This strongly pro-unionist extract from the new British prime minister’s speech yesterday raises all sorts of intriguing questions re our wee Ulster.
Will Theresa May be a new Maggie Thatcher? Will she instal a new ‘hard’ border with the South? Who will be the new NI Secretary? Michael Gove? Whence the peace process now? Where will Gerry’s place in history be now?
Intriguing questions, the answers to which will soon be evident.
Here is what she said:
“Because not everybody knows this but the full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist party and that word unionist is very important to me.
“It means we believe in the union, the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – but it means something else that is just as important.
“It means we believe in a union not just between the nations of the United Kingdom but between all of our citizens – every one of us – whoever we are and wherever we’re from.”
UPDATE – Incidentally I noticed that May’s pro-Union remarks sailed past The Irish Times completely unnoticed. Doubtless conspiracy theorists will see in this a deliberate effort to ignore a potential difficulty for the peace process. Sadly the explanation is likely to be simpler, the result of straightforward incompetence in what was once a must-read publication, but no longer so.
