If a week is a long time in politics then a century is nothing in the sweep of history.
Today Prime Minister May is doing some frantic shuttle diplomacy on the continent.
Essentially she will be asking for more time from the EU 27.
No breaking news there, as she’s always asking for more time.
Usually, the request for a delay is put to her own deeply divided party or the Muppet Show at Westminster.
Thanks to some excellent journalism we know a fair amount of what is going on behind the scenes there.
The Leave side of the 2016 referendum told the average Brit that their country was a billionaire with wealth off the radar.
They won the referendum with lots of dodgy foreign money and somehow that makes me think of this chap in France.
Sadly the reality is that major players in manufacturing and in financial services are getting the hell out of Dodge.
A choice between Brexit Britain and the stability of the European Union is a no brainer.
The 2016 referendum result also wrote permission a slip for Ingerlund xenophobia.
Already many EU nationals have decided that Britain is now a cold house for Continentals.
Much can change in a century, but it takes something like Brexit to put it centre stage.
When the Irish delegation headed by Arthur Griffith sat across the table from the Brits in 1921 they were negotiating with the A team of a global superpower.
David Lloyd George chaired the British side that had Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill (Secretary of State for the colonies) in it.
Since Article 50 was triggered in 2017 the UK has been negotiating with the appointed representatives of 27 EU member states.
In 1921 the Brits got everything they wanted from the Treaty talks.
The Irish plenipotentiaries came home to a split movement and a divided country.
More people died in the Irish Civil War than in the campaign to eject the Crown Forces from the island.
It was brother against brother and those tragic divisions still define our politics here in the 26 Counties.
Anyone in Britain today that thinks that the UK is a global player has been on the Farage juice.
Like the Sevco pretence to be Rangers and “going for 55” it is tragic to watch as the unbright are fleeced by sociopathic charlatans.
The Planet Fitba analogy ends at the media coverage.
In particular, the journalism of Channel 4 has been unrelenting in skewering dissembling politicians who offered the British people the nirvana of sunlit upland and Empire 2.0.
Watch this and imagine it was a Dave King presser at Ibrox.
No, of course, you can’t.
What you witnessed there was real journalism and not succulent stenography so hat tip to Mr Guru-Murthy.
Because there is a functioning Fourth estate in the Place of Westminster it is possible for an engaged citizenry to piece together what is happening.
As it stands now the UK will crash out of the European Union this Friday.
That is the legal default contained within Article 50.
However, the grown-ups in the EU don’t’ want that and will do what they can to give the Brits more time.
Of course, this never-ending uncertainty is killing British based business and many of them are making the move.
Throughout the Brexit negotiations, the Irish state has had more power than Westminister.
This has never happened before.
Consequently, the Daily Mail types have been fuming at the damn Irish.
Now, it is worth noting that the office of An Taoiseach would not even exist if Irish revolutionaries had not planted British soldiers in the graveyard a century ago.
Therefore, the incumbent owes his position to the guys who did their pre-season training in Frongoch.
Of course, Leo Varadkar is as far from Mick Collins as I can imagine.
The former, privately educated and from a background of privilege and the latter a Fenian from West Cork.
Mick knew that Britain would only leave Ireland if we made it hell on earth for the Crown Forces and publicised their atrocities on the world stage.
It remains an unfinished revolution.
Indeed, for all of my adult life I, with many others on this island, have been trying to get the Brits to sign off on the final phase of Ireland’s Withdrawal Agreement from the UK!
Of course, the Good Friday Agreement took the gun out of Irish politics and has given peace to this island.
It was the product of give and take on both sides.
Apparently, that is something that Prime Minister May cannot get her head around.
I firmly believe that the own goal of Brexit makes Irish reunification a bit closer.
It has certainly put Partition back on the agenda in the Six Counties for sections of the population who had probably made their peace with the current constitutional arrangements.
One of the hinge factors in the Brexit shambles is the fact the Prime Minister May is no Lloyd George.
