I’m so sorry. I apologise to those people in Ireland who feel that the English are increasingly hostile towards your country.
Nobody set out to damage the island of Ireland. Generally, few English people ever spare Ireland a moment’s thought.
I understand why, as I was one of them.
Ever interested and politically motivated, I knew absolutely zip about Ireland until I moved here. I’d travelled around the planet twice before ever stepping foot in the county next door.
When I finally did, it very much felt like I was going to Ireland because I’d run out of other countries. If that sounds insulting, even contemptuous, that’s my point.
As a Londoner, I neither disliked the Irish nor Ireland.
I’d no idea I was saving the best ’til last.
A student of history at both ‘O’ and ‘A Level’, my English education taught me one Irish date:1846, and one name: Raleigh, who I read about in a Ladybird book at the age of 7.
The English don’t hate the Irish.
They just don’t care.
Like you and me, the English are constantly bombarded with political lies and let-downs, so when told “Oh, Ireland, yes, well it’s all very complicated you see!” they are happy to shrug their exhausted shoulders.
The same psychological tactic of telling the public it’s all too difficult for them to understand is proving an effective device in the whole Brexit process. Worn down by boredom, the British are more than happy to relinquish interest. They just want it over and done with.
Your Irish emotions might calm if you appreciate the depth of whimsy and bluff that’s driven Brexit since its inception. There was never a plan to destroy the peace process.
Nobody was thinking about Ireland at all.
There was just a vain Tory Prime Minister who needed to leave a greater legacy than being the bloke who screwed a pig’s head and left his daughter in the pub.
Political legacy is a tricky business. Blair had years of boom but all they remember is Iraq. Clinton had economic growth over two terms, but his legacy consisted of sperm on a dress.
What could Cameron do?
How might he change the political landscape of his country?”
If only history saw him as the man who ended civil war in the Conservative Party; the man who finally silenced the batty Eurosceptics who’d been raging for decades. If he called a referendum, surely the great people of the United Kingdom would vote Remain and finally shut those arses up, once and for all.
Brexit was the result of Cameron’s whimsical punt, followed by the crass misjudgements of the Remain campaign’s 'Project Fear', which left Boris and his band of lying Leavers all the territory of hope.
From whimsy we move to bluff, and the reason why Brexit has been so farcical: none of the main figures are campaigning for what they believe in. Theresa May is a confirmed fan of the EU, while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has always been a hardcore Eurosceptic.
Without their hearts in their words, neither of these leaders appear in any way convincing. They don’t even sound convinced by their own arguments.
Boris may be eccentric but he’s far from stupid. Naturally a Remainer, he’s willing to burn his ethics and the Good Friday Agreement on the bonfire of ambition. Never equate him with the British people.
Addicted to watching the tragedy unfold, I wave my hands around in the air and emit grunts of pain and frustration as I listen to the MayBot once again say she wants out of Single Market and Customs Union, but no border in Northern Ireland.
Arggghhh.
If she hadn’t paid £1.2 billion for the filthy services of the DUP, there might have been a border in the Irish sea, but England now has Arlene Foster’s grip on its government’s goolies, and we know she’ll hurt ‘em.
If only just for once Sinn Fein politicians lied openly, in public, taking the oath and sitting in Westminster, the peace process might be saved.
However, as we know, Northern politicians on all sides prefer to lie about lying than save lives.
Now Corbyn decides to save the Custom’s Union, which might offer hope to Ireland, were Labour actually in power
There are easily enough Tory rebels to bring down this government, but then what? Is a General Election a year before leaving the EU helpful in any way?
Still, always, comes this talk of carrying out the will of the people. 17 million said Leave. 16 million said Stay. That’s a margin of error, not a mandate.
Subtract the protest votes and the bus lies, add those who have since learned the truth and the will of the people changes.
If you’re Irish and offended, please don’t take it personally. The average English person feels no contempt for Ireland: merely an unjustifiably lazy but understandable ignorance.
Ambivalent or at worst utterly disinterested, the English are unaware that their apathy will devastate the peace and restore physical partition.
Cut these battered English souls some slack. They have been serially lied to, misled and manipulated throughout this miserable process.
If they are guilty of anything, it is that they’ve let the bastards grind them down. If you’re Irish think Lisbon Treaty, multiply it by 1,000 and you might empathise.
The English just want to get on with their lives. If that means a border in Ireland, well, what can they do about it?
If war returns to the Six Counties, blood will be on Tory hands.
©Charlie Adley
18.03.2018
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