Horrified by the prospect of a deal with the DUP

Copied and pasted from a legal newsletter I receive. This is exactly the sort of area that co-operation with the DUP will affect. As if it's not a bad enough situation already:

The Supreme Court will rule next week on a challenge to the Secretary of State for Health over his failure to make abortion available on the NHS in England to women from Northern Ireland.

Judgment in R (on the application of A and B) (Appellants) v Secretary of State for Health (Respondent) will be handed down on Wednesday 14 June at 9.45am.

The issues in this case are:
Was the Secretary of State for Health's failure to exercise his power to require that abortion services be provided through the NHS in England to women ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland unlawful, in that he failed to discharge his duty under s.3 of the NHS Act 2006 to "take such steps as he considers necessary to meet all reasonable requirements" for services?

Does the continuing failure to provide abortion services free of charge in England to women ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland infringe art.14 and art.8 of the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR)?
In 2012, A, a young woman of 15 resident in Northern Ireland, fell pregnant. In order to obtain an abortion, she used the services of a private clinic in England with B, her mother (and her litigation friend in these proceedings), at a total cost of £900 (including travel).

She did so because she reasonably believed that abortion services would not be available to her in Northern Ireland or through the NHS in England because she was ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland. The Abortion Act 1967, which liberalised the law of abortion, does not extend to Northern Ireland.

It would be within the power of the Secretary of State to make greater provision for abortion services to be provided to women from Northern Ireland through the NHS in England but, save in exceptional cases, he had not exercised that power at the material time and has not done so since. A brought proceedings for judicial review.

She contended that the failure to exercise the Secretary of State's power and the continuation of the exclusionary policy applicable (inter alia) to women ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland was unlawful. The claim was dismissed and the Court of Appeal dismissed the appeal.

Yes Lass, but ANY kind of deal is going to cause massive problems with the GFA because it will alter the balance of power and end the pretence of Westminster's impartiality on which the power sharing devolved government and GFA are predicated.

The power sharing govt in NI is presently suspended because Arlene Foster is heavily implicated in the cash for energy corruption scandal and SF quite reasonably want her to step down as leader of the DUP during the investigation. Westminster is supposed to be brokering a deal between the two major parties on this, but now that the Conservatives need the DUP vote in order to be able to function, it will inevitably tilt the bias toward the DUP position.

If this carries on the question of hard or soft borders may well be moot due to their being a real probability of a united Ireland which remains in the EU in it's entirety.

Posted by PigletwasPoohsFriend on one of the other threads.

There will be no debate

It has beenabled confirmed that There is no coalition and there is no formal agreement.

It will be a 'supply and confidence' which is virtually as it is now as that is how they tend to vote.

Election 2017: No 10 confirms principles of deal between Tories and DUP – live

www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/jun/10/general-election-2017-theresa-may-team-dup-live?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Copy_to_clipboard

www.google.co.uk/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/40236152

Just going to put this here...

www.thejournal.ie/sammy-wilson-breastfeeding-2890822-Jul2016/

Carolinesbeanies

I've campaigned for abortion rights for NI women, I have given practical support to NI women seeking abortion over here, I got into it because my good friend (and feminist activist) is from Derry and is part of a group that has been campaigning for years.

I would have thought your tone deaf response to nyancat would have given you pause to look into things before continuing to spout nonsense.

Don't know if you saw this on twitter nyancat but someone described the DUP manifesto as the Bible with fortnightly bin collections. I haven't read it but that pretty much tallies with your experience.

There already is a feminist task force in NI. Again, if you knew anything about the situation there, you'd know that.

This isn't about officious intervention in NI. You're banging the wrong drum.

I gather the task force is gathering, if this is correct.......

Shall we send in a feminist task force?

Oh, don't be bloody ridiculous.

Also, try and educate yourself a bit, women and LGB groups in NI have been begging Westminster to do something about their lack of the rights guaranteed in British law for a while now, and a lot of us are far from suddenly interested unlike you, obviously, because if you had even the most passing understanding of the issues, you'd know about that. The only person who has suggested that NI are not able to govern themselves is you, and you should own that.

I'd also like to point to to the internet for a definition of "in bed with" in this context, because you've failed to comprehend that as well.

"What people are horrified about is that, in getting into bed with a party that holds those views"

Weve always 'been in bed' with them. The only reason we're not 'in bed' with the SInn Fein, is their abstention from Westminster (however their position on this issue is almost identical to the DUPs).

