Bad temper is the first emotion the big issue of the day sets off. At the bus-stop, the kitchen table and the pub political chat has bogged down on Brexit. Whatever about the outcome, bogged-down conversation is not good.
Discussion of politics is meant to make us feel better, or at least involved. Is it not our birthright as Irish to talk politics day and night to variable effect but always, or almost always, with a swing? Though according to the pious prayer did it, talking politics kept many going through the years when politics were at their most stagnant. And now we get no swing, no give, sticky mud slowing every step.
What creates the effect is mostly exasperation mixed with bafflement and an overwhelming sense of helplessness. Where is all of this headed? Who knows? Not the people supposedly negotiating it, this much is for sure.
The only remotely happy conversationalists are the type who drone ‘We’re all doomed’. Or who crow that they, unique among the crowd, knew all along that Brexit was a mess in the making. Or that its potential glorious benefits would be spoiled by begrudging Remainers. These are not beings with whom most would-be conversationalists want to spend time.
Listening to or reading ‘expert’ accounts is fraught. The most trustworthy struggle to stay lucid; it cannot be done crisply. Even RTE’s estimable Tony Connelly cannot lay out the twisting saga without testing eyes and concentration. Lesser and lighter accounts have begun to lunge into the whimsical, verging on the anarchic.
A thread of British reporting and comment came late, unwilling and irritated to the ‘problem of the Irish border’. The usually good-humoured Matthew Parris took off at the weekend in the Times into ‘for goodness sake’ territory. ‘There’s the “Irish backstop”, of course...The EU will press for its inclusion in our exit treaty, perhaps successfully. But whether a declaration or a treaty, promises can be broken and through history the world has not called Britain “perfidious Albion” for nothing. After Brexit, a new prime minister can say to Brussels...we’ll do as we please with the Irish border.’
All hell would break loose, he wrote, ‘but that is what the Brexiteers want. And it’s very possible that the endgame will come after we leave, not before.’
Tempers are chipped, patience eroded.
The Daily Telegraph loosed its letters pages on Theresa May, or at least announced on its front page how hostile letters were, as though May would of course accept this as the last word on the subject. Maybe she did. She and Westminster have tottered towards their summer recess, outrage at the breach of pairing etiquette by the Tory chief whip relegating Ian Paisley’s performance of guilt and shame. Punished enough, says fellow extreme-Brexiter Sammy Wilson; by lack of an audience?
A welter of panic and dubious judgment has matched the heat; vote of confidence, possible collapse of the May government, the coming of Corbyn; but wait. Ousting May, say Brexiteers, under the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act would give them a fortnight to find a new leader. Tally-ho! Surely this cannot be possible.
The laughably treacherous Michael Gove has clearly been re-positioning, to some effect. Seen at least briefly as solid citizen compared to flaky Boris, sticking in there at Chequers, supposedly building a dream team with newly-pregnant Ruth Davidson - though surely that must be wrong too. Then a new poll says the people still love Boris.
Out here well beyond the edge of Westminster’s world people long ago pulled back from an open-ended ‘where is it all going?’ Sense of humour is healthy though May’s slavishly DUP-pleasing visit last week was more eye-glazing than laughable. (And Francie Molloy’s revelation about UVF talks? Fianna Fáil maybe, finally, gearing up to come north?)
On the day after the Brexit referendum, born-again Brexiter Arlene Foster’s baffling reaction was to say she was ‘proud of the Northern Ireland people’. It became irrelevant that this part of the UK voted Remain by a bigger margin than the UK as a whole voted Leave. All that has mattered to the DUP since is their deal with May. Their incompetence and arrogance ran devolution into the ground, its legacy that lingering aroma of corruption. However they come out of this Westminster stew they have no project back home to return to.
A summer recess from political chat could be just the thing; time to reflect. Although the south’s politics may be worth a look before the Pope wings in...
