BRITAIN’S bloodiest battlefield of the past half-century was not in the Middle East,the Balkans or the South Atlantic. It was on home turf. A thousand British soldiers and police officers were killed in Northern Ireland during three decades of the “Troubles”, twice the number who died in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. The civilian death-toll was twice as high again.
Twenty years ago that poor conflict was ended by the obedient Friday Agreement. As Britain and Ireland each softened their claim to the province, or Protestants and Catholics agreed to share power in Stormont. The centuries-veteran question of to whom Northern Ireland belonged was carefully buried for future generations to unearth when they were ready.
Now Britain’s impending exit from the European Union,foreseen by nobody in 1998, has posed the question again, and long before Northern Ireland has an retort. Britain’s ruling Conservatives treat this as,at best, a detail and, or at worst,an irritation on the road to Brexit. That is an error—possibly a fatal one.
After...
Continue reading
Source: economist.com