Letters to the Editor: 'Varadkar’s bluff over the Border may soon be exposed'

An Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar

Letters to the Editor

June 26 2019 02:30 AM

In 1345 plague struck a Mongol army besieging the Crimean city of Caffa, and to share their misery with their enemies they started to catapult infected corpses over the walls.

Now there are rumours that in their frustration over the Brexit logjam, centred on the ‘Irish backstop’, the UK government is secretly planning to set up batteries of trebuchets to hurl US-style ‘chlorinated chickens’ over the coming ‘hard Border’ into the sacred territory of the Republic.

This will cause great alarm in Brussels, because just as the Black Death then spread out from Caffa across the whole of Europe, so too will those toxic chickens eventually pollute the whole of the EU single market in the opposite direction, even unto the shores of the Black Sea.

And if you believe any of that nonsense then presumably you will also believe the utter nonsense about the land border which has emanated from the Irish Government of Leo Varadkar for the past two years.

Utter nonsense which the UK government of Theresa May could have easily exposed, but preferred to leave unchallenged as a useful pretext for giving business lobby groups such as the CBI much of what they were demanding. Now it seems that the chickens, chlorinated or not, may be coming home to roost for both parties to that collusion.

Dr D R Cooper

Berkshire, England

We must hold Government to account over climate plans

We must assume the Government had an achievable goal in mind when it rolled out the Climate Action Plan so soon after announcing the climate emergency. The onus is now on the Government to clearly spell out the time-frame needed and the environmental conditions that must be met in order to lift the climate emergency status.

The Irish people who are obliged to bear the cost and burden of these climate action plans have every right to periodically scrutinise their success or failure. Perhaps we would not have been given the rash and flawed advice on diesel fuel if the action plans of our public representatives were continually held to account.

Ruairi Weldon

Kimmage, Dublin 12

Surge for the Greens was a protest by fed-up electorate

I would argue that the result in the recent elections was not a mandate for the Greens; it was a protest vote, from an electorate completely disillusioned with mainstream politics. Our governments rush to implement a new raft of indirect taxes. It all adds up to show how far they are removed from reality, I have no doubt the next election will test our love of climate change.

R Matthews

Sussex Road, Dublin

Zimbabwe after Mugabe is starting to look even worse

Zimbabwe is endowed with abundant natural resources that include rich mineral deposits, wildlife, arable lands, forests and surface and groundwater resources.

However, the country is facing multiple economic, political and social challenges.

The country has also grave human rights issues that is blocking investors from investing, particularly the dilated and rotten judicial system. People hoped for a better Zimbabwe after the long-awaited departure of Mugabe but the reality is that worse days than the Mugabe era are on the horizon as the current government is showing signs of failure to take the country out of the dead woods.

Joyce Mutengezanwa

London, England

Trump must act with caution in his handling of Iran crisis

The decision of the president of the United States at the 11th hour to defer military air strikes in Iran is to be welcomed. The notion that the United States, a country with a fraught history in the Middle East, was prepared to both embark on a war and kill 150 Iranian civilians, due to the destruction of an unmanned drone over international waters, proves the hawkish nature of those in the Joint Chiefs and some within the Trump administration, in particular Mr Bolton and Secretary Pompeo. It proves that while Steve Bannon may no longer be in the White House, his ghost still whispers in the ears of those closest to the president.

If the US intends to pursue military action in the region, it should obtain a United Nations resolution to do so, which would ensure the support of its allies. However, the aim first and foremost should be to ensure that Iran, a country controlled by an anti-Western and unpredictable theocratic system, should not obtain a nuclear weapon. The agreement, known as the JCPOA, which President Trump bombastically withdrew from last year, did ensure that. Let us proceed with caution.

Jude Perry

Ballymote, Co Sligo