Thread by @Seanofthesouth

1/#Partition 1921-During the negotiations Lloyd George's private sec. civil servant Tom Jones, made some stunning revelations in his private diaries. Known as "T.J" he was Deputy Secretary to four Prime Ministers, he was known as the "keeper of a thousand secrets" he revealed

2/..some interesting unpublished comments during his vital roles as go between‘ between Lloyd George and the leaders of the Irish delegation then and later published in three volumes as Whitehall Diary between 1969 & 1971.
He said Lloyd Georgre had put it to James Craig that

3/ ..after pushing for the partition of the Ireland, he told Craig ..."sir, you have cut the natural circuits of commercial activity" of the economic unit of that small island. (Jones would later be an Economic's professor at Queens, Belfast) warning of economic folly?
TJ & GBS👇

4/ Jones went on to recall how Lloyd George had plenty of choice words for unionisms stance at the time...
"Ulster Unionists", he said... "were a pugnacious people, we are only behind them, to the extend that we can not allow civil war to take place at our door" he went on to say

5/- "we would like nothing better than that Ireland would be united!..on this question we stand neutral" we start to get the impression that #DowningStreet really wanted the Irish question sorted and out of its sight for another generation to fix- they never ever thought that

6/ #partition would last as long as it did. Even Craig believed it wouldn't last "maybe 10, 20 even 50 years" he said..but he was going to try and try he did, but at a terrible terrible cost as the six counties would morph into one of the worse sectarian regimes in western Europe

7/ Even Andrew Bonar Law the hard right-wing shit stirring Tory when it came to Ireland showed his pure dislike and racist views of the Irish. He believed the #Irish (both sides) were an "inferior race" of people, he didn't see unionists as pure British ofcourse but 'pure loyal

8/ to Britain and her #Empire! subservient and he loved it. He had come to the conclusion that the Irish were inferior on the bases of their 'implacable opposition' to each other, forgetting to realize that it was his colonialist ideology that perpetuated division in Ireland in

9/ a most under handed/divisive way. Bonar Law was an imperialist and was no great admirer of Ulster Unionism...he said
.."we recognize their case, in spite of their bigotry" is telling, he knew exactly what he was doing in Ireland. He was fanning the flames of hate and supremacy

10/As if that wasn't bad enough my own GGrandfathers (Orangeman/mason) wee flute band welcomed Bonar Law to Balmoral, Belfast on his visit (previous photo) with his "Lord Londonderry CLB"from Ards!
Later on Tom Jones in 1924 would record future Tory leader Austin Chamberlain

11/ sum up the situation in Ireland succinctly in reference to GB ....
" We have to prevent the Irish question being a fatal influence on British politics", This aligns perfectly with Lord Palmerston 1848 quote about British intentions...

12/12 "We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow"
....the moral of the story?
He who sups with the devil should have a long straw, when it comes to Blighty's real interest.👇

*extent