Sir, – Alex Kane tells us that “Unionism needs to ask why London won’t take its side” (Opinion & Analysis, March 2nd). There is, however, little mystery here. No less an authority than Edward Carson explained why in the speech he gave in the House of Lords in December 1921. With the wisdom of hindsight, he said: “What a fool I was. I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in the political game that was to get the Conservative party into power.”
Playing the Orange card has only ever been for the purposes of Westminster politics, and neither the British Conservatives nor Labour, nor any faction within either party, will take the side of unionism unless it is in its own – often short-term – interest. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN,
Cabinteely,
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Dublin 18.
Sir, – Is the Windsor Protocol named after the castle or the knot? The knot mentions a loop around the neck. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE TANNAM,
Dublin 24.
Sir, – The DUP seems to need considerable time to peruse the agreement, and the European Research Group of Tory MPs has instructed lawyers and says it will take two weeks to furnish its report. Is this a protocol for slow learners? Surely the fact that Rishi Sunak has said it won’t be changed should concentrate minds? – Yours, etc,
EDNA McMINN,
Belfast.
Sir, – Your letters page since the Windsor Protocol was announced has provided some sharp commentary on the latest Brexit battle. However, it is noticeable that many of the letters, including thoughtful contributions from Brian O’Brien and Eamon Sheppard (both March 2nd), focus on the economic rather than the political consequences of the UK’s departure.
For some Brexit voters, including me, economics was never the point. My vote was a political decision about reclaiming independence. I do not live in Northern Ireland, but my sense is that a good deal of unionist opposition to the old protocol was likewise primarily political rather than economic. Of course unionists care about trade, but their main motivation appears to be asserting their right to remain unequivocally a part of the UK.
I would agree that during the Brexit campaign, Brexiteers made claims about commercial benefits for the UK that are easy to mock, but it is also true that the collapse predicted by Remainers has not happened. The economic consequences of Brexit are less than either campaign suggested and will probably take a decade or two to become clear. Even then it will be hard to disentangle changes caused by Brexit from changes caused by other factors, such as the UK’s poor productivity relative to many other countries.
In any case, a perfectly reasonable response to those who characterise the UK’s decision to leave the European Union as economic idiocy is that the choice, for many, was not primarily an economic one. One sometimes feels like resorting to the Clinton team’s slogan before his 1992 US presidential election victory, but adding a modifying “not”: it’s not the economy, stupid. – Yours, etc,
DAVID HARRIS,
London.
Sir, – None of the unionist voices objecting to EU law in the North were raised against the suggestion that Britain should resile from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
It seems reasonable then to assume that unionism is relaxed at the prospect of finding itself within a state that can disregard binding human rights commitments under international law covering the right to life, a fair trial, liberty and security.
Unionism is also apparently willing to take it on trust that such a state would not restrict freedom of assembly, thought, conscience or religion. Given this extraordinary level of confidence there is naturally no need to codify any legal remedy in the event of these rights being violated. This might usefully be kept in mind as the latest iteration of the protocol elicits the predictable pleas for us to understand unionist fears for the future and to focus on “making Northern Ireland work” rather than pursuing reunification.
The indifference displayed by unionism towards the ECHR exposes its supposed fear of mistreatment following reunification as the political contrivance it is. It is not inequality that unionism fears most within a reunified Ireland but equality. Viewed objectively the supposed siege mentality is more accurately characterised as a supremacist mindset.
Those who still advocate “making Northern Ireland work” or, put more honestly, retaining partition, cannot of course admit this.
To do so would place them in the difficult position of adducing evidence that unionism which ran its state on the premise that some people are of less value than others has finally reconciled itself to equality.
No less absurdly, to accept the validity of unionist fears for the future is also to implicitly accept that a reunified Ireland could actually be more parochial, more insular and less tolerant than the state created for, and controlled by, unionism.
In reality the scorched earth policy of overlaying Brexit onto partition is convincing more people in the North that their current socioeconomic circumstances are worse than anything they might encounter in the most feverish post-reunification scenario imagined by unionism.
As the debate on constitutional change gathers pace, an unfounded unionist fear of the future is a brake on reunification that can no longer hold. – Yours, etc,
PAUL LAUGHLIN,
Derry.
Sir, – So Rishi Sunak now proclaims that Northern Ireland is in a unique position in the entire world in having access to both the UK and the European single market. His recognition of the advantages of being part of the single market reminds me of Handel’s As Steals the Morn:
“As steals the morn upon the night
And melts the shades away:
So Truth does Fancy’s charm dissolve
And rising Reason puts to flight
The fumes that did the mind involve
Restoring intellectual day.” – Yours, etc,
IGOR CUSACK,
Greystones,
Co Wicklow.