Tories have done a deal with the DUP. And it only cost 1 billion.

[gluteustothemaximus]

What a bargain.

Hmmm. What shall I do to pass all these shitty laws? I know, I need a majority! Let's have an election so I can get a stronger mandate!

Oh shit, I lost my majority. Don't worry, I can link up with the DUP!

Yay for democracy.

So there IS a magic money tree!

How is this allowed? That's what I don't get?

It's bribery surely? Plain as day.

Yep

So cash for questions is a no no,
but writing a cheque to the DUP for 1 billion in order to get them to make up seats is ok?
I don't get it.

Thank you Rufus. I am indeed very angry. The DUP have already been very clear in their opinion of the GFA via their statements around the implementation of an Irish Language Act. They didn't sign the GFA so they don't have to abide by it. Now that they have Teresa May at their mercy, God only knows what other bits they'll decide don't have to follow.

No LaMonster I am not thick. I understand that violence doesn't begin with gunshots. It begins when people are angry, don't have support from their government and take matters into their own hands.

Look at East Belfast around flags - the DUP MP for the area, Emma Pengelly has continues to support paramilitary flags being flown in mixed areas and as a result people have been holding protests. It doesn't take much for these things to spiral into violence.

Stop calling other posters thick. That's a personal attack and against talk guidelines.

Violence on her streets ffs. A cursory google will show the SF response.
No one wants a return to violence, including Sinn Fein. You know that right?
And did you hear this part of Gerry Adam's statement:

If as they claim in today’s agreement, both the Tories and the DUP will fully adhere fully to the Good Friday Agreement and its successors, they need to deliver on this for the political institutions can be restored.

“So there is work to be done by the DUP and only limited time to do this. As they return to Ireland to meet with Sinn Féin and the other parties, the DUP should be minded of the words of Edward Carson speaking in 1921 on the Tory intrigues that had led him on a course that would partition Ireland: ‘What a fool I was. I was only a puppet, and so was Ulster, and so was Ireland, in that political game that was to get the Conservative party into power’.”

The immediate hurdle to the GFA is if the DUP go back into the negotiations on power sharing feeling and acting like they're in a greater position of strength than SF, or if Brokenshire shows them favour. The second is probably Orange Order marches.

Let's cross our fingers that every hurdle is cleared... there are a bloody lot of them though.

Theresa May must have rocks in her head or the people who advised her to do this deal have done it to give her enough rope to commit political suicide.
Surely there must be some way to legitimately challenge/fight this deal.
Martin McGuiness & maybe Ian Paisley must be turning in their graves.
And before anyone calls me a loony leftie, I always voted Tory until after the country was shafted by Cameron & Osbourne.
I'm now proud to vote Labour (though did prefer Ed to Jeremy.)

Isnt Emma M.P for Belfast South ?

I will apologise for saying Emma Pengelly is the MP for East. It's actually South Belfast. She has received paramilitary endorsement and has defended UVF flags being flown in mixed areas which has led to protests.

However, I fully stand by everything else I have said. I think the anger from both of us demonstrates my point further. We are all, on both sides, disgusted and and annoyed at the current status quo. At the minute it is bubbling under the surface, behind closed doors and on anonymous forums but that anger will inevitably spill over into the streets if our politicians continue to refuse to engage on a basis of equality and fairness for EVERYONE. not just their side of the community.

LaMonster

You lowered the tone on this thread by starting the name calling - no surprise really, then, to learn that you work 'in government' in the north of Ireland.

Oh, and you can only debate at the level of name calling, but it's the rest of us who don't know what we're talking about? Okay...

And it hasn't escaped anyone's notice, I'm sure, that the poster who identified as being in a same-sex, mixed-religion marriage was then subject to a personal attack.

Yes Somerville that did not escape my attention either.

I'm disappointed it's not more, but still, widely invested, it will be a big help. I can only speak for the education sector, but here budgets have been cut over the past decade and there have been redundancies in every school I know. Some schools are practically on their knees. Hospitals have the longest waiting lists in the UK - people are waiting five years for a hip and knee operation.

*wisely

I despair of this government. I have no confidence they can organise anything, let alone negotiate Brexit in anything even approaching a competent manner.

Leaving that to one side, this whole shoddy deal with the DUP just shows how utterly hypocritical the Tories are and that they will do ANYTHING to hold on to power - including potentially putting the Good Friday Agreement in jeopardy. How can they possibly be seen as "independent" when it comes to talks re Stormonst/the NI assembly when they are relying on the DUP to prop up their minority government? It's laughable to even suggest they could still say they are in any way independent.

Add in to that the absolute irony of the Tories position on the DUP when you consider that during the election campaign for the election before this one the Tories made a huge fuss over even the smallest suggestion of a possibility of a coalition/confidence and supply agreement between Labour and SNP. They said this was "dangerous" and "unacceptable" because we couldn't "have one small party dictating to the rest of the UK" or "the SNP holding the rest of the country to ransom"...... But when it comes to propping their own minority government up, well that's totally different isn't it? Utter hypocrites!

I think we all got called thick before lomontser started...

I understand that people are angry there is a lack of equality and poor provision for women, but that doesn't mean a return to violence, and I think it's disingenuous and damaging to keep parroting inflammatory rhetoric.

The situation in Northern Ireland is unique in a way it isn't in Scotland and wales. I also don't see how increased spending is bad for NI in anyway, or for the north of the island of Ireland if that is your preference.

who has the energy for a civil war? If there is a return to violence it will be because of the choice of a few thickos, not because it's the will of the people as a whole. I've never had any difficulty with any community and I probably had more reason than most to be angry.

Oops

The mask slips.

Yes this deal has not caused increased tensions at all, clearly

I apologise Sycamore. It was a loaded and offensive statement I made earlier.

I really wish I could be as positive about the future as yourself. Do you really not think this deal/Brexit is going to drag us all back?

For the EU to properly split, there is either going to be a border (hard or soft) to the Republic which will anger the nationalists or possibly an official border to England, Scotland and Wales which will anger the unionist community. Do you really think it will be a peaceful implementation?

Seeing as the tories had no manifesto to speak of, and spent the entire campaign saying that a supply and confidence arrangement between Labour and the SNP was bad for Britain, and that because Corbyn didnt make a loud phone call through a moment of silence for all victims of violence in the north of Ireland, he was a terrorist sympathiser, this is surely the u turn to end all u turns.

I'm all for extra spending in the north, but I object to being told that there is none one minute, and then suddenly finding a billion available. The rhetoric around spending has been very nasty, with anyone who has said we need to spend more on public services being called stupid, fantasists, and a lot worse. I was bloody sick of hearing about the magical money tree like it was a playground tiff, not an argument about different economic theories.

Fuckers

As Professor Bew has pointed out, the British government has never been a 'neutral broker' in NI. Many are saying this will undermine their credibility in the peace process. But the UK government has always taken a Unionist stance. As the Irish government has always taken a nationalist stance. The idea of both being neutral is not in the GFA.

Sinn Fein won't stop this deal. Their voters will benefit from this too. And their modus operandi has always been to squeeze the British taxpayer anyway.