I understand this latest spin is regarded as hot shit within the Brexit bubble, but in the real world it's nothing but horseshit.
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Originally Posted by
RandBlade
https://i.imgur.com/kf97EZt.png
I never said anything about aliens. You're right we're not talking about sacrificing the lives of two dozen people. We are though talking about sacrificing the rights of nearly two million people.
You chose to sacrifice the rights of those two million people--and tens of millions more--by leaving the EU and depriving them--largely against their will!--of their rights as EU citizens, eg. the right to freely move through and live/work in the entire EU. Clearly, stripping the residents of NI of their rights isn't regarded as a major problem by you or by the British govt.
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This isn't the eighteenth century, people have the right to elect politicians to shape their laws. But you want me to approve of sacrificing the rights of everyone in Ulster. You want all my compatriots to lose their right to hold those who make their laws to account. Because you believe that you are imperialistically more powerful and can subjugate smaller neighbours and we will have no choice but to sacrifice our compatriots. We will have no choice but to ignore the wishes of those elected by the population of Northern Ireland and disenfranchise them.
That is real, that is what you are proposing. I truly wish that was me being absurd as it is an absurd suggestion, but it isn't. I deliberately chose sacrificing others as the analogy as that is literally what you are asking us to do. I have seen many Remainers and some Leavers too lamenting that the DUP are blocking a deal and saying they should be overridden. That we should sacrifice Northern Ireland for the greater good. No! No! No!
This a spectacularly mendacious spin. Again, the English chose to sacrifice the rights of the people of NI. There was no majority in the NI assembly for even holding a referendum in the first place. The decision to hold a referendum was made without NI's support. A majority of the parties represented in the assembly opposed Brexit and campaigned against it, while a majority of NI's voters voted against leaving--the decision to leave was made without their support and indeed against their wishes. After the referendum, before the snap election, a majority was elected on the basis of seeking continued unrestricted access to the SM, or access at least equivalent to EEA countries outside the EU. Now, the empire is forcing NI to not only leave the EU but to do so in a manner that is the opposite of what the people of NI want, with the help of a party that represents a minority of NI's voters.
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I have absolutely no qualms with the population in Northern Ireland being free to consent to a change in its laws whereby it will be required to accept EU rules. That is their choice. That is not a choice they have made though.
Because they have been denied that choice. They were forced, by the English, to make a choice they had no desire to make; the choice they made was nevertheless disregarded--again, by the English. Now, the English are wringing their hands and whining about freedom and consent when, by law, they have the authority to give NI the freedom to choose by putting the question of the backstop to a vote in NI--and, indeed, a moral obligation to do so, in the name of consent and with due regard to the spirit of devolution.
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That is not a choice you want them to have.
Let's be clear: this is a choice the English and the DUP do not want NI to have. No matter how you spin it, that fact doesn't change.
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If we ratify this backstop that choice wouldn't have been made by them but rather for them.
Just like the decision to hold the Brexit referendum and the subsequent decision to leave the EU. The difference is, the backstop would at least be consistent with the wishes of a majority of voters in NI, as expressed by the positions of a majority of the representatives elected to the assembly. But we see once again that consistency and fairness aren't highly valued by Little Englanders.
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The population in Northern Ireland elects their own MPs to Westminster and MLAs to Stormont. If the MLAs in Stormont choose to have a referendum where voters in NI can choose to change their terms then I would respect their decision. But the majority of elected representatives elected by Northern Ireland's voters are not calling for that. In neither Stormont nor Westminster are NI's elected representatives asking for this. Both sets of which were elected last year after the referendum.
SF, SDLP, APNI and GP have all called for the govt. to ensure a withdrawal agreement with a backstop solution (that isn't time-limited) for the Irish border. The UUP, meanwhile, went to election calling for unrestricted access to SM.
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I will not treat my compatriots as pawns to be sacrificed to get what I want.
You already have, and you still are. Please understand that your reality distortion field doesn't work outside your own head.
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Their elected representatives in Westminster have been very vocal in demanding that Northern Ireland be treated no differently to Great Britain, that they do not want an Irish Sea border. So don't pretend this is for them.
Their elected representatives in NI were very vocal in their opposition to Brexit, have been very vocal in their demands for continued unrestricted access and continue to be vocal in supporting a backstop that isn't time-limited. So don't pretend you actually care about the opinions and rights of the people of NI.
