The make-up of the European Parliament which will emerge after this year’s forthcoming elections will be a radically different political beast from the parliament at the time of the 2016 referendum.
Put bluntly, in 2016 when the UK voted to leave the EU, the Far Right grouping in the European Parliament was merely a noisy fringe movement. If the opinion polls are correct, the Far Right will become a significant player in the European Parliament after this June. Populist politics and Eurosceptism will become the order of the day.
While Northern Ireland voted ‘remain’ in the 2016 referendum as a region of the UK, those Remainers in the Province need to remember the non-Biblical proverb - be careful what you wish for!
Forget the convenient and cosy trading arrangements which existed under the old European Economic Community (EEC). The modern day European Union, and especially the European Parliament, which will emerge from the elections in June will be a different cumbersome beast whereby nationalist and populist movements in the respective EU member states will adopt a ‘put the nation first’ rather than a ‘put Europe first’ approach.
France, Germany and Hungary are already major players within the EU. It is expected that the European Parliamentary elections in all three nations will return a substantial number of Far Right MEPs who will form the core of a new Far Right grouping.
It would be easy to adopt a flippant view of this impending development by the Far Right. After all, the UK has quit the EU, and surely the Republic of Ireland as the UK’s nearest EU neighbour has always been a welcoming place for migrants and the ethnic communities?
But let’s not forget about the late November 2023 riot in Dublin which allegedly had a racial undercurrent to it.
Whilst the Far Right may not yet be politically organised to the degree that it could win European seats in the Republic, Southern voters should not forget the experience of the UK in the 2009 European poll when the Far Right British National Party (BNP) won two European seats.
Remainers seem to be living in the political cloud cuckoo land that the cost of living crisis and all the financial woes which the newly formed Stormont Executive face will magically disappear if the UK rejoins the EU and all that supposed European cash starts flowing again.
What Remainers fail to fundamentally understand is that the UK will have a pay a major financial ‘buy-in’ bill for the price of rejoining. Before Brexit, the UK was a massive contributor to the EU’s coffers.
And Southern voters should not forget it was British millions which bailed out the Republic financially following a past collapse of the once thriving Celtic Tiger economy.
And what would be the fate of the Windsor Framework, Stormont Brake and Irish Sea border if the UK was back in the EU? There would be no doubting that the Eurocrats in Brussels would replace the Framework with such draconian legislation that the UK would never again consider the concept of British withdrawal from the EU.
Such legalisation would be so binding that it would serve as a warning to the Eurosceptic movements in other EU member states - look what has happened to the UK, do you want the same if you try to leave?
And then there’s the Ukraine crisis. Should the war with Russia ever end, it will require a massive rebuilding programme in Ukraine.
There’s no doubting any Ukrainian politician with a titter of wit will push for EU membership to try and milk those European euros to rebuild the devastation caused by the war with Russia. And that means less funding for the UK and Ireland.
Southern Ireland has benefited substantially from EU membership in terms of project funding. But at what point will Brussels decide the Republic must become a substantial giver towards the EU’s bank balance.
It will not have gone unnoticed in Brussels the millions which the Republic has promised to invest in Northern Ireland. If the Republic can pour such cash into a region of the UK which is not in the EU, maybe the Republic should pay much, much more into the EU?
Any new influential Far Right grouping in the European Parliament will want that funding to ensure an effective solution to the migrant crisis sweeping across Europe.
Europhiles may dream of more European integration in terms of the flow of goods between member states, but Far Right MEPs will want to see even tougher border controls to greatly restrict the flow of migrants.
Put bluntly, which member state will become the political dumping ground for Europe’s migrants? Could a price for the UK rejoining the EU be that it must massively increase the number of migrants it must take, making the current small boat crisis seem like a Sunday school picnic in terms of costs to resettle those migrants in the UK. And no doubt, Northern Ireland will have to take its allocation of migrants under any new EU joining terms.
If the recent incidents involving racist posters in Belfast is taken as a benchmark, the consequences of rejoining the EU could see an alarming and clearly unwanted increase in hate crimes against the migrant and ethnic communities in Northern Ireland.
Could the unthinkable happen - that generations of sectarianism in the Province could be replaced by a generation of racism?
Likewise, if any migrant crisis in the Republic does spark a BNP-style political kickstart for the Far Right, could the island witness the rejuvenation of the Far Right Blueshirt movement of General Eoin O’Duffy from the 1930s?
The Far Right has never had a political foothold of any significance in Northern Ireland. But if such a movement was to emerge in the Republic, could its ethos spill across the border into the Province?
In short, Remainers need to have a long, hard think before they go chomping at the bit to rejoin the EU. Remember another secular proverb - what goes around, comes around!
