DUP told to stop 'whinging' about Irish Brexit stance

[BlackMageMari]

[URL="https://www.rte.ie/news/2017/0731/894137-vardkar-brexit-border/"]RTE News:[/URL]

NOTE: Title of news article may change (RTE has a [I]very[/I] interesting habit of keeping the news relating to one topic in one huge article and updating that throughout the day), so the original title is as the article was at the time of the thread being created.

[QUOTE]A Fine Gael senator has told the Democratic Unionist Party to stop "whinging" about the Irish Government's post-Brexit border stance.

Neale Richmond hit out at the DUP and said instead of complaining, the party should be focusing on re-establishing the Northern Ireland Executive and Brexit discussions.

"The DUP's whinging doesn't hide their political impotence. They would be far better off seeking to influence their government partners in Westminster and working to get the executive back up and running to give Northern Ireland a strong voice," he said.

Mr Richmond was responding to DUP accusations that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was politicking for domestic purposes when he said Ireland would not help Britain design an economic border for Brexiteers.

Mr Richmond said the Irish Government and the EU "cannot be expected to provide all the solutions (in relation to Brexit), especially on areas like a proposed border which run contrary to the aims of the Irish Government or indeed the Good Friday Agreement".

He added: "Being a good friend requires one to be honest. In the Brexit debate, Ireland is the best friend the UK has and it is only right that the Taoiseach and Minister [for Foreign Affairs Simon] Coveney should point out when the UK negotiating side is lacking."

The DUP was left angry after Mr Varadkar said last week that the Irish Government does not want any sort of economic border on the island of Ireland after Brexit.

He said if Britain wants to put forward technological solutions, that is up to them, but the Government would not do that work for them.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds has strongly criticised what he described as Mr Varadkar's [B]"intemperate, inconsistent and incoherent outbursts"[/B] on Brexit.

Mr Dodds said the Irish Government was sending mixed messages about Brexit and were taking things backwards.

He said what he called the "new regime" in Dublin appeared to have adopted a more hardline attitude to Brexit than that of the former taoiseach Enda Kenny and former minister for foreign affairs Charlie Flanagan.

...

Meanwhile, a former special adviser to DUP leader Arlene Foster described as "extraordinary" Mr Varadkar's comments in relation to a border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland post-Brexit.

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Richard Bullick said, that traditionally, taoisigh have dealt with such issues with a measure of moderation and responsibility.

Mr Bullick said that private views are normally kept private, adding that it may be an issue of "somebody relatively recently into office that led them to say what they thought out loud, which isn't always the most desirable stance in politics".

He said both sides needed to work together and that this kind of language was not helpful.[/QUOTE]

In relation to the bold part - then what would you call Ian Paisley Jr's comments that Ireland should "wise up and leave the EU?" :thinking:

... this is getting quite serious. This is [I]not[/I] usual for Irish politics, imo. But we live in unusual times.

Interestingly (I can't see the full story because Irish Times paywall), [URL="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/leo-varadkar-still-hopeful-brexit-won-t-happen-1.3172381"]according to this Leo Varadkar is still hopefully Brexit [I]won't happen.[/I][/URL] Is there something the Irish government knows that we don't?

[Boilrig]

[QUOTE=BlackMageMari;52525254]Interestingly (I can't see the full story because Irish Times paywall), [URL="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/leo-varadkar-still-hopeful-brexit-won-t-happen-1.3172381"]according to this Leo Varadkar is still hopefully Brexit [I]won't happen.[/I][/URL] Is there something the Irish government knows that we don't?[/QUOTE]

Probably not, they are following the same line that most governments on the continent where they have all wished Brexit won't happen. That there is always an option to remain, door open etc, without bringing up the side effects of ignoring the referendum.

[BlackMageMari]

[QUOTE=Boilrig;52526463]Probably not, they are following the same line that most governments on the continent where they have all wished Brexit won't happen. That there is always an option to remain, door open etc, without bringing up the side effects of ignoring the referendum.[/QUOTE]

First, the Irish government would be a lot more clued into what the British political leaders would be thinking. (We're not continental Europe either)

Second, its kind of funny you bring up referendums when we in Ireland actually know how to do them and they are actually legally binding.

At this point however the headache of stopping Brexit would not be not going through with the 'referenfum', but how pissed Europe would be at British indecisiveness.