tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post4368273731909590474..comments2024-03-29T09:14:53.583+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Loyalism's Tortured DeclinePhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-4431652960779411732021-04-13T08:42:55.793+01:002021-04-13T08:42:55.793+01:00Boffey. The EU is going to fix Northern Ireland?
...Boffey. The EU is going to fix Northern Ireland?<br />That would be great, but I wouldn't put my mortgage on it.<br />Actually given the riot control skills of the French police I wouldn't put anybody's mortgage on it.<br /><br />You are wrong to think the Loyalists couldn't create mayhem. They could and don't have huge incentives not to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-21291611143046767932021-04-12T20:57:34.406+01:002021-04-12T20:57:34.406+01:00I must say that I think it's very brave of the...I must say that I think it's very brave of the DUP to sabotage the unionist position so comprehensively. Most parties would step back from obvious suicide, but the DUP ignored the negative possibilities, put on their blinkers, and shoulders to the wheel - ran right over the cliff. Lemmings all over the world are taking lessons.<br /><br />It was obvious that a) the UK government only put up with the DUP as long as they had to, b) when they didn't need them any more, the DUP were designed for a close up view of the chassis of a bus, and c) the UK government gives no one flying (insert intercourse verb here) for NI and its welfare or otherwise, despite the odd (and I mean odd) unionist yelp here and there.<br /><br />All in all, a very instructive playlet on political values and procedures, and entertaining and amusing too. Well done, chaps! Up with the bowlers and swing yer sashes!<br />Clinesteron Beademungenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10257843885271236115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-15307157883497900142021-04-10T12:13:28.523+01:002021-04-10T12:13:28.523+01:00A United Ireland will have the full economic and m...A United Ireland will have the full economic and military weight of the EU behind it, which is many, many times greater than the UK could ever muster. It will also have support from the US, which is already heavily invested in Ireland, and under Biden looking to grow closer to the EU against the UK, due to Brexit and Johnson and the Tories cosying up to Trump, and the reactionary nationalists.<br /><br />A United Ireland will jot face the paramilitary operations of PIRA, which always found resources from outside Ireland, and an isolated Protestant community with its paramilitaries is not going to be in any way comparable. For one thing, a significant proportion of Protestants will see a secular United Ireland inside the EU, as a far more attractive option than a rapidly declining NI statelet, still in the grip of religious bigotry and backwardness, and declining even faster than a rapidly declining Brexit Britain.<br /><br />You can see why the Scots, and increasingly the Welsh want to escape that rapidly sinking Brexit ship, too, so as to rejoin the EU, even though, in their cases, they would be wrong to see that nationalism as the solution to their problems, because unlike NI, a border between Scotland and England, or Wales an England, would have immediate reactionary consequences, whereas removing the border completely in Ireland would have immediate progressive results.<br /><br />Its ironic that Brexit, far from bringing the break up of the EU that reactionary nationalists of Right and Left hoped for, is instead leading to the break-up of Britain that some of us predicted would be the consequence. The solution to this fracturing of the working-class, is to scrap Brexit and rejoin the EU at the soonest opportunity.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-22042562211035292222021-04-09T19:48:04.881+01:002021-04-09T19:48:04.881+01:00How the various interested parties are going to av...How the various interested parties are going to avoid anything but a dog's dinner over Ulster, again, will be a wonder to behold. The UK found it difficult to reach the GFA, with loads of cash and a still significant military presence. Both will be found wanting in a transition to a United Ireland. The Republic has but a fraction fo the resources, and an insignificant military. Any relinquishing of control from London will cut the subsidies, and certainly involve avoidance of any military commitment. A hot potato indeed. Maybe the paramilitaries can be bought off, but belief in the promises of politicians probably expired many moons ago. Martin Davishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04746746622514733934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-75750688181177018572021-04-09T16:58:30.153+01:002021-04-09T16:58:30.153+01:00Unionists have been claiming to have been betrayed...Unionists have been claiming to have been betrayed by the British Government since even before Home Rule and Partition. They are now boys, and in this case literally boys, who cried wolf. This time, they really have been betrayed by the British Government. But no one wants to know.<br /><br />Hey, ho. The purpose of politics is to acquire and exercise power. Therefore, one can only have a sneaking regard for the fact the Provisional Army Council, in the old age of its members, has become the <i>de facto</i> sovereign body of the Six County State, and even stands on the cusp of becoming the <i>de facto</i> sovereign body of the 26 County State, to which most of those members have little or no connection. Like the arrival of the Revolutionary Communist Party at the very heart of a Conservative Government, one cannot help feeling that there might be hope for us all yet.