by Frank Schnittger
Wed Mar 22nd, 2023 at 09:57:47 AM EST
As the immediate emotions die down and the dust settles on Ireland's great Six Nations Grand Slam, it becomes possible - nay essential - too take a more nuanced and balanced view of what transpired, and more importantly, on what must come next.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Mar 9th, 2023 at 04:09:52 PM EST
- An Irish perspective cross-posted with Slugger O'Toole
On the assumption that UK Ireland, EU, and US relations are once again beginning to resemble what used to be regarded as normality, how can we expect those relations to evolve in the future? The Brexit fever in England seems to have broken and a more pragmatic and competent PM appears to be in charge.
Of course, some nods to Brexit orthodoxy may still be required to keep the Brexit ultra wing of the Tory party on board, chiefly in the form of clampdowns on illegal immigration, and tax cuts for the wealthy "to promote growth". Great play will be made of some EU era regulations being canned and new opportunities in the Pacific rim being pursued. But beyond all the spin, what really has changed or is likely to change in the near future, and particularly in relation to Ireland?
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Mar 2nd, 2023 at 08:16:20 PM EST
The political agenda in the UK seems to be moving on. The verdicts are in. Sunak is being praised for his political adroitness. Boris has been wrong-footed and even the perennially churlish Lord Frost has been muttering about aspects of the deal begin helpful.
The Windsor Framework Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the WFA) is being hailed as the harbinger of a reset in relations between the UK and EU more generally. A sort of GFA (Good Friday Agreement) for the UK and EU as a whole.
The phoney UK/EU Brexit war is over, and the focus now moves to how relationships in other areas can be improved, most immediately in relation to the Horizon research funding programme and improved access for the City to EU financial services markets.
US firms are apparently poised to invest billions in the N. Ireland economy and the Prime Minister has praised the deal as offering N. Ireland the best of all words and a unique trading opportunity in the world. Now why didn't the rest of the UK think of that? And indeed, what about Scotland?
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Feb 28th, 2023 at 06:14:02 PM EST
(Crossposted from Slugger O'Toole)
In analysing the outcome of the Protocol negotiations, one has to look at the prime interests of the main actors involved.
by fjallstrom
Sat Feb 25th, 2023 at 08:09:21 PM EST
Few may have missed that China is trying to broker peace in Ukraine.
In similar fashion to how the US government presented its position after world war one in idealistic fashion in Wilson's 14 points China has released China's Position on the Political Settlement of the Ukraine Crisis.
They are clearly written and while trying to apply principles on geopolitics may be a fool's errand, I think it is both interesting that they try and any attempt by a major power to broker peace must be welcomed at this point.
The application of the principles isn't as clear. Below the fold I will quote the principle's and my interpretation of how a peace based on them would look.
At last, a ray of light, Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by eurogreen
Wed Feb 22nd, 2023 at 07:36:30 AM EST
On the 20th of February 2003, George Bush the Lesser invaded Iraq, on the pretext, which he knew to be false, that Saddam had stocks of weapons of mass destruction.
The real reason, arguably, was that his neocon clique, closely tied to US oil interests, wanted to confiscate Iraq's hydrocarbons, for profit, and in order to break the power of OPEC.
The political cover was that ordinary, otherwise decent American citizens were baying for blood. They were thirsting for revenge after September 11, 2001, and they wanted to see Muslims killed on their behalf. Afghanistan was not enough.
And they appear to have genuinely believed (some of them, at least) that destroying Saddam's regime would bring freedom, democracy, and prosperity to Iraq.
So, how did that turn out?
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Feb 23rd, 2023 at 05:30:45 PM EST
(Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole)
David Allen Green has long been my British legal blogger of choice. I may not always agree with him politically, but he is often very insightful in his de-construction of the legal issues facing Britain. In a recent blogpost entitled The seven ways the matter of Brexit and the island of Ireland can be ultimately resolved, he turned his attention to the protocol, and I quote:
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Feb 16th, 2023 at 07:17:23 PM EST
In Why Northern Ireland's anti sectarianism is semi permanently stuck in "the crawler lane"... Cillian McGrattan makes a long, subtle and impassioned plea to get away from the sectarian tropes which seem to bedevil discussion of just about every topic or policy area in N. Ireland, and bemoans the fact that progress appears to be so slow. However, his focus on ideologies perhaps ignores the degree to which any change in those ideologies is dependent on changes in the real world of economic advantage and political power.
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole, where it has attracted the usual polarised comments!
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Feb 14th, 2023 at 01:17:29 PM EST
I had the pleasure of attending the annual Irish Association of Contemporary European Studies (IACES) lecture given by Professor Brigid Laffan of the European University Institute recently. In the hour available to her she painted some broad strokes of how membership has helped change Ireland over the past 50 years. One striking statistic was that male life expectancy was 69 years when Ireland joined in 1973. If I had been my age then, I would be dead!
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Feb 7th, 2023 at 06:48:18 PM EST
The failure of healthcare information support systems to provide a fully integrated and portable digitised personal medical history to aid healthcare professionals in making timely and efficient diagnostic, treatment and care decisions has become an open sore in Irish society, leading to much public debate. I felt moved to share my experience of such systems in the Irish Times today:
Cross-posted on Slugger O'Toole
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Jan 31st, 2023 at 11:21:33 AM EST
Recent discussions about the Protocol in Northern Ireland have focused on the problems it poses for the DUP. But from an EU perspective it seeks to solve a far larger problem for the EU as a whole. Much of the analysis of Brexit has been in terms of it being an English nationalist project. What has been missed is the extent to which it is also a political libertarian project.
