DUP Election deal. What are the implications for Ireland?

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  • The Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister), Enda Kenny, has called Theresa May to express his concern over a possible deal between her party and the DUP.

    He sought assurances that "nothing should happen to put the Good Friday Agreement at risk".

    DUP deal. Effect on Ireland.

    Could the DUP's new found "power" unsettle the power balance in Northern Ireland and risk the peace process?

    As long as both sides (national and unionist) were equal in Northern Ireland, this was the guarantor of the peace process, but now that the DUP has been elevated to their new position as kingmakers in the UK government, could this awaken nationalist and ultimately dissident stirrings?

    Lets not forget, the Northern Ireland government is still suspended since collapse over the DUP's handling of money. As part of the Good Friday Agreement (GFA), Northern Ireland is always governed by a coalition government made up of both sides of the divide there. But now the DUP has their new status, they might decide to unravel the GFA too, something they were never keen on to begin with.

  • The government has so far been seen as brokers in the negotiations between Sinn Fein and the DUP. If the DUP is going to have any influence in policy and the negotiating for Brexit, Sinn Fein is going to resent it.

    This Parliament could be a bit of a mix and match as far as alliances go. The Scottish Tories have a lot in common with the SNP on welfare and social policies. One things for sure, PMQs is going to be hectic.

  • If she got me in a half nelson, it would be the end of Little Wing in about 5 seconds. Ian Paisley was not my favourite person. I can't stand all that British Israelite stuff. It's creepy.

  • The Israelite stuff is just something they do in Northern Ireland, it's not a British thing at all.

    Basically, the unionist community support Israel, so because they do, the nationalist community supports the Palestinians. It just gives them another thing to be tribal of over there, as if they need any extra assistance in that regard.

    As for the half nelson, don't be so sure. I reckon you'd eat her alive.:D

  • Actually, H, I was pretty horrified to see British Israelism still flourishing in fringe parties on the right in Britain, and they have quite a following in America too. I'm not talking about Christians who support the State of Israel no matter what the facts of the Palestinian issue might be, I mean the religious cult called British Israelism (in America it's called Christian Identity), where these people believe Jesus was a big, fair haired, blue eyed hero and the Israelites are the Europeans and the lost ten tribes are all settled in Britain and parts of America through ancient travel there. You know, when Mary Magdalen brought the Holy Grail over in a little boat and landed on the shores of Britain, looking for sanctuary after the crucifixion.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Israelism

    It pays to know what you're dealing with sometimes. Of course, you can't be expected to know this if you haven't actually encountered it, because it's nuts. But I have discovered that being nuts isn't any sort of a hindrance to certain people going into things political. And as soon as any politician is made to utter on the subject of their religious affiliation, you get the potential sinkhole of support, or not, depending on what they say. This is why Corbyn won't actually say he isn't a believer. It's the worst thing anyone can do. He's shrewd enough to realise this and so has skirted it. May is a Christian and so all her efforts will be to try and keep Biblical injunction in line with political necessity.

    No wonder things tend to go pear-shaped.

    What is disappointing in a supposedly secular age, is this gravitational attraction to spiritual belief systems that often necessitates a politician's appeal. If you think that is dead, you're wrong. It is making a come back and it is being motivated by the radical Islamic eruption and being held in suspense by America's love affair with Biblical belief.

    Under these seemingly crazy circumstances, it is no wonder that politics can no longer serve the people (if it ever has). There is still a demand for religious affiliation at the very least. There is still a hankering after some Big Thing beyond the human and that Big Thing's apparent interest in all the little things humans do. So when a politician claims not to believe in the God of the Israelites, he, or she, often signs a kind of political and popular death warrant. May is being crushed because she is a Brexiteer. Otherwise she might have been successful. But the religious Big Tent idea is against the independent nation idea, unless you're referring to Israel. Israel is always allowed to be independent and nationalism and the right to a homeland are non-negotiable for that country. As though it were a psychological idea as well as one promoted constantly by Israel itself.

    One can't afford to ignore the factors that drive humans to do the things they do. One can't afford to ignore the belief systems they hold and the origins of these. The world today is governed by two monolithic belief systems that have their origins in the Middle East and that revolve around a worship of the Ancient tribal Israelite God. The fact that these two secondary roots each have their own prophet and that one of them is believed to be the actual godman son of the primary root Creator of the Universe, is a matter of development in terms of these beliefs.

