Whatever your thoughts on the Drumcree dispute, one thing is for sure: the “Ireland of Equals” myth of a ‘United Ireland’ has been totally demolished. Any notion that a ‘New Ireland’ would accommodate unionist identity and culture has, quite frankly, been obliterated.

What happened to those 70-100k post war? Welcomed back with open arms?

Oh of course max hastings is a self hating Brit.

Just to say that aloud, you want people allowed, or not, to walk down a street in their home country based on religion? Sectarian much.

The WASPI women are going to be apoplectic when they hear about this in 20 years time

Philip Brett did not hold back and every word is true , it's about time unionism opened their eyes , SF are ridiculous been breaking the law for years .

Nationalism has failed multiple tests in this episode, and they'll only realise the strategic damage they've done to a"New Ireland" in the long run. A new Ireland will have a unionist minority, that we're told will be accommodated. The Garvaghy Road could have accommodated 35 men under a strict determination as a way of demonstrating that future accomodation. No. It's been met with hysteria. "It's dragging us back, an afront to 28 years of peace, it's walking on the graves of those who died 1995-1997" - All this from a party who unapologetically relive the history of the actions committed by their terrorist wing on an annual basis. Likewise, we're told that a new Ireland will have equality for all, that the rule of law will apply equally to all. The rule of law today, and the determination of the Parades Commission - that republicans have been ok with for the last 28 years because it's delivered their desired outcome - can now be entirely ignored by republicans because it's doing something they don't want. Once again they're opting out of the society they've helped to create over the last 30 years and showing that when the structures they've agreed, the laws they've previously upheld, the equality they've campaigned for, delivers an outcome they don't like, that favours the other side, they can just opt out and go back into their trenches. I don't think the Drumcree Parade should take place. I have never thought it was a good idea or that the historic route argument is a valid one. But, in this instance the OO and their supports have used entirely legal mechanisms to challenge an incompetent and complacent Parades Commission, and it's led to a legal outcome that we all need to accept if we want to live in a lawlful society where the law applies equally to everyone. I will never support anyone or any group that decides the law only applies when it suits them. Sinn Fein will get an electoral boost from this - which is really all that matters to them for now - but there are many unionists across NI who have had a fear confirmed that they can expect little generosity in a New Ireland when it comes to contentious cultural events.

1.2% of the housing stock is empty for over 6 months Two fifths of these are awaiting probate. Ie it is the government's fault Another two fifths being renovated A fifth actually deliberately left empty A grand 0.25% of housing stock Slow handclap.

I believe in a united Ireland. But it will never happen in my lifetime. An Ireland that can't tolerate 35 lads in hats walking in silence down a road at 8am - in accordance with a lawful court order - cannot be united. Popular hysteria can get stuffed. It gave us lockdowns.

Brendan O’ Neill sums up all the discussion surrounding Israel vs Ireland on Sunday night. Every word. Nailed it. “There is no way to explain this mania and hypocrisy…” 🎯🎯🎯

Under these rules, if you leave YOUR property, that YOU OWN, empty for just six months, the state can *seize it*. This is a horrifying attack on private property rights. Your property belongs to you. This Government is going to steal it if they don't like how you use it.

So… you want the Good Friday Agreement breached? Or can it only be weaponised when it’s SF doing it?

Legalised theft comrades!!

Genuinely staggering that a fairly senior journalist is this moronic

When you realise that comparing pork scratchings to scampi fries doesn’t cut it in world geopolitics.

Because only Britain is self hating enough to even entertain it

Whenever the Irish complain about Britain, which is often, remind them that St Patrick, Ireland’s patron saint, was brought to Ireland as a slave after an Irish raid on Britain. Wales, Devon and Cornwall endured Irish raids for centuries. They aren't as innocent as they claim.

I was a very fortunate kid. My dad's GP surgery sat between the Dell and Hampshire's County Ground, so at weekends I could go to a game and get a lift home afterwards. It left me with a passion for both sports and a belief that sport opens a window onto who we are. When I was growing up, the Tebbit test was a matter of intense debate. Which side did you cheer for at the cricket? For all the criticism it received, it was a test anyone could pass. If you supported England because you saw it as home, you were part of the team regardless of the colour of your skin. Born in Southampton, 10 year old me passed it without even knowing about it. Giving the @MCCOfficial's Cowdrey Lecture on Thursday made me think about cricket's place in our national life and the current arguments about identity. In Britain we've built the world's most successful multi-faith, multi-ethnic democracy. I was a beneficiary of it. Whatever issues people had with me as PM (and there was no shortage) my race and religion weren't among them. I could read a lesson at the King's coronation or light Diwali diyas on Downing Street with my daughters without controversy. Foreign leaders assumed these must be huge symbolic moments. For most Brits, they just weren't that big a deal. But Britain's democratic achievement is now under strain. Some of the challenges are ones I've written about before, like Islamism, and the failure of governments, including the one I led, to adequately control immigration. But something else is going on - a risk that we start equating skin colour with nationality. After I left office, a debate kicked off here on @X about whether I was English at all, because I was a "brown Hindu". During the election campaign I'd been shocked when footage was broadcast of someone calling me a "Paki." It was shocking precisely because it was so unusual. That kind of abuse had simply not been a feature of my political life. But the Englishness argument was stranger still. Call it the reverse Tebbit test. If you're not white, it no longer matters who you support at the cricket, because you can never be English. It's a test no non-white person can ever pass. I have no truck with people who offend our sense of fairness and come here illegally; I spent half my premiership trying to deport them to Rwanda. I think the bar for legal migration should be high. It is entirely possible to want a radical reduction in immigration and a far more robust approach to integration, and still totally reject the attempt to turn Britishness into a DNA test. If you're born and brought up in England and view it as home, what are you other than English? Denying people their Englishness or their Britishness because of the colour of their skin is a recipe for alienation and a two-tier society. How are children who hear this meant to feel? Sport can play a small but significant role here. Cricket is played by nearly every major ethnic group in this country. Ask what my largely white rural constituents in the Dales and the British-Asian kids in Bradford have in common, and the answer is cricket. If cricket can produce England teams in which every kid can see themselves, the impact reaches far beyond the boundary. As I write in @thetimes today, we must all be on the same side, cheering for the same team. We cannot allow race to be reintroduced into our politics. We cannot allow Briton to be set against Briton.