Professor Roy Foster, a distinguished Irish historian, assessed the implications of Brexit for Ireland in an article in TLS: The Times Literary Supplement on July 14. Alistair Lexden commented on the article in the main letter in the next issue of the paper on July 21.
Sir,--Sadly Roy Foster’s powerful article (July 14) is unlikely to be read in Downing Street unless it falls into the hands of Mr May, who is reputed to have an interest in history. Mrs May knows next to nothing about her own country’s past, let alone Ireland’s. Such historical allusions as she has managed to make were supplied by her now discredited henchman, Nick Timothy, who worships Joseph Chamberlain.
While she might gain a little comfort from learning that Irish MPs “exacted a considerable price” from Asquith for their support after 1910, she is the first prime minister to allow the beneficiaries of a deal to flaunt their concessions so brazenly. There was something shocking about the unprecedented signing ceremony with the Democratic Unionist Party in No 10 at the end of last month; it was as if a treaty between equals had been concluded. James Callaghan had Enoch Powell and other Ulster Unionist MPs smuggled in by the back door when he promised them extra representation at Westminster and some additional public spending in return for their help in 1977. Gladstone, the pioneer of such deals, used the husband of Parnell’s mistress as his link to the great Nationalist leader in the 1880s.
A talent for constructive private intrigue seems wholly lacking in today’s Conservative Party. Brexit will not be brought to a reasonably satisfactory conclusion without it. Disraeli’s masterly manoeuvrings in 1867 to secure triumph for a minority government over parliamentary reform ought now be the subject of earnest Tory study. But Mrs May disdains such vital skills, insisting misguidedly that “politics is not a game”.
Professor Foster notes the current political deadlock in Northern Ireland, but offers no advice on how it should be dealt with. Eternal vigilance in both London and Dublin surely became essential when a ramshackle coalition of political incompatibles, smouldering with mutual hatreds, was established at Stormont under the 1998 Belfast Agreement. Mrs May needs to show that she is not the puppet of her new allies by bringing the DUP to its senses; Dublin has a similar duty to perform as regards Sinn Fein. Without some form of functioning (if rancorous) central authority at Stormont, the Irish dimensions of the numerous Brexit problems, which Roy Foster discusses so authoritatively, will be even harder to solve.
Alistair Lexden
House of Lords, London SW1