Opinion

No place for tribal outbursts in election campaign

It will have been widely noted that Tánaiste Simon Coveney took the opportunity presented by his latest cross-border visit to highlight the `extraordinary’ regional business advantages which could follow a successful outcome to the Brexit negotiations.

Many observers, including some of those who attended the Belfast Chamber of Commerce event on Wednesday, will still believe that there is no such thing as a good Brexit and the objective is to find the least worse option in terms of a final settlement.

However, Mr Coveney offered a much more upbeat assessment and said entrepreneurs would see the rewards of setting up in a Northern Ireland operating under single market rules but with tariff free access to the UK market.

He predicted that companies which were based in the Republic and found themselves dealing with trade barriers into the UK market post Brexit might even end up moving north of the border.

A considerable number of business figures from a unionist background will have looked closely at Mr Coveney’s constructive effort to move the debate forward and contrasted it with the very different attitude of the DUP.

The Tánaiste also expressed regret over the strain which the EU/UK talks have placed on the wider relationship between unionism and the Dublin government.

He was correct to stress that the concerns of either section of the northern community could not be dismissed, as nationalists have been at least equally alarmed over some of the more blatant attempts to politicise the Brexit saga.

The last thing anyone needs in our hugely difficult political circumstances are cynical interventions which set out to wrongly portray Brexit as yet another issue which divides us along Orange/Green lines.

We are moving into ever more uncertain territory with Boris Johnson insisting yesterday that he will only give the House of Commons more time to scrutinise his proposed Brexit deal if MPs agree to a general election on the highly unusual date of December 12.

It is quite possible that Mr Johnson’s carefully laid plans will collapse around him in the coming weeks but there is also a chance that a ultimate result is achieved which provides the Northern Ireland economy with an unprecedented boost.

Much is at stake and the least we are entitled to expect is that tribal outbursts play no part in any forthcoming election campaign.