Opinion

Why we must broaden the Brexit debate

This is the type of moment that gave rise to the cliché – every crisis is an opportunity

DUP (above) raise multiple concerns: “Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney are currently at the receiving end of the ire and the fears of Northern unionists. They are both accused of being overly aggressive.” File photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Denis Bradley
Sat Dec 9 2017 - 01:05

It is foolish for Irish politicians to patronise Ulster unionists by claiming that the union is not endangered by Brexit negotiations. Keir Starmer, Labour's spokesman on Brexit, took an opposite position in Westminster when saying "if the price of the prime minister's approach is the break-up of the union and the reopening of bitter divide in Northern Ireland, then the price is too high".

The human response to this week’s deal/no deal is to see it as a shambles. The political response is to find a compromise or an obfuscation that will address the presenting problem. But every so often an issue or a number of issues will push themselves to the centre of attention and will pose fundamental and existential difficulties. This is such a moment. This is the type of moment that gave rise to the cliché; every crisis is an opportunity.

The natural instinct amid such heightened passions is to fight your own corner and let the future look after itself

The difficulty with Brexit is that there is no solution. Or to be more accurate, there is no solution to how it is currently defined and debated. It is like packing a case with too much stuff. Every time you push down on it to lock the case there is something else sticking out. Solve the English Brexit and you are left with Scotland and Ireland sticking out. Solve the Irish Brexit and Scotland is sticking out. The only solution is to buy a bigger case. The bigger case is all the relationships on these islands and the totality of those relationships between these islands and Europe.

Sealed parameters

One of the more welcome side-effects of Brexit was to remove the North from the suffocating and sealed parameters into which it had been driven and has placed it in the wider and healthier context of Britain and Ireland. It is true that Ireland wasn’t on the Brexiteers’ radar and the English media has woken up within the last few weeks to the historical and political significance of the “Border”. But not many people in Ireland have given consideration or sympathy to the effects a special deal on Ireland may have on the fortunes of Scotland. And many are even less sympathetic to Wales because they found it hard to understand why that country voted to leave.

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The natural instinct amid such heightened passions is to fight your own corner and let the future look after itself. Thankfully that is not so simple in this case. If the Brexiteers crash out of Europe or get a mediocre deal, which seems to be the only possible result, it is going to leave a large and discontented minority who will feel disenfranchised. The same will happen if the referendum result is ignored or overturned. It will happen in England, Scotland and Ireland. The voter gap between the Remainers and the Brexiteers, between Scottish independents and unionists and between Irish nationalists and Ulster unionists are so narrow that each country will have a strong coterie of very angry and disgruntled constituents. Governance will not be easy.

It is, of course, possible that the British government will implode and that Labour will come to power. It is even possible that Keir Starmer will persuade his party and the majority in England that it would be much better to stay in close harmony with the European Union and remain within the single market and the customs union. That will somewhat settle tempers and bring greater equilibrium but it will not make the suitcase any more fit for purpose.

In dread that every opposing opinion is a threat to their identity and inheritance, many will never respect you, no matter how you say it or what you say

The opportunity that arises from all this confusion is to define the debate in its totality and in its complexity. For example, Northern Ireland was established on a head count in 1920 but the 50/50 state of political representation of recent years has forced a new dynamic. That dynamic brings us back to the head count. Who has the greater number now and in the future? Conversely, it opens up a real and honest debate as to how to create a different type of future that is inclusive of all. It is true and unfortunate that unionism is terrified of that debate and has refused to engage and it is always difficult to have a conversation with someone who won’t talk back. But Brexit makes it impossible not to face the facts and to see in all their starkness the dangerous divisions.

‘Overly aggressive’

Leo Varadkar and Simon Coveney are currently at the receiving end of the ire and the fears of Northern unionists. They are both accused of being overly aggressive. Not having lived in the North as long as some of the rest of us they would be well advised to stick to their convictions and their demands. Unionists will often fight you before they come to respect you. In dread that every opposing opinion is a threat to their identity and inheritance, many will never respect you, no matter how you say it or what you say.

The same type of conflicted position is also prominent in Scotland. Will it continue to fight for independence or will it be forced to stay in union with a country which will be outside of Europe and which will cost, it is claimed, the loss of 80,000 jobs? The twist in their situation is that the Scottish Conservatives are on the same side as the SNP when it comes to staying in the customs union. At the end of next year when Brexit has been settled or has broken its back on the rocks of a wild and unchartered sea, it will be clearer as to the sorry state of English politics.

In the meantime, it would be a blessing if respected commentators, together with statesmen from the past and the present, were to broaden and deepen the debate into its proper constituent parts. This is not just about trade. As the Irish Government has identified, this is about relationships on all of these islands. That is at the heart of it, even more than trade. That is what needs to be discussed. That is the next vital stage of this fascinating and historic moment.

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