Two articles from the ‘Belfast Newsletter of Monday, 20th May. 2024.
The following two articles reminded me of the famous response of Lord Nelson to the signal from his commander in chief, Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, to ‘disengage’ during the battle of Copenhagen. Nelson’s response was to say to his flag captain, who had reported the Admiral’s signal, ’You know, Foley, having only one eye it’s my right to be blind sometimes.’ Then he put his telescope to his blind right eye, said, ‘I really do not see the signal,’ and carried on fighting with his own signal, ‘Engage the enemy more closely flying.
His deliberate act of ‘blind disobedience’ to a coward signal, resulted in a most admirable victory.
The present ‘self-inflicted blindness’ of the DUP to that which is plain to everyone else, friend and for — that their arrangement with the British Government to end the Irish Sea border has always been a sham and they have been taken for fools by London! No admirable victory will come of this ‘blindness’. The next election in Ulster I feel may well prove this to be so!
Read the two articles carefully.
Owen Polley: The DUP’s interpretation of the deal over the Irish Sea border is being shown up repeatedly in the most embarrassing ways
It was a week of contrasts last week for the DUP.
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Writing in today’s News Letter, DUP deputy leader Gavin Robinson says his party’s agreement with the government ‘goes further than ever before to undo the damage of the NI Protocol’. He adds: ‘The arrangements we have secured not only restore but safeguard Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and its internal market’ (more…)