mercalia wrote:you ( and others ) havent taken on board the point I was referring to that the Irish commentator was making, in comparing how the Good Friday Deal was transacted and the Brexit deal has been done re the backstop ie you dont put one of the parties into a corner so they have to reject the deal - thats what the EU and the Irish govt have done to the UK in requiring the UK to weaken its sovereignty over the north. by making the backstop something that the UK cannot get out of without EU permission?
A single Irish commentator has said that the backstop is flawed. The fact that you can find one or two or even half a dozen Irish commentators, politicians or taxi drivers who take that view does not somehow prove the rest of the overwhelming majority in Irish politics, who evidently support their Government's approach, is wrong.
Furthermore, the decision not to insist on the IRA and the other paramilitary groups not laying down their arms before the Good Friday Agreement negotiations was a decision taken in recognition of the absolute need to end the cycle of violence and misery that the people of Northern Ireland had suffered for decades. In that case, waiving the principle that terrorists should disarm before negotiating with their political representatives was considered a price well worth paying, even more so with hindsight.
For Irish politicians to insist that there is no hard border as a result of Brexit is entirely consistant with the approach taken to the terms for negotiating the GFA. Maintaining the peace is so important, that it justifies the Irish being absolutely adamant that there must be no hard border. If that inevitably means that the UK/NI would have to continue to be part of the Customs Union or even the Single Market, and so could not go entirely its own separate way and negotiate a completely separate set of trade deals with the rest of the world as well as the EU, then that is not the fault of the Irish Govt. The EU was never going to accept a third country, i.e. the UK after Brexit, having an uncontrolled porous border with the EU through which all manner of goods from the rest of the world would be imported into the Single Market evading tariffs and all the relevant inspections and compliance checks. To argue that the Irish are forcing the UK into a no deal Brexit which will necessitate a hard border, is akin to a naughty child saying 'you made me do it'.
As for weakening sovereignty over the North, that sovereignty has always been on shakey foundations, because of the colonisation of the North to subdue it and the following centuries of oppression and discrimination of Catholics. Forcing the issue as a result of Brexit in order to assert that sovereignty, may only only weaken it further by exacerbating sectarianism in Northern Ireland. Sovereignty is dependent upon the relationship between the sovereign and subjects, or the state and citizens. If a large percentage of citizens feel mistreated by the state, as the Catholic community justifiably feels it has been for centuries, such that they would vote to leave the UK and unite with rest of Ireland, then it's that that has weakened the state's sovereignty, not the actions of the Irish Government.
As I said in a previous post, Leavers are blaming everyone else for these entirely foreseeable problems, and taking no responsibility. Instead they are just trying to threaten and bully others into doing what they want.