Put bluntly, in 2016 when the UK voted to leave the EU, the Far Right grouping in the European Parliament was merely a noisy fringe movement. If the opinion polls are correct, the Far Right will become a significant player in the European Parliament after this June. Populist politics and Eurosceptism will become the order of the day.
While Northern Ireland voted ‘remain’ in the 2016 referendum as a region of the UK, those Remainers in the Province need to remember the non-Biblical proverb - be careful what you wish for!
Forget the convenient and cosy trading arrangements which existed under the old European Economic Community (EEC). The modern day European Union, and especially the European Parliament, which will emerge from the elections in June will be a different cumbersome beast whereby nationalist and populist movements in the respective EU member states will adopt a ‘put the nation first’ rather than a ‘put Europe first’ approach.
France, Germany and Hungary are already major players within the EU. It is expected that the European Parliamentary elections in all three nations will return a substantial number of Far Right MEPs who will form the core of a new Far Right grouping.
It would be easy to adopt a flippant view of this impending development by the Far Right. After all, the UK has quit the EU, and surely the Republic of Ireland as the UK’s nearest EU neighbour has always been a welcoming place for migrants and the ethnic communities?
But let’s not forget about the late November 2023 riot in Dublin which allegedly had a racial undercurrent to it.
Whilst the Far Right may not yet be politically organised to the degree that it could win European seats in the Republic, Southern voters should not forget the experience of the UK in the 2009 European poll when the Far Right British National Party (BNP) won two European seats.
Remainers seem to be living in the political cloud cuckoo land that the cost of living crisis and all the financial woes which the newly formed Stormont Executive face will magically disappear if the UK rejoins the EU and all that supposed European cash starts flowing again.
What Remainers fail to fundamentally understand is that the UK will have a pay a major financial ‘buy-in’ bill for the price of rejoining. Before Brexit, the UK was a massive contributor to the EU’s coffers.
And Southern voters should not forget it was British millions which bailed out the Republic financially following a past collapse of the once thriving Celtic Tiger economy.
And what would be the fate of the Windsor Framework, Stormont Brake and Irish Sea border if the UK was back in the EU? There would be no doubting that the Eurocrats in Brussels would replace the Framework with such draconian legislation that the UK would never again consider the concept of British withdrawal from the EU.
Such legalisation would be so binding that it would serve as a warning to the Eurosceptic movements in other EU member states - look what has happened to the UK, do you want the same if you try to leave?
And then there’s the Ukraine crisis. Should the war with Russia ever end, it will require a massive rebuilding programme in Ukraine.
There’s no doubting any Ukrainian politician with a titter of wit will push for EU membership to try and milk those European euros to rebuild the devastation caused by the war with Russia. And that means less funding for the UK and Ireland.
Southern Ireland has benefited substantially from EU membership in terms of project funding. But at what point will Brussels decide the Republic must become a substantial giver towards the EU’s bank balance.
It will not have gone unnoticed in Brussels the millions which the Republic has promised to invest in Northern Ireland. If the Republic can pour such cash into a region of the UK which is not in the EU, maybe the Republic should pay much, much more into the EU?
Any new influential Far Right grouping in the European Parliament will want that funding to ensure an effective solution to the migrant crisis sweeping across Europe.
Europhiles may dream of more European integration in terms of the flow of goods between member states, but Far Right MEPs will want to see even tougher border controls to greatly restrict the flow of migrants.
Put bluntly, which member state will become the political dumping ground for Europe’s migrants? Could a price for the UK rejoining the EU be that it must massively increase the number of migrants it must take, making the current small boat crisis seem like a Sunday school picnic in terms of costs to resettle those migrants in the UK. And no doubt, Northern Ireland will have to take its allocation of migrants under any new EU joining terms.
If the recent incidents involving racist posters in Belfast is taken as a benchmark, the consequences of rejoining the EU could see an alarming and clearly unwanted increase in hate crimes against the migrant and ethnic communities in Northern Ireland.
Could the unthinkable happen - that generations of sectarianism in the Province could be replaced by a generation of racism?
Likewise, if any migrant crisis in the Republic does spark a BNP-style political kickstart for the Far Right, could the island witness the rejuvenation of the Far Right Blueshirt movement of General Eoin O’Duffy from the 1930s?
The Far Right has never had a political foothold of any significance in Northern Ireland. But if such a movement was to emerge in the Republic, could its ethos spill across the border into the Province?
In short, Remainers need to have a long, hard think before they go chomping at the bit to rejoin the EU. Remember another secular proverb - what goes around, comes around!
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"And Southern voters should not forget it was British millions which bailed out the Republic financially following a past collapse of the once thriving Celtic Tiger economy.". The vast majority of the bailout came from what was then the rest of the EU. Please note that the E U allowed Irealnd pay it off when we could borrow at lower interests rates., The British got their pound of flesh.
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