Repellent right-winger Priti Patel wants to start another Irish famine – for petty political reasons
Smug bully: Priti Patel.
Was there ever anyone uglier than Priti Patel?
This woman – who was forced to resign from a Cabinet post because she was trying to run her own foreign policy, independent of the government – has suggested blackmailing Ireland with the threat of food shortages if the EU doesn’t drop its demand for a border “backstop” position; a guarantee that there will be no hard border on the island of Ireland.
A government report has suggested that the economic impact on Ireland could be worse than in the UK if there is a no-deal Brexit, meaning there could be food shortages in that country reminiscent of the famine in the 1840s that killed a million Irish people.
More than half the food that goes to Ireland is exported from the UK. According to the government’s report, a no-deal Brexit would hit Ireland harder than the UK, with a seven per cent drop in GDP for the republic compared with a five per cent fall in the UK.
The Times has reported that Ms Patel said these warnings should have been used to “encourage” (read: blackmail) Ireland to drop the demand for a border backstop.
She has since claimed that her comments have been “taken out of context” (although it is hard to see how).
Condemnation has been – as far as I can tell – universal:
This kind of comment from MPs like Priti Patel demonstrate not only profound ignorance of and insensitivity about our history but also reckless indifference to the impact on relations today.
Truly grim. https://t.co/WJkJL3B9At
— Naomi Long MLA (@naomi_long) December 7, 2018
The insensitivity of these people is breath taking. Do they know nothing of their history? https://t.co/kuUDCJlZWe
— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) December 7, 2018
I don’t care if I appear weak, but I‘m crying. I’m done. Brexit has been a hard road as an Irish citizen. Who on earth are these people? What disdain do they have for us? Calling to starve the Irish to solve the Border? For the first time, I want to leave. https://t.co/8zH1CYnroB
— Dr. Jennifer Cassidy (@OxfordDiplomat) December 7, 2018
Tanaiste Simon Coveney's spokesperson has described Conservative MP Priti Patel's claims Ireland should face food shortages unless backstop is removed as "ridiculous", while Sinn Fein Mary Lou McDonald has said she may buy Ms Patel a history book on the famine. #iestaff #brexit
— Irish Examiner (@irishexaminer) December 7, 2018
tory MPs going round the country spreading scare stories Priti Patel pushing for a #foodwar on Ireland, are these MPs mad, do they think the British People are stupid or Ireland will give in to Blackmail.. How sick are the @conservatives
— Isobel_Waby we NEED a COALITION (@Isobel_waby) December 7, 2018
Priti Patel, slithering up the Who's The Biggest Tory Scumbag league table.
— Matt Thomas (@Trickyjabs) December 7, 2018
Between 1845-1850 it is estimated that 1 million Irish people died of British induced famine & another 1 million were forced to emigrate. Tories really are a disgusting crew! https://t.co/Y7aRMFAdfu
— Bill Cruickshank (@BjCruickshank) December 7, 2018
Worse still, it seems the government report was inaccurate about whose imports would be harmed the most:
https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1071143605673361408
That’s right – starving Ireland would starve the UK too.
But that’s of no importance to smug-faced Ms Patel.
She’s not interested in facts, which is why there would be no point in explaining the 19th century Irish famine, and the effect on it of the Tory government of the time, to her.
She doesn’t care if people suffer because she knows she won’t be one of them.
She just saw a chance to bully other people and took it, because that’s what she likes to do. She really is that small-minded and mean-spirited.
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I fail to see the point you are trying to make, the public have wanted to know the impact assessments of the various scenarios, Patel has actually rightly pointed out how the Eu demands could adversley affect Ireland, and you are pretending she wants that. I don’t like her, I don’t like her party or it’s policies, but to give an accurate assement of the damage the Eu would inflict on Ireland if it gets its way is surely something we should know about.
That is absolutely not what she was doing and I think you know it.
You only need to browse this Independent article – https://tinyurl.com/y9pw3jhe to see the true face of right wing Conservatism.
Churchill had no issue with deliberately starving 3-4 million Bengalis to death just to make a political point saying “I hate Indians” and “They breed like rabbits anyway”.
How little their self-centred attitudes have changed since 1943.
Oro, Oro….
If there is just one useful thing of mutual benefit to emerge, this far, from the tragedy of the ongoing ‘Brexit shambles’ it might be the glaring exposure of the degree of utter ignorance, deceit, selfishness, vindictiveness and hate that continually bubbles up from the underlying rot that festers in our political and cultural heritage, nurtured and passed on from generation to generation ensuring our imprisonment in the eternal dark- ages. We could learn so much from all of this and move ‘forward’: if only we could!