So I’m amending the words of the original lyrics of the signature tune of the series to sum up the recent visit of US President ‘Sleepy Joe’ Biden to Ireland, north and south.
Now before those from the Leftie woke community start ranting that by using a sitcom from the Second World War that I’m implying Joe Biden is a Nazi, I’m not.
But whilst the President muttered on at great length - especially in his very short trip to Belfast - about peace, in reality, Biden has fired the starting gun in his re-election campaign for the White House in 2024.
Even before Biden arrived in Ireland, I predicted on The Pensive Quill. And later in the Belfast News Letter, where I was once education and religious affairs correspondent, I also predicted that this Democratic President badly needed a major public relations foreign policy coup given his disastrous policy in Afghanistan:
Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Biden
If You Think We're On The Run?
We Are The Brits Who Will Stop Your Little Game
We Are The Brits Who Will Make You Think Again
'Cause Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Biden
If You Think Old Ulster's Done?”
Now before those from the Leftie woke community start ranting that by using a sitcom from the Second World War that I’m implying Joe Biden is a Nazi, I’m not.
But whilst the President muttered on at great length - especially in his very short trip to Belfast - about peace, in reality, Biden has fired the starting gun in his re-election campaign for the White House in 2024.
Even before Biden arrived in Ireland, I predicted on The Pensive Quill. And later in the Belfast News Letter, where I was once education and religious affairs correspondent, I also predicted that this Democratic President badly needed a major public relations foreign policy coup given his disastrous policy in Afghanistan:
Perhaps if Unionists were summarising Biden’s four-day trip to the island of Ireland, they may use the old proverb: ‘Fine words butter no parsnips.’
There was plenty of well-choreographed spin, hand-shaking and waving with words like ‘peace’ and ‘jobs’ being tossed about like political confetti. Sadly, for Unionism, this was not primarily for Northern Ireland audiences, but for the key Irish American and Ulster Scots lobbies back in the United States.
Both are still crucial voter bases and could easily decide if Biden gets a second term in the Oval Office in Washington in the 2024 Presidential poll.
Unlike during the John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton Democratic Party Presidencies, the Irish American vote cannot be guaranteed to wholeheartedly swing behind Biden in 2024.
Donald Trump’s victory for the Republican Party in 2016 and Biden’s ‘squeaky bum’ victory over Trump in 2020 proved that the perception that Irish America is automatically Democratic to the core is totally false.
Where’s the proof in 2023 of this, you may ask? At the Ulster University, Biden took the unusual step of talking about his ‘Ulster Scots/English’ roots and the role of the traditionally Protestant and pro-Unionist Ulster Scots community in the United States.
At first reading, this could easily be dismissed at Biden trying to placate the Unionist community in Northern Ireland given that Biden has the reputation of being one of the most pro-Irish nationalist Presidents since John F Kennedy.
Yes, Biden was treading very carefully in dealing with Unionism in his brief trip north of the Irish border - there were certainly no Black and Tans confusion at Ulster University!
If Biden is to fend off any stiff challenge from the American Republican Party next year, he will not only have to win over a sizeable chunk of the Irish American lobby, but also a significant section of the Ulster Scots community in the US.
Anyone who believes Biden’s sweet talking speech at Ulster University will prompt the DUP to rush back into Stormont and kick-start the power-sharing Executive is living on another political planet.
Biden may have told his audience that ‘your future is America’s future’, but in deciding the recent Windsor Framework as an ‘essential step’, he blew any hopes of Unionism marching into the Executive; well, until after the May 18 local government elections when the DUP assesses what electoral damage - if any - has been suffered by its boycott of the Executive over the Protocol.
Unionism should take a tactically cynical view of Biden’s Northern Ireland speech, especially when he stressed that peace and economic opportunity go together. Was this a very subtle hint to Unionism, and especially the DUP - return to Stormont, get the Executive up and running again, and I’ll make it worth your while in terms of billions of US dollars as a sweetener?
For a start, maybe the US Biden administration could pick up the tab for the estimated £7 million bill to the PSNI for making sure the President was safe given the significant cuts in the police budgets?
The strategy which Unionism should adopt towards Biden’s talk of substantial economic investment is to mirror the same policy which the late Dr Ian Paisley took towards the European Union when the first European Parliamentary elections were held in 1979.
Dr Paisley, then DUP leader and viewed as a staunch Eurosceptic, said he would go to Europe to ‘milk the European cow’. He spent his time in the European Parliament getting as much funding for Northern Ireland as possible.
Unionism must now box clever with Biden. If there’s rumoured billions of dollars in peace funding now available, snatch every dollar with both hands - milk the Biden cow!
Indeed, the sweet talking to Unionism was started in Biden’s warm-up act in Belfast - his special envoy to Northern Ireland, Joe Kennedy III, from the famous American Kennedy political clan, which produced brothers John F (assassinated), Bobby (assassinated) and Ted (Chappaquiddick scandal).
Joe the Third rammed home the economic benefits of the peace process, clearly stressing the commitment to the ‘peace babies’ by Biden - again, another carefully worded appeal to younger voters and first time voters in next year’s Presidential poll.
But the real footage for the election campaign shifted into top gear as soon as Biden went south of the border, especially in the west of Ireland. His tour of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock was a clear appeal to Catholic America and even elements of ecumenical Protestant America, another two crucial voter bases.
However, the major battle for Irish America was fought at the North Mayo Heritage and Genealogical Centre as well as at St Muredach’s Cathedral in Ballina.
Addressing the two houses of the Dail in Leinster House was the cherry on the icing in terms of political spin, giving the clear message to Irish America - Irishman Biden is out of the traps and running for 2024!
As for the so-called bilateral talks Biden held with British PM Rishi Sunak in Belfast prior to the university showpiece, let’s see if this results in British and American boots in Ukraine. Or was it a case of telling Sunak - there’ll only be a US/UK trade deal if you sort out the Protocol by putting the Unionists in their place?
Was it sheer coincidence that Sunak was not physically present during the Ulster University speech even though the PM was also in Northern Ireland, or was it a case that Sunak had received a verbal ear-bashing in private from Biden about how to solve Northern Ireland Unionism’s problems with the Protocol?
Biden talked a lot about the need to ‘repair’ - interpreted as a clear reference to repair the Good Friday Agreement and peace process by restoring a fully functioning devolved power-sharing Assembly and Executive.
With Biden back now in the US, perhaps he should re-read his own university speech and concentrate on repairing his own lame-duck Presidency. Try giving the ‘repair’ speech to the National Rifle `Association or the veterans lobby in the US following the Afghan catastrophe and see what happens!
“The United Kingdom should be working closer with Ireland. Political violence must never be allowed to take hold again,” says Biden. With those words, the Biden trip saw the US/Irish Republic’s relationship at the peak of a political Mount Everest, but they also made that same trip see the US/UK and Biden/Unionism relationships lying at the bottom of the ocean with the Titanic wreck.
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Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. |
I'm a Dads Army fan myself, it sums up in a funny way the system which England is based. The signature tune is a little offensive to Scotsmen and women as well as the Welsh as, it appears they played no part in defeating Nazism. Then again, when people talk of Britain what they really mean is Engand unless things go wrong, then the Scots and Welsh are included.
ReplyDeleteCaoimhin O'Muraile