    Ideologies that were extant before Christianity (the older of the Judaic sects) have all been passed through these filters and so we now have cultural Marxism in the west, which is secularised liberal humanist belief system based directly upon the foundations of its predecessors and influenced by Christianity as the system believed to have created "civilization". You will find many saying to you that this is so and the fact that the Classical world is the true progenitor of what we now see as "civilization" does not alter this belief that western civilization is the result of Jesus. Jesus has become much broader in his capabilities since the New Testament stories about him. He has become a scientist, an architect, a politician, a lawyer and a social worker since those early tales of a reformist rabbi who was executed for sedition in a Roman occupied territory called Judea, some two millennia ago.

    And he has also changed his ethnicity. This, ironically, hasn't changed his Jewish origins. It has instead created a strange twilight world of combinations where the Jewish and the European have become entwined and interdependent, but only for westerners. The Jews obviously don't have this ridiculous and perilous situation. They are as they were. Christendom, on the other hand, is beset by contradictions, irony, impossible conjunctions and plain lies.

    So, whenever a politician is elected in the west, or indeed anywhere where this religion has been introduced and enforced upon indigenous people, there is this necessary question for the hopeful candidate: "Do you believe?"

    One might offer the counter argument that "I am secular," or "I am an atheist", etc but so often this is just a thin veneer over the old belief system. Often, the liberal humanist is just a small remove from the fervent acolyte of the faith, the Big Tent both in the sky and on earth. Often, the goggle eyed preacher and follower are concealed behind the urbane clothes of the new age.

    I suspect that as long as this is the case, every single political effort to gain, or regain, identity and independence will be scuppered either by radical belief or by some sect that owes its crazy fervour to an original blueprint of governance that is grounded in the principles of religion and not social justice, as such. Many who promote social justice are Christians. It is their religious belief that is motivating their political fervour. Few are simply altruistic individuals who would like to see a world where people made their own decisions and didn't always have to be passed through some filter before they could get anywhere in the world. Liberty, justice, prosperity, happiness, progress, etc all tend to rely upon some foundation laid by religion or ideological belief that is the child of religion.

    In short, it is my personal conviction that humanity is doomed because it has doomed itself by belief. I don't think humanity is doomed because we are not capable of rising above our condition. I believe humanity dooms itself because it tries to thwart its condition with belief and ignores the elephant in the room so that it might worship the titmouse behind the cupboard.

  • Gerry Adams has just came out of a meeting with Theresa May and said that her agreement to-be with the DUP is in breach of the Good Friday Agreement and he reminded her that the institutions in Northern Ireland are still suspended.

    Just a little fact, as part of the Good Friday Agreement, it is written in there that the British government must act impartially in regards to the affairs of Northern Ireland. Gerry Adams is arguing that the DUP agreement breaks that impartiality, hence the breach of the GFA, in his opinion, by the government.

    Serious stuff.

  • We once met Mo Mowlam in Hastings White Rock theatre at one of her talks. Afterwards my wife and I were the last ones leaving the hall and she came over to speak to us. We chatted a while and then I asked her to give me her honest opinion of Adams. "Murderous bastard." was her reply.

  • The new Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) has said he has been "reassured" about a potential deal between the Conservative Party and the Democratic Unionist Party.

    Leo Varadkar held talks with Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday.

    Irish PM meets May

    =====

    So much news today on this very, very hot day, it makes you wonder how May is coping with it all. At least I can stay sat in a room and just chat about things on here, she has to actually do stuff.

    Looks like the meeting with the new Irish PM went well, but we still don't know what the deal with the DUP is yet and coming after Adams "threat" to May last week, it's too soon to judge how this will all play out.

  • If Adams initiates another bout of violence, he should be removed from Sinn Féin. There is enough terrorism in the world without all that crap starting up again.

  • If Adams initiates another bout of violence, he should be removed from Sinn Féin. There is enough terrorism in the world without all that crap starting up again.

    I'd rather he was removed from the planet.;)

  • The daft thing about the Sinn Fein stand is that the DUP is not going into coalition with the Government -they are simply going to pledge not to vote down important legislation and support them in confidence motions. The DUP always tend to support the Conservatives, so no change there.

    They may gain a political advantage in terms of achievement by securing more funding for the benefit of Northern Ireland, but all citizens there will benefit from that.

    Basically, this is a storm in a teacup, and Gerry Adams will be stretching his credibility to the ultimate if he tries to use this excuse to prevent a Stormont agreement.

    If he wants to influence anything, maybe he should send his MPs to Westminster to serve their constituences properly.

  • The daft thing about the Sinn Fein stand is that the DUP is not going into coalition with the Government -they are simply going to pledge not to vote down important legislation and support them in confidence motions. The DUP always tend to support the Conservatives, so no change there.

    I don't ever take the IRA/SF threats lightly, but of course you're right.

    SF see this as a way to pressure May, perhaps getting the government to grant a referendum on Irish unity. Such a referendum would fail, but it would unsettle the unionists about their future in Ireland.

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