{"id":4170,"date":"2018-09-25T18:12:18","date_gmt":"2018-09-25T17:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4170"},"modified":"2018-09-25T18:12:18","modified_gmt":"2018-09-25T17:12:18","slug":"efforts-are-mounting-to-drive-a-wedge-between-theresa-may-and-the-dup-over-the-backstop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.longkeshinsideout.co.uk\/?p=4170","title":{"rendered":"Efforts are mounting to drive a wedge between Theresa May and the DUP over the backstop"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Guardian has been the only media I can find claiming a British ploy to get round the backstop in these terms.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Senior diplomats involved in the negotiations have reacted furiously to the details of a fresh UK proposal for avoiding a hard border on the island of\u00a0Ireland<\/a>, briefed to the Irish PM, Leo Varadkar, at last week\u2019s Salzburg summit.<\/p>\n

Under the solution, May will agree to\u00a0Northern Ireland<\/a>\u00a0potentially staying, in effect, in the single market, as the rest of the UK exits after the transition period, should there be no other way to avoid a hard border at the time.<\/p>\n

However, crucially, the UK is insisting that the Northern Ireland assembly, known as Stormont, would have to vote in support of this move before it came into force.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stormont has not sat for 20 months due to the refusal of the DUP and Sinn F\u00e9in to work together. The assembly had a unionist majority from its establishment until the general election of 2017.<\/p>\n

EU officials said the British government was seeking simply to push the issue into the future, leaving the backstop solution as an \u201cempty shell\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The language of the report suggests that the reporter, an EU correspondent, isn\u2019t entirely familiar with how the Assembly works (worked).<\/p>\n

Everyone else reported Varadkar\u2019s frustration\u00a0<\/a> when she told him she might not have the UK\u2019s detailed\u00a0 proposals for the border ready in time for the next EU summit in three weeks\u2019 time. And this helped provoked the EU leaders\u2019 slapdown\u00a0 that so offended her.<\/p>\n

In her Rule Britannia camera statement<\/a> on Friday May appeared to state something quite different from the Guardian report:<\/p>\n

We both (UK and EU) agree that the Withdrawal Agreement needs to include a backstop to ensure that if there\u2019s a delay in implementing our new relationship, there still won\u2019t be a hard border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

But the EU is proposing to achieve this by effectively keeping Northern Ireland in the Customs Union.<\/p>\n

As I have already said, that is unacceptable. We will never agree to it. It would mean breaking up our country.<\/p>\n

We will set out our alternative that preserves the integrity of the UK. And it will be in line with the commitments we made back in December \u2013 including the commitment that no new regulatory barriers should be created between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK unless the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly agree<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is not stating the Assembly has a veto on the backstop, much less the DUP alone. But If you\u2019re feeling paranoid \u2013 and no doubt the DUP are, probably permanently -,\u00a0 you might wonder why, having been so emphatic in rejecting \u201c no border down the Irish Sea\u201d she bothered to slot in a little proviso\u00a0 allowing the Assembly to accept \u201cregulatory barriers\u201d and change the backstop or incorporate some barriers into a final deal.\u00a0 Was she after all suggesting that she would agree to the backstop if only the DUP would let her?\u00a0 That would indeed be a DUP veto. So was she making a barely disguised plea to the DUP to ease up a bit on its comprehensive\u00a0 ban on any inspections whatsoever between GB and NI?\u00a0 She was saying a recovened Assembly could agree\u00a0 to \u201cregulatory barriers\u201d and surely on a cross community vote.<\/p>\n

Simon Coveney\u2019s ears pricked up when he heard that and he sniped at the DUP\u2019s deal with the government<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 Simon Coveney also\u00a0said getting a good deal for Ireland in the Brexit talks is being hampered by the actions of political parties.<\/p>\n

Mr Coveney said that Ireland cannot allow one political party in Northern Ireland \u2013 the DUP \u2013 to veto proposals on\u00a0the backstop agreement<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How he \u201ccannot allow it\u201d beats me. But more to the point, he\u2019s encouraging the implication that May might allow checks away from the border if only the DUP would let her, And\u00a0 the impression of opening\u00a0 that door a chink is what\u2019s causing the Irish government and EU negotiators\u00a0 to\u00a0 give it a push.<\/p>\n

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