Opinion

All-island Brexit approach essential regardless of what Arlene Foster thinks

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney

Historian and political commentator Brian Feeney has been a columnist with The Irish News for three decades. He is a former SDLP councillor in Belfast and co-author of the award-winning book Lost Lives

First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster
First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster First Minister and DUP leader Arlene Foster

EVERYTHING comes back to Brexit. It was the first item John McDonnell the shadow chancellor addressed in his big speech in Monday.

It was the main point shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry addressed in her speech and it was the only point the new Labour shadow proconsul addressed in his execrable speech. Any idea who he is?

Sadly just as with the British government none of them offered anything specific to raise any hopes here. Worse, Thornberry seems to ignore the north, the place worst affected.

She opened a bidding war with the Conservatives on EU funding. The current chancellor Philip Hammond has said he will fund any money promised from the EU until 2020 if its arrangements are signed off before his autumn statement in November. That leaves a shortfall of hundreds of millions.

On the other hand Thornberry says, ‘we [the Labour Party] will establish a properly-managed domestic fund for less prosperous regions currently in receipt of EU structural funds, and we will ensure that level of funding is protected in full, into the 2020s and beyond.

Funding this commitment will be our top priority for allocating the estimated net savings deriving from Britain's withdrawal from the EU.’

Don’t get your hopes raised. She went on to give details. Her ‘earmarked’ domestic fund is £9.3 billion and the regions likely to benefit are, Wales, south-west England and north-west England, all with seven-year programmes of EU funds.

Does that mean Scotland and the north with devolved administrations aren’t included? Seems like it because otherwise she’d have to top up the block grant.

Anyway, she can say anything she likes because Labour isn’t going to be the government before 2020 and many would say before 2025, if ever.

Furthermore many economists say there are no ‘net savings’ and the Institute for Fiscal Studies says her ‘earmarked’ money isn’t there and even if it was, a drop of 0.5 per cent in the UK’s GDP would wipe it out.

Turn to Labour’s shadow proconsul who made a dreadful, barely coherent speech on Monday. Reading it rather than listening to it doesn’t help to make any more sense of it.

It was a rant of the bleeding obvious shouted at 100 decibels, the prospect of a hard border and customs posts, yeah right, who knew?

Then he roared, ‘much harder to quantify are the day-to-day issues that will effect Irish people across both sides of the border as they try to come to grips with a new reality.’

In other words he has no idea what to do about the economic and social consequences of Brexit. How could he when he doesn’t know what they are?

You might conclude that since Labour is unlikely to be in power for the foreseeable future it doesn’t matter if their front bench spokespersons (for this week anyway) have nothing to say about the north.

That would be wrong. Scotland has strong anti-Brexit representation through the large SNP contingent and Welsh Labour MPs put their country’s case through the Labour front bench but there’s no coherent position coming from the Stormont executive to Labour, even to ensure the fate of the north is at least mentioned in a speech.

Stormont departments began to consider potential consequences only in July and so far have not reached an agreed position.

The nearest anyone came was the letter Foster and McGuinness sent to the Treasury in August flagging pitfalls and begging for mercy.

All they received was the same response as Scotland with no reference to the north’s unique position. It’s long past time Sinn Féin pushed for the all-Ireland forum to present an all-island position.

Enda Kenny has promised such a body, not the original political proposal he messed up in the summer but one facilitating business and civil society.

It has to proceed even if Arlene Foster can’t take her blinkers off and finally admit she made an idiotic mistake advocating Brexit.

All she has to do is not attack the idea so that unionist business people can participate even if she doesn’t.

She can remain in denial as long as she likes but the north’s economic fate after Brexit is inextricably linked with the south’s. Time for her to leave her unionist time warp.