BUT BACK TO BORIS’ TOUR: Johnson, in Scotland earlier this week, didn’t have anything to offer to the Remainers in government; in Wales, he avoided addressing concerns over the fishing industry’s future post-Brexit (let alone post a no-deal divorce.) In Northern Ireland, where, again, a majority voted Remain in 2016, Johnson let ardent Brexiteer and DUP leader Arlene Foster do a read-out of their meeting.
told the BBC they talked about the need for a Brexit deal and that “Dublin and indeed Brussels needed to dial back on the rhetoric and be a willing partner to find a deal, not just for the United Kingdom but for Republic of Ireland and the whole of Europe.”
However, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told the BBC on Wednesday that if there’s a no-deal Brexit, Britain could not “with a straight face suggest to any of us who live on this whatsapp number list island that we should not be given the democratic opportunity … to decide our future.” She added that in such a scenario, Johnson must allow a referendum on a united Ireland.
Meanwhile, vague hopes in Brexiteer London that Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s tough stance in insisting on the backstop — which would, just as a reminder, keep the U.K. bound to EU customs rules and Northern Ireland tied to the single market — could be branded as a party-political manoeuver are failing. Johnson’s “refusal … to engage with European leaders and our Taoiseach without pre-conditions on the issue of Brexit is unacceptable and is not within the realms of normal diplomatic or political behaviour,” Irish opposition leader Micheál Martin said.