I agree that Id be mightily pissed off that suddenly, the people of mainland UK are not only suddenly interested, but banging drums about doing something about it.

Perhaps the suggestion now is, the NI people arent able to govern themselves and need guidance from the moral majority police overseeing westminster? The OP seems to think so. Shall we send in a feminist task force?

But how on earth would a soft border continue to work? There would have to be a hard border somewhere? Ireland wouldn't agree to that would they? It's all just madness.

I like to find something positive.

Ian Paisley snr would have been overjoyed.

As far as I've read, the DUP want a soft border. Purely because anything else would lead to a massive rise in support for a unified Ireland which is exactly what they don't want. In every other respect, their opinions and morals are utterly horrific.

but surely even the DUP understands how disastrous a hard border would be?

From the little I read yesterday they want a soft Brexit and a soft border. They won't want a result which strengthens support for a united Ireland.

Irish passport holders have been able to travel to the UK to live and work since the creation of the free state in the 1920's. Someone from say China wouldn't be able to come to Ireland and then cross into Britain and legally work without getting a visa to work in Britain.

As far as I read at the time of brexit the DUP were pro brexit but with open borders, and free market access.
I'm not really sure what that means in reality but although NI brexit voting was roughly along nationalist/unionist lines I believe there was no real support for "hard brexit" and nobody wants a hard border with the RoI.

Yes -you wonder how that will sit with the Whole ' closing our borders, keeping people out,' rhetoric of borisJohnson-- the brexiters.

In theory you can fly to Dublin and easily enter the UK right now and people in Ireland obviously cross the border for work etc

The DUP don't want a hard border tho do they?

This thread is worrying: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2951063-So-it-begins-Owen-Paterson-suggests-reducing-abortion-limit-to-get-DUP-support

Given that SF won all the border constituencies, I have no idea, but surely even the DUP understands how disastrous a hard border would be?

I'm interested in what this deal with the DUP means for Brexit and the border with the Republic

I think it's a good thing if it raises awareness of the shite political situation in northern Ireland. As Nyancat says- voting in ni has damn all to do with policy. Choice it very limited, and if you want to keep "themuns" out then you have to vote for te biggest protestant or Catholic party. Mainstream parties don't feature at all - there is no choice

I also think that a lot of people on the mainland had been fooled into thinking that, because of the GFA, the militia had disbanded and everything was ok in NI. Maybe shining some daylight onto the Byzantine and sectarian workings of NI politics won't be a bad outcome for the women and LGB community there?

Its this sort of demand for interferance (sic) from Westminster, that will cause absolute chaos. Leave the NI people with their right to decide.

Nobody has said that people in NI are not allowed to vote for whichever batshit new earth creationist takes their fancy, or that they can't vote for a party who wants the GFA torn up or even that they have to offer women the same level of healthcare as other women in the UK, while still collecting their NI contributions.

What people are horrified about is that, in getting into bed with a party that holds those views, May appears to be legitimising them and giving them credence, which must be very disappointing for NI women and LGB folk.

The law in NI mirrors quite closely the law in the ROI. Its something they feel strongly about and have the right to decide themselves.

And when the 8th is repealed in RoI, what then? Far more people in RoI are pro-choice than anti now, same sex marriage is legal in RoI and while things are still far from perfect in RoI for LGB people, it's a lot lot better there than in NI right now.

What is quite interesting though Caroline, is the depths to which the Tories are prepared to stoop to shore up their crumbling power base. The whole of the smear campaign of the Labour leadership was about their links to paramilitary terrorists in NI, and yet all that is forgotten when May needs to get into bed with politicians who have simply been allowed to obfuscate their links to gun runners and paramilitary terrorists, because they were useful to the British during the Troubles and who have been implicated in a serious corruption scandal in NI.

My hope is young people will save us again. When I heard I was appalled but not surprised I know who the DUP are and know the Tories have done deals with therm before.

I hope, I really hope when all these young voters realise exactly what the DUP stand for the Tories will be swamped with even more revulsion.

I just would like to know what deal DUP went for. In fairness I don't think, beyond the ethics of it, it will have any impact in GB but for NI, they may have used their leverage with May to reinforce their position on samesex marriage, abortion, etc. In NI. This would greatly impact the rights of people here for years to come. Hopefully they just went for money, though probably that would still be used to line the pockets of DUP cronies. Time will tell.