Civil servants in the Department of Foreign Affairs celebrated Ireland getting a seat on the UN Security Council with “sparkling wine”, which may or may not have been champagne. The breach of the lockdown rules in June 2020 was exposed at the time by its former secretary general, Niall Burgess, whose posting of a photo of the event (hastily deleted a few hours later) was a self-defeating blunder. Burgess has since been given the plum posting of Ambassador to Paris…
The Partygate scandal in London gave the story some belated momentum, with the result that the Foreign Minister Simon Coveney has “invited” the senior civil servants involved to donate €4,000 to Covid charities. Bet Boris wishes he could bring Partygate to a close similarly…
Worried sources close to the UK negotiating team have identified a hardening of the EU’s negotiating position over the weekend. After the Government lost two people who were amongst the most passionate about properly taking back control, various voices calling for a deal at any cost have been strengthened. One negotiation source tells Guido the EU rapidly worked out that compromising voices in Westminster have been emboldened. Now they have taken the opportunity to harden rather than soften position in the crunch final days…
Not only did Simon Coveney’s comments on Sunday represent a significant hardening of the EU’s position, Guido is told key points in the negotiations themselves have gone from inching progress to hitting a road block. A worry this late in the game, caused by counterproductive compromise seekers trying to be helpful…
It has been noticed that in yesterday’s twitter thread David Frost took on a personal commitment to protecting control of our laws, saying “That has been our consistent position from the start and I will not be changing it.” Personally defending the red lines as Government as a whole wobbles – Frost would rather resign than capitulate on the core mission of Brexit…
Brexiteers will feel vindicated after Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister, Simon Coveney has voiced what Guido reported back in July, that the Irish Government is planning for checks away from the border, ensuring it remains soft. He told a business event that checks would be introduced “somewhere away from the Border”:
“We recognise the reality that Ireland will have a responsibility to protect its own place in the single market. That will involve some checks. But I can assure you we will try to do that in a way that limits the risk. And we will try and do it away from the Border.”
Coveney said that his Government would have to introduce checks on the Irish side of the border, but not on the border itself. He also said it will be up to the British whether it wanted to place checks on goods on the Northern Irish side of the border.
The Irish Government accepting that the border may remain soft in the event of a No Deal, accepting what Eurosceptics have been saying for months does beg the question: If they can institute checks away from the border in the event of No Deal, why not in the event of a backstopectomied deal..?
The wobbles among the Irish political class over Varadkar’s uncompromising stance on the backstop are continuing to grow. Now former Irish Europe Minister Lucinda Creighton has penned an article defending opposition spokesman Tommy Dooley – who caused a major stir last week after lashing out at Varadkar’s “arrogant” Brexit approach and accusing him of a “failure to engage in basic diplomacy”. Creighton, who was a key figure in the ‘Yes’ campaigns in Ireland’s two Lisbon Treaty referendums, writes:
“The idea that the government’s stance is beyond criticism or scrutiny is quite ridiculous… That an opposition TD was forced to delete a tweet simply because it criticised the Taoiseach and the government’s handling of Brexit and British relations is a cause for concern…
“It is almost impossible to find a dissenting voice which dares to suggest the framing of the backstop in the withdrawal agreement might not in fact be in Ireland’s best interests…
“Such a mass closing of minds to alternative opinion is deeply worrying. I say this as someone who broadly agrees that the backstop is the optimal way to avoid a hard border and protect the Good Friday Agreement. However, to choose to ignore the risks inherent in the EU and Irish position is plainly wrong. We need to face up to them.”
It comes after Patrick Coveney – brother of Tánaiste Simon Coveney and CEO of Irish food giant Greencore – warned that Ireland’s no-deal contingency plans for smooth goods transit across the UK land bridge might not work in practice. Will the younger Coveney heed the warning of his older brother and shift his position on the backstop…?
The new PM hasn’t even been announced and Irish Deputy PM Simon Coveney is already trying to pass the buck on no deal, sticking to his line that the backstop is the only game in town so it’ll be the fault of the Brits if a deal doesn’t go through because of it. Never mind the fact that his government has already published plans for checks away from the border if there’s no deal…
