Sir, – Many will remember the television commercial from about a decade ago in which a man gets up in a crowded bus and exclaims to the other passengers, “I don’t know what a tracker mortgage is!”
In his current advertising reincarnation, he can be heard confessing, “I don’t know what a heat pump is!”
The wonder is that, like many of us, he is not admitting, “I don’t know what a backstop arrangement is!” – Yours, etc,
MICK BOURKE,
Kilmainham,
Dublin 8.
Sir, – The DUP has threatened to vote against Theresa May’s budget later this month should she agree to any EU proposal that would treat Northern Ireland differently to the rest of the UK. Should the DUP carry out this threat, it would surely be paradoxical that the biggest beneficiary of its strategy could well be Sinn Féin.
For such a move by the DUP would inevitably collapse the Tory government and lead to a general election that could very well result in a Momentum-dominated leftist Labour government – one led by a man who has made repeated calls for a united Ireland.
If the DUP’s action scuppers the chance of reaching a good Brexit deal, and this leads to the expected downturn and chaos in the UK’s economy, as well as unemployment in cities and towns across all of the UK, the DUP will no doubt receive widespread blame and opprobrium for having selfishly placed its own local political interests and goals ahead of the economic interests of the rest of the UK.
Such a DUP action is bound to persuade many in the UK to question the continued usefulness of the Northern Ireland-UK link. And with a Labour government in power led by a leader and others having republican sympathies, there would likely be some serious moves made by it to weaken and eventually dissolve that link, moves that would undoubtedly be supported by a British public angry with the DUP. – Yours, etc,
IVOR SHORTS,
Rathfarnham,
Dublin 16.
A chara, – The approach of the EU – and by extension our own Government – to Brexit is a perfect example of the sort of bureaucratic tyranny that contributed to the democratic decision taken by the British people two years ago. Both parties seem intent on finding a way to circumvent – or at least water-down – the referendum result, instead of negotiating in good faith to allow the UK to leave. As with our own Nice and Lisbon referendums, the EU doesn’t take “No” for an answer, and it is behaving accordingly. Yet its supporters laughingly hold up the organisation as a bastion of enlightenment and democracy.
Perhaps that level of delusion helps explain the arrogant sneering toward the 18 million British people that had had enough and democratically voted to leave. – Is mise,
SIMON O’CONNOR,
Crumlin,
Dublin 12.