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It's worth watching the whole 6 minute clip of Jonathan Powell from @BBCNewsnight the other night. It's a view rarely expressed in the UK on a mainstream news show, and @maitlis (who I admire) seemed a little perplexed by the statement of the actual detail
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis It has been a consistent problem that British media has had since before and after the referendum - this stuff is complex by its nature and has to be explained. Remember: Irish people watch/listen to British AND Irish shows. We see the differences in questions, coverage, emphasis
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis Invariably we are armed with greater understanding of Ireland because, well, we're Irish. I'd argue the UK press has in general fundamentally failed or were very slow to understand Ireland's role. And still in many cases don't. This includes the most popular UK shows.
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis Independent of misunderstanding Northern Ireland and the border/backstop, there is wider misunderstanding of broader Irish perspectives of Britain. Ireland exited the UK nearly 100 years ago, but many British people who should know better don't seem to have realised.
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis This leads to repeated and flatly wrong and ignorant assumptions about our economy and our politics, as if Ireland is stuck in some 1950s timewarp. "Beef", "potatoes", "Sinn Fein", our parliamentary terms or arithmetic, or alleged dependence on UK trade.
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis I've spent more time than I should promoting my own writing on this issue - and the fact that I have to keep linking to it is only from frustration at the repeated lack of understanding of Irish perspectives. So, again, here is my attempt at explaining: newstatesman.com/politics/brexi…
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis And if you've read that piece, I'd add a couple of things to it that didn't make it in due to me trying to keeping the word count down:
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis First, is that I mentioned an IRA memorial in the piece, commemorating the Irish War of Independence. But a couple of dozen metres from that memorial is this one, installed recently. It commemorates Irish soldiers who died in the Great War, *for* the British Army. 
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis Imagine the apparent contradiction in two memorials: one commemorates Irish soldiers in the British Army, the other commemorates IRA men who died trying to kill members of it (and at around the same time). It is possible to hold two seemingly contradictory views at once.
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis A second one: just a walk away from the IRA memorial is this building, just near the Jameson Distillery.
@BBCNewsnight @maitlis The designer? Augustus Pugin. He also designed the interior of this famous building and its rather iconic clock tower. History is often complex, but it's always worth reading more.
