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1. @hayward_katy & @DavidHennick1 have outlined the reasons for the backstop in detail & done us all a service. This thread is about the implications of the current impasse for British-Irish relations-the context of what is playing out. @BrigidLaffan
2. #Brexit brings into sharp relief the troubled history of the two islands. What is shocking yes shocking for Ireland is the carelessness with which our neighbour went about its #Brexit business. @BrigidLaffan
3. Having spoken at events during the campaign, I was left with the overwhelming sense that most in the audience did not know what the implications of Brexit would be for the island of Ireland & more significantly did not care-yes did not care despite platitudes. @BrigidLaffan
4. Everything that has happened since June 2016 has reinforced my sense that #HMG had to be brought to the realisation of the challenges of the border through the actions of the EU27 & Dublin. @BrigidLaffan
5. It was only in autumn 2017 when PM May was desperate for a transition & had made concessions on money & citizens that #HMG had to confront the border. Having signed the Joint Report, @DavidDavisMP immediately tried to undermine it. @BrigidLaffan
6. Through 2018, #HMG had amble opportunity to offer credible plans in legal language to address the border challenges-they failed to do so. It was left to TaskForce50 to draft the WA. @BrigidLaffan
7. U.K. Gov understood how serious the border was but because of reliance on @duponline & the absence of agreement in Cabinet, could not really draw out the logic of the UK position which was & remains special arrangements for Norther Ireland. @BrigidLaffan
8. #HMG under @BorisJohnson has simply upped the ante re. the backstop which disguises his real intent which is a no deal Brexit. Such a Brexit will be disastrous for N. Ireland, the most politically vulnerable part of U.K. @BrigidLaffan
9. GFA is a joint achievement of U.K. & Ireland-it is presious, as is the normalisation of the border & the normalisation of British-Irish relations following the Queen’s visit. All in peril because of the toxic dynamics of @Conservatives & UK domestic politics. @BrigidLaffan
10. In the context of the shared history between these 2 islands, How has this happened? Whose political agency was used to do this & who has failed to act to prevent it. @BrigidLaffan
11. The English in particular have a moral responsibility to the island of Ireland. Ireland was the subject of wider imperial & political dynamics for centuries. @BrigidLaffan
12. Ireland was held either by force or its threat for centuries underpinned by a system of landlords & the Irish economy was there to serve British needs. @BrigidLaffan
13. Irish independence did not solve GB’s ‘Irish question’ because of the border & the continuation of jurisdictional responsibility for Northern Ireland. The GFA & Joint membership went a long way to stabilising relations. #Brexit unsettles all of this. @BrigidLaffan
14. So I hope the sunny uplands of #Brexit justifies the damage to your neighbour. Because there will be no escape from England’s Irish Question in a post Brexit world. It is the issue that was neglected, disparaged & downplayed in the 2016 ref-it is not going away.@BrigidLaffan
15. England has always struggled with its relationships to both the continent & Ireland-Brexit makes them one. @BrigidLaffan
16. When Garret Fitzgerald & Margaret Thatcher were negotiating, Garrett when trying to explain Irish history to her, was met with ‘You Irish never forget’ to which Garret replied, ‘you English do not remember enough’. Time to remember more. @BrigidLaffan
17. & please don’t bother to troll me with ‘you hate the English’ or I am an Irish bigot. Not true but what I see happening both saddens & terrifies me. Now time for a swim in what is a pretty wild Atlantic today. @BrigidLaffan
