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Category: Northern Ireland

The Irish border issue has the potential to bring down Mrs May’s government

The Irish border issue has the potential to bring down Mrs May’s government

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The DUP are revolting and they could make Corbyn PM Yesterday it was reported by several outlets The Democratic Unionist Party has warned it may withdraw its support for Theresa May’s government if Northern Ireland is treated as a separate customs and trading regime after Brexit. DUP MP Sammy Wilson suggested any attempt to “placate Dublin and the EU” over the Irish border could mean its ten MPs no longer prop up the Tories at Westminster. The party ratcheted up…

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A New Ireland?

A New Ireland?

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THE OBSERVER FRONT PAGE: Irish warn May: change course or risk Brexit chaos #skypapers pic.twitter.com/6ps0W3Scbx — Sky News (@SkyNews) November 25, 2017 There is no word for schadenfraude in Gaelic, or English, for that matter. Still, the Irish can be forgiven for feeling more than a touch of it as their needs seem to be one of the key – and very possibly the hardest – of issues to be resolved in the Article 50 negotiations. It is probably fair…

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Quantum physics could have the answer to Brexit’s Ireland problem

Quantum physics could have the answer to Brexit’s Ireland problem

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Perhaps Schroedinger’s Border Guards should patrol the Customs Union Brexit will happen. As Alastair Meeks sensibly pointed out here yesterday, there’s a good, clear case that Article 50 is not revocable. Britain could ask for an extension to the talks but the PM has been clear that she doesn’t intend to do so and in any case, a delay is not a reversal of course. In practice, the transitional arrangement might look very much like continued membership but even that…

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Cost to tax-payers of TMay’s calamitous election decision and terrible campaign: £1bn

Cost to tax-payers of TMay’s calamitous election decision and terrible campaign: £1bn

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This gives the Tories an effective majority of 15 A deal has been done. The Tories are to be propped up in Parliament by the 10 DUP MPs who have negotiated a £1bn deal for the province. So TMay’s party will be able to struggle on although the parliamentary arithmetic still looks tight and is nothing like as comfortable as during the 2010-2015 CON-LD coalition. We are going to see some very tight Commons votes with the opposition parties seeking…

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Northern Ireland: Calls for ‘united Unionism’ simply don’t add up

Northern Ireland: Calls for ‘united Unionism’ simply don’t add up

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Embed from Getty Images Unionism is at a crossroads. But that crossroads has a clear signpost. The signpost was the 2017 Assembly election. Make no mistake, 2017 was a bad election, indeed a terrible election for Unionism. Of the 18-seat reduction caused by the 2016 Act, 16 were lost by Unionists. But look at why those seats were lost. They were lost because Sinn Fein were able to tap into an angry Nationalist pool of voters, stirred up by the…

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Northern Ireland Assembly Election Result : March 2nd 2017

Northern Ireland Assembly Election Result : March 2nd 2017

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Changes in seats are based on readjusted Assembly calculations Unionist Bloc Democratic Unionist Party 227,270 votes (28.26% -0.90%) winning 28 seats (-6 seats) Ulster Unionists 103,314 votes (12.84% +0.28%) winning 10 seats (unchanged) Traditional Unionist Voice 20,523 votes (2.55% -0.87%) winning 1 seat (unchanged) Progressive Unionist Party 5,590 votes (0.69% -0.16%) winning 0 seats (unchanged) Northern Ireland Conservatives 2,399 (0.30%, no candidates in 2016) winning 0 seats (unchanged) United Kingdom Independence Party 1,579 votes (0.20% -1.26%) winning 0 seats (unchanged)…

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N Ireland’s election: the road to nowhere?

N Ireland’s election: the road to nowhere?

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We look to be heading back to a suspension Normalcy does not suit Northern Irish politics. A political structure designed to overcome the legacy of the seventeenth century (with a good deal of success, it has to be said), is in severe danger of being incapable of handling the practicalities of the twenty-first. It’s not unusual for a coalition to break down over some disagreement of policy or administration, and for elections to follow. It is, by contrast, unusual for…

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Lucian Fletcher on the latest Northern Ireland assembly poll

Lucian Fletcher on the latest Northern Ireland assembly poll

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The heat is on… Exclusive insight on state of play for parties ahead of crucial March 2nd vote #AE17 @LucidTalk https://t.co/CpXUbu1rLR — The Sun (@TheSun_NI) February 1, 2017 Arlene Foster’s personal ratings fall through the floor, but the DUP will bank on fear of a Sinn Fein First Minister to keep their position as lead party in Northern Ireland Assembly The first LucidTalk opinion poll ahead of the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election has been published and one of the…

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