Indeed, she is more out of her depth than Super Salary was in the Petrofac Cup.
Reading from an autocue does not equip one to negotiate.
It is well known around the Leinster House village and in Brussels that she is incapable of taking part in a genuine negotiation.
Apparently, all that happens in the room is that she reads from a pre-prepared script.
When a counter argument is put or a fresh proposition all that elicits from the Prime Minister is that the script is repeated.
Instead, of engaging with the other side it is a case of the robot in the headlights.
Michel Barnier said this one hour ago:
“Any extension should serve a purpose. The length should be proportional to the objective. Our objective is an orderly withdrawal. ‘No-deal’ will never by the EU’s decision. In order to avoid ‘no-deal’, the #UK needs to agree to a deal.”
Whatever happens this week, it will be historic.
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Interesting take on things.
Phil – I see you blocked the troll – well done, sir!
You will see that I have deleted my responses to the Glorious Leader of the Democratic Republic of Korea. This is in response to there no longer being any particular relevance to the conversation and, well.. it makes me look as though I’m losing my marbles by having a conversation all to myself. 😂
I voted for Brexit on the basis that a dug eating beetroot will eat itself sick…
The Tory party sure is sick now…I was on strike for the duration of the 84 miners strike voted against the strike but was out for a year and then the unions exploded….they have still to recover….voting brexit is revenge on the tory party. I dont claim that I knew exactly how it would play out….but I knew it would cause chaos…. I cant stop laughing…ha…ha…ha…
https://youtu.be/a0YfoNGyZac
Love the debate, and I believe in democracy. Should people be allowed to travel looking for work, a better place to raise a family, or should that country be like North Korea were travel is practically impossible to the population. My mother and father travelled from Dun Na Ngall in search of work and to raise our family, at home we only had a small farm it wasn’t big enough to support a large family, so we ended up in the Garngad, another 2 went to Engurland, 2 stayed at home. I voted remain but as you can see from the start i believe in democracy.
Hail Hail,
Keep up the good work Phil, you’re talent to get us all talking, debating these matters. 👍🍀🍀
What is this got to do with Celtic? Heard enough about brexit, I don’t expect to read about it on a Celtic site. I’m not Irish either like the majority of Celtic supporters so don’t really care about the counties. I look forward to your page Phil but on this occasion I didn’t enjoy the read
You must be new to this site.
This has never just been a ‘Celtic site’ only.
Phil is a journalist, novelist and playwrite who often comments on political situations.
We had a fantastic debate on both referendums on this site with both sides of each argument openly discussed.
There are other purely ‘Celtic sites’ you can go to if you are not interested in politics my friend.
Hail! Hail!
I’m not knew to Celtic news now, that’s where I read this article. Celtic news or any other football related news is a good read. British bashing or gloating at the absolute mess the U.K. is in doesn’t rock my boat the same way it seems to do for some. The reason it doesn’t is because I’ve got to live in U.K. and so does my family and as it happens so do Celtic fc. Until such times that changes, hopefully soon then I don’t see too much to laugh about unless I’m laughing at my own misfortune. Phil is Irish and anti British which is understandable but to connect Celtic to brexit and politics is wrong. Celtic fc is a football club and shouldn’t be used for anything apart from enjoyment of the great game. I’m a lifelong Celtic fan but sick and tired of the embarrassing IRA and anti British chanting I hear from mostly younger fans who are just the next generation to grow up with all the crap I grew up with anyway rant over HH
You’ve confused me.
Just read Phil’s post again and can’t find where he ‘connects Celtic to Brexit and politics’.
This is a blog which covers a whole range of topics both football and political.
Phil even lets us know how his family is getting on and I enjoy reading that as much as any of his other posts.
I do agree with you over the singing and chanting by a section of the Celtic support. Time has moved on.
We have plenty of great club songs so we don’t need to give the SMSA a stick to beat us with.