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-39484257285666257582021-04-09T15:21:44.391+01:002021-04-09T15:21:44.391+01:00The idea that Michelle O'Neill can sack the PS...The idea that Michelle O'Neill can sack the PSNI Chief Constable is risible. The idea that the IRA can employ the institutions of the state as errand boys is delusional. Catholic membership of the police is falling and it recently arrested the victim of loyalist death squads at a commemoration of a killing in which the police are suspected of collusion with the killers and have been conspicuously slow to provide evidence to a subsequent investigation. Even with this provocation Sinn Fein was unable to call for the resignation of the Chief Constable because they knew better than to expose themselves to ridicule and obvious impotence to achieve this demand.<br /><br />Spike Murray would have been at the other end of Lanark Way from loyalist rioters in order to ensure that there were no clashes or to minimise those that might occur. It is not at all in Sinn Fein's interest for the latest loyalist violence to spill over into sectarian conflict. The police chose to use water cannon for the first time on Catholic youth while loyalists have been rioting for a number of days.<br /><br />The immediate cause of the loyalist protests is the failure to prosecute republicans attending the funeral of an IRA leader but the role of the police in facilitating the funeral is not the main reason for this failure. Such facilitation is normal practice with loyalist and republican marches etc. so prosecution was not prejudiced, although this would undoubtedly have been a defence employed by those attending. The major reason appears to have been the Covid regulations themselves, which would not sustain a prosecution because they were not fit for purpose. Ironically it was tSinn Fein and DUP who were responsible for their introduction, yet another example of their sheer incompetence.<br /><br />The loyalist riots are a sign of weakness and are going nowhere. The British Government cannot accede to their demands without endangering the credibility of the police and encouraging demands for the end of the NI Protocol with the EU. This would antagonise nationalists, the Irish Government and the EU and threaten the devolved arrangements; all to assuage unionist who are themselves responsible for the Protocol's existence through support for Brexit. I don't think the price that would be paid by the British Government would be compensated by keeping loyalism sweet and avoiding a few riots.<br />Sraid Marxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-31797552633519156132021-04-09T09:48:48.786+01:002021-04-09T09:48:48.786+01:00The Loyalist riots, show that the answer is increa...The Loyalist riots, show that the answer is increasingly a United Ireland so as to lance the boil. The Unionist violence is based upon the idea that they might be able to pressure Johnson into scrapping the border down the Irish Sea. He won't and can't. Its the inevitable consequence of the Brexit that the British separatists sought.<br /><br />A United Ireland will put an end to those vain hopes.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-69884416983584756402021-04-09T09:48:05.170+01:002021-04-09T09:48:05.170+01:00The Loyalist riots, show that the answer is increa...The Loyalist riots, show that the answer is increasingly a United Ireland so as to lance the boil. The Unionist violence is based upon the idea that they might be able to pressure Johnson into scrapping the border down the Irish Sea. He won't and can't. Its the inevitable consequence of the Brexit that the British separatists sought.<br /><br />A United Ireland will put an end to those vain hopes.Boffyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08157650969929097569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-51815462808813032292021-04-08T23:11:49.105+01:002021-04-08T23:11:49.105+01:00These are the only people who regularly display th...These are the only people who regularly display the Union Flag, an essentially alien practice that the Government wishes to introduce in imitation of the those who tonight are again throwing firebombs on the streets of Belfast.<br /><br />Also seen only feet away last night, on the Lanark Way side of the gates, was Spike Murray, who was a decidedly non-teenage pallbearer for Bobby Storey as a fellow member of the Provisional Army Council. Storey's funeral was arranged and staged in active coordination with the Police, so the idea of prosecutions was always fanciful. And everyone knows that if Michelle O'Neill called for a Chief Constable to resign, then he would be finished. The youths through the gates on the Shankill Road know, and the paramilitaries directing them know in detail, that you can make anyone you like First Minister, but the institutions of the State are errand boys for Sinn Féin, who are errand girls for the Army Council, which is a body of totally unreconstructed IRA hard men from back in the day.<br /><br />Moreover, it is an almost entirely Northern body, on the cusp of taking control of a 26 County State in which few of its members have ever lived and where almost none of them grew up. It is already running the Six County State where most of its members did grow up and do live. Dissent may be expressed only by taking to the streets. But even there, it is entirely impotent, since it faces the full wrath of the Police, soon to be joined by the Army, on its own side of the gates, and since it would face the full wrath of Spike Murray and Company Limited should it break through to the other side.David Lindsayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06839882674758833524noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-81206895961077289522021-04-08T22:26:36.850+01:002021-04-08T22:26:36.850+01:00Yet another example of the wonderful benefits of B...Yet another example of the wonderful benefits of Brexit.Jim Denhamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01642992463679646250noreply@blogger.com