THE message during those tortured years of Brexit negotiations could not have been starker.
Nothing could risk any change to the 310-mile land border between the United Kingdom and the European Union.
PADublin is blighted by tent cities put up by hundreds of migrants[/caption]
PAAsylum seekers on Dublin streets this week[/caption]
And besides, with more than 300 individual crossing points, Northern Ireland’s border with the Irish republic was impossible to monitor anyway.
That’s what the EU said, that’s what the UN said and that’s what the Americans said.
But nobody said it louder than the Irish government, egged on by Brussels to make Britain’s divorce as painful as possible and come with a pound of flesh.
Even a shadowy group of right-on former world leaders hilariously named The Elders got in on the act.
At the height of the exit talks, a former Irish president, who is an Elder, decreed: “Peace in Northern Ireland was hard-won and needs to be protected . . . nothing should be done to allow the reimposition of a hard border.”
There it is in black and white: If you messed with the border, the return to bombs and bullets was on you.
Even moderate suggestions such as erecting number plate recognition cameras and a few signs to remind truckers about customs forms, miles from the border, were treated as a cold-hearted call for a return to bloodshed.
Apparently, mere street furniture would be bait for the IRA to reignite their callous war, but the blood would be on Brexiteer hands rather than these poor helpless lambs who know not what they do.
Dublin was particularly vocal on this point, knowing it was a trump card to keep a chunk of the UK chained to EU rules — in one of their once-every-20-year heaves toward reunification.
So imagine how hard my fist very nearly went through my computer screen this week when confronted by the most spectacular piece of hypocrisy I have encountered in 15 years of writing about hypocritical politicians.
The Irish government, who briefly looked like they might be slightly less obnoxious after gobby PM Leo Varadkar quit, have ordered boots to the border.
Bare-faced cheek
With Dublin blighted by tent cities put up by hundreds of migrants, there is a growing reality check among the Irish public that their years of welcoming open border policy has backfired spectacularly.
Irish politicians even blamed the success of the Rwanda scheme as a deterrent for this influx of migrants from the UK
But in true form, they had to blame the British for their woes.
Using a made-up figure, they said there had been an 80 per cent increase in migrant crossings from Northern Ireland into the south this year, and are in full “something-must-be-done” mode.
To the delight of the Government here, Irish politicians even blamed the success of the Rwanda scheme as a deterrent for this influx of migrants from the UK.
One hundred police on “prevention and deportation” duties will be flooded into the border area to stop the crossings.
PAThe Irish sought a deal with the UK to return migrants back over the border quickly, above their Justice Minister Helen McEntee[/caption]
Which, call me old-fashioned, has something of a hard edge to it.
After a backlash, Dublin insisted these officers would not be patrolling on the border, merely “near” it. But that didn’t cut it in the Brexit talks now, did it?
Next, their Justice Minister Helen McEntee vowed to pass emergency legislation to overrule the Irish courts, who have hilariously designated the UK as unsafe to deport migrants to in some virtue-signalling about Rwanda.
I haven’t seen many commentators accusing Dublin of behaving like fascists, as the pro-EU lot did over here when Sunak passed a similar bill over-ruling a Supreme Court ruling, but I digress.
The cherry on the hypocrisy cake came with the Irish seeking a side deal with the UK to return migrants back over the border quickly.
Something the UK has been seeking with France for years, only to be greeted with a hearty “non”, as this would undermine sacred EU unity and rules.
Every red line that was so piously bleated by Dublin for so long has been dropped when the problem is on their own streets.
As the old Irish saying goes: The treachery returns to the betrayer
Every card used by Brussels to turn the thumbscrews on Britain and keep Northern Ireland under their yolk, ditched.
You would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the bare-faced cheek of it.
Perhaps if the Irish had not behaved so belligerently during the Brexit talks at the behest of their new EU overlords, their neighbours might have been a bit more willing to help.
But as the old Irish saying goes: “Filleann an feall ar an bhfeallaire.”
“The treachery returns to the betrayer.”
AlamyIrish politicians blamed the success of the Rwanda scheme as a deterrent for this influx of migrants from the UK[/caption]
PENNY MORDAUNT insists that she is not part of any plot to unseat Rishi Sunak in the coming days should local election results prove dire this weekend – and besides, she’s got a tough fight on her hands to keep her seat.
AlamyPenny Mordaunt insists that she is not part of any plot to unseat Rishi Sunak[/caption]
But eyebrows were raised by her supporters pushing an expensive poll of her Portsmouth constituency.
Much was made of the fact that, despite fears to the contrary, she is on course to just hold the seat.
But the small print is a little dicier. With Penny on 39 per cent to Labour’s 34, that is well within the margin of error for a survey of that size.
MORE SLACK IF KATE WAS MUSLIM
I FEEL sorry for Kate Forbes.
The SNP bright spark pulled out of the race to succeed hapless Humza Yousaf as First Minister yesterday amid a fresh barrage of criticism over her personal faith.
PASNP’s Kate Forbes pulled out of the race to succeed Humza Yousaf amid a barrage of criticism over her personal faith[/caption]
After she once admitted she would have voted against gay marriage had she been on the scene then, the woke lynch mob get out their pitchforks whenever she is mentioned.
Even when people are saying nice things about her, they use a tone that implies she got something deeply wrong and all her positives are beside the fact she’s a devout Christian.
Her leadership rival John Swinney gushed yesterday that, “She is an intelligent, creative, thoughtful person who has much to contribute to our national life”.
But the fact he felt he even needed to say it is an issue.
I can’t help but think that were Forbes to be a practising Muslim, many of the very same critics would be moving mountains to accommodate her views. And there are dozens of politicians who did not – or privately admit they would not have – voted for gay marriage ten years ago.
They are of all religions and none, sit on both sides of the political aisle, and many of them have had no problem rising up the ladder.
Leave the poor woman alone.