Let the Sevconians rant their racist and sectarian muck and let’s clean up our own act.
Spot on! I fully agree with you on each and every point!
Read it again and look at the pictures
You are still missing the point, This is Phil’s blog not mine, not yours but PHIL’S!!! For Phil to post what he wishes and for anyone to comment on or not. If you wish to have a Celtic only blog, News Now is the place to go – although some of them are absolute crap, clickbate only. Or create your own blog for Celtic only commentary or add on whatever floats your boat, fries your head or gets you thinking. Unless of course you are the real Kim Jong Un in which case good luck Phil.
I read it on Celtic news now. I never questioned what Phil was writing, only why I was reading it on that site.
During the Scottish indy referendum two issues were continually dragged up to put the frighteners on the Scottish voters.
Better together was the cry but now it’s better to leave the EU.
Additionally the Scots were told in no uncertain terms that as part of the UK Scotland’s place in the EU would be guaranteed.
There’s also little sign of that bus which travelled around the country advertising the additional millions of pounds every week that would flow into the NHS as a result of leaving the EU.
Those responsible for that particular lie should be charged with fraud.
Then again there is as much chance of that as there is of someone having their collar felt for the Rangers fraudulent UEFA licence application, waved through by the SFA and signed off by their then auditors that there were no taxes overdue, which of course was a tissue of lies.
Of course, lets just forget that the biggest democratic vote ever in brit politics voted to leave, you are doing what has always been done by losers in politics , its called project fear, tell everyone how terrible it will be, just like in the Scottish refererendum when the establishment told the scots how bad it would be if they became independent, which many swallowed, you want a free and independent ireland ruled by Brussels????, that is not what Pearse and his comrades fought and died for, so good on the Brits for wanting to be free of the rule of foreign hands,, remember when you used to believe in that cocept also.
Hail hail
For celtic, onward to 10 in a row
The stability of the Eu. Is that the same stability that raped Greece for everything they own, or the stability of all the youth unemployment all over Europe? The same stability that intends to flood Ireland with a million africans by 2030 to replace the Irish population?
People like you are starting to make me sick with you’re utter contempt for people who are against an undemocratic communist regime like the Eu. You and you’re kind are destroying our history, heritage and our way of life. Ask the ordinary working class Irish how they feel about it and not just the affluent lefties you mingle with. You’re (I was going to say blindness) ignorance is totally out of touch with the reality of what’s happening all over Europe. I have a mensa IQ and I voted leave, so to say that we voted because we are all racist and thick is an insult to 17.4 million who did. You and you’re like are the ones who are thick and deluded.
Guessing a MENSA IQ doesn’t stretch to grammar?
Now if all you care about is money, brexBr will be bad for the economy for the foreseeable future.
If you care more about democracy then leaving is a good thing.
What the EU did to Greece was shocking , with most top economist stating that it was worst than the sanctions the allies put on Germany after the first world war. That is went past being a punishment and was vindictive. The EU is undenocundem, your MEP legally don’t pay tax in any EU country.
Phil, you should be happy with Brexit. It will most likely let to the unification of Ireland
She (May) was as much use as a fireguard made of candlewax 20 years ago when, as a then resident of Maidenhead, she achieved the cubed-root x Pythagoras Theorem of feck all! She’s just as useless now! I suppose consistency is the best description that I could attribute to her, she makes the Rt. Hon. Member of Parliament for the neighbouring Henley-on-Thames constituency resemble that of an intellectual heavyweight! I am, of course, referring to BoJo!
How many times were your Ireland told to vote until they got it right .
Twice, we are a pretty sharp lot over here, on two occasions if memory serves right. Looks like the majority vote in the UK referendum is simply ignored. Macron to refuse an extension leaving Westminster 48 hours before the shit hits the fan. In panic central a majority vote to revoke article 50, I guess. The consistent in this * DEMOCRACY DOES NOT EXIST * in Ireland, the UK or the EU.