Much of the driving force behind Brexiteer ideology has been the belief that the "Brussels bureaucracy" and its focus on regulation has been stifling British innovation, dynamism and the potential for growth. The main `benefit of Brexit' was always supposed to be the freedom it gave Britain to chart its own way in the world, with its own trade deals, and with much freer and closer relations with the rest of the world.
`Singapore-on-Thames' would become the gateway and bridge between some of the most dynamic economies in the world - in the Far East, the pacific rim, the Commonwealth, and in the USA. (Let us ignore, for the moment, the fact that Singapore is actually one of the most heavily regulated and strictly enforced places on earth). Global Britain would triumph where a sclerotic bureaucrat ridden old Europe would fail to compete.
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Jan 26th, 2023 at 08:48:51 PM EST
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole where it has topped 10,000 readers and 400 comments with many commenters saying it is one of the best opinion pieces they have ever read...
---
When I saw the headline to Brian Walker's piece, Rather than keep slagging off the DUP over the Protocol, let's recognise their better points, I expected to see a forensic analysis of the DUP's 7 tests for determining whether the Protocol had been adequately reformed to meet their requirements for re-entering the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland (NI).
I was looking forward to seeing what elements might be extracted from them that could be congruent with the EU and its legal and political obligations towards its member states. I was hoping for an exploration of any potential common ground that might lead to a settlement.
Instead, what we got was an expression of shared fury with the DUP, and a reduction of the Protocol to identity politics embellished by a gratuitous sideswipe impugning the EU Commission. I was moved to respond as follows:
by Cat
Wed Jan 25th, 2023 at 05:00:40 PM EST
...Thanks to the courage of our soldiers holding back the occupiers, and thanks to the leadership of the United States of America, which has consolidated the world in defense of freedom, we see how to win this battle.
Yet to win, we must engage all our resolve and our strength.
It is like starting your own business and working every day from morning till night, every day, so that one day you can see how your dream is becoming true - when you finally have your own operating business....
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Sun Jan 22nd, 2023 at 03:10:31 PM EST
Brexit and the resulting impasse around the protocol have tended to put the focus on the DUP and the failure of the Belfast or Good Friday Agreement (BGFA) institutions to operate properly. For unionists the issue is a perceived diminution in the constitutional link with Britain. For nationalists it is another sign of the failure of Northern Ireland to function properly and the need to remedy that by preparing for a united Ireland.
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole.
by Oui
Sun Jan 15th, 2023 at 04:46:02 PM EST
Zelensky uses each and every opportunity to get more advanced weapons delivered from NATO allies ..
From day one ...
Ukraine's Zelensky asks citizens to resist and Europe to do more
Yesterday and today ...
Once blood flows and "investment" increases in warfare, one gets a perpetuum mobile to sustain a stupid, senseless war! 😡
No one wants this war and only a handful of delegates in government have their hands on the lever ...
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Fri Jan 13th, 2023 at 11:24:35 AM EST
Cross-posted from Slugger O'Toole, the leading political blog in Northern Ireland. Warning: This story contains links to original sources and may challenge existing perceptions
Treaties can be as dry as dust and as boring as old rope, which is why lawyers have to be paid to read them. But sometimes it is worthwhile to scan their more important provisions. This is how the 1957 Founding Treaty of Rome (Official text not available in English), later consolidated and incorporated into The Treaty on the Functioning of The European Union describes its purpose on its very first page:
PREAMBLE
HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS, THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY, THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, THE PRESIDENT OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLIC, HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE GRAND DUCHESS OF LUXEMBOURG, HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN OF THE NETHERLANDS,
DETERMINED to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe,
(continued)
by Oui
Tue Jan 10th, 2023 at 09:51:51 AM EST
Mary Robinson is a valiant fighter for Our Planet
Then the war in Ukraine erupted, not suddenly, but with a long history leading towards war!
Mary Robinson: Ukraine fallout should serve as catalyst for move to clean energy | May 4, 2022 |
A fallacy as she should know ☮️
Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger
by Frank Schnittger
Tue Jan 3rd, 2023 at 03:08:26 AM EST
New years day marked the 50th. Anniversary of Ireland's accession to the EU (then EEC), the single most transformative event in our 100 years of independence. Indeed, our post-independence history could be neatly divided into two periods, pre- and post-EU, although many would trace the origins of Ireland as a modern advanced economy to the Lemass reforms associated with Dr TK Whitaker's seminal 1958 study, "Economic Development."
There aren't any soldiers marching or trumpets blaring to mark the event, but the Irish Times has been publishing a series of articles on EU related themes. One such article was written by Anthony Coughlan, my old Social Policy lecturer in Trinity College Dublin and leader of Irish Sovereignty Movement and National Platform. He opposed Ireland's accession to the EU and just about every EU related Treaty since and pre-figured many of the arguments used by Brexiteers against membership.
His latest article, entitled Fifty years later, I still think EU membership was a mistake, is a good summary of his views and I have responded as follows with a letter published by the Irish Times as the lead letter in response:
by Frank Schnittger
Thu Dec 29th, 2022 at 12:28:43 PM EST
Alex Kane and Newton Emerson are two of the foremost unionist commentators on Northern Ireland and are widely read throughout Ireland through their regular columns in the Irish Times and other newspapers. So it matters when Alex Kane concludes, in yesterday's column, that many in the unionist community have come to the conclusion that the (suspended) Strand 1 Good Friday Agreement institutions - the Assembly and Executive - are not worth saving.
I have responded with a letter published in the Irish Times (second letter down, just above a letter from Gerry Adams) as follows:
