The Back Stop

Let's talk about the Good Friday Agreement. Because that's what the Back Stop is.

It's kinda typical of Tory politicians to invent another name for it. That's called euphemism - a way of wiping out the 21 years since the agreement was signed, not to mention the 30 years of The Troubles (another euphemism) before that.

It's also, I suspect, pretty much to be expected that Tory politicians would display total ignorance about anything to do with Ireland. Take a bow, Dominic Raab who, when he was Brexit Secretary, admitted he hadn't read this international treaty that affected the whole of the UK. Not to mention the insular, petty and ill-informed media. Step forward John Humphries who seems to know so little about history that he would seriously suggest the independent state of Eire should unite with the UK.

This is UK history we're talking about. 20th century UK history. Within the lifetime of a lot of us.

If Brexit has revealed anything to me, it's how little a lot of politicians know - or care - about anywhere outside their own constituencies and the Westminster world they work in. In terms of 'statecraft', these people are an embarrassment. It has also made it clear to me that small, bigoted and not very well-informed political parties like the DUP can be so emboldened by their close links with the Tory government that one of their number would shout 'fuck off' at the elected representative of another party because he represents Scotland and is therefore beneath contempt.

I know both Irish jurisdictions quite well. A lot of Scottish people dot back and forth from our country to theirs and have done for centuries. There are strong family connections. For a lot of Glasgow people, Donegal was always the summer holiday destination. Some still keep the family home there. Myself, I've visited Dublin, Cork, Belfast, Derry, and most of Antrim and Down. Getting off a plane at Belfast City Airport means seeing my family's names everywhere: Copland, Shaw, Dunn, Paton.

I've met a lot of people who came face to face with The Troubles and their stories are harrowing. One academic took us on a walk along Derry's walls and showed us the place where a girl had been shot and killed by a British soldier. He was there when it happened (he was 14) and took off as fast as he could and was so afraid he couldn't go home for hours.

The closest I ever came to The Troubles was at an EU conference on education in a hotel in Newcastle, County Down. Eight jurisdictions were represented and it was felt to be important enough just after the Good Friday Agreement had been signed that Martin McGuinness, then education secretary in the power-sharing government, would attend the last-night dinner.

The fun began hours before the dinner. Delegates were advised it would be a good idea to stay inside the hotel, from where men in black could be seen patrolling the grounds, some of them with sniffer dogs. At the reception before dinner, there was a febrile atmosphere. We went along to the ballroom to see some magnificent young people do a presentation of Irish dancing and congratulated the young people and their parents on a fine performance. But when we went into the diningroom we realised why there was so much tension. As soon as Martin McGuinness took his seat and was introduced, the local Unionist councillors left the room and stood in the corridor until McGuinness had finished speaking. The rest of the meal went off well, if quietly. After dinner, a convoy of cars arrived at the front door of the hotel, Martin McGuinness got in and was whisked away into the night.

That wasn't The Troubles but the aftermath. I thought things had settled well since then, but a car bomb exploded in Derry a couple of weeks ago and the old fear was revived. What if the violence all started up again? Would it affect Scotland? And, my biggest question, why don't these numpties in Westminster realise what they're toying with here? Or do they know and are prepared to write off Northern Ireland and Eire as another sacrifice in order to achieve separation from the EU?