peace in Northern Ireland has always been fragile, but the current political stalemate is straining it to breaking point.

The UK government is not putting pressure on the political parties to come to an agreement; Brexit and its various forms are occupying their minds. Power-sharing talks reconvened in May 2019, as a response to the murder of Lyra McKee. No one is holding out much hope for success, but if the politicians can keep talking it will be one legacy of the young journalist’s murder. Talking is better than violence and one person wise enough to know that was Lyra McKee. Now it is up to the elected parties to honour her wisdom.

L'articolo The Rise of Extremism in Northern Ireland proviene da InsideOver.