The DUP MP for East Derry GREGORY CAMPBELL says predictions that Brexit would jeopardise the peace process or result in a hard border in Ireland were wildly inaccurate.
2017 was a momentous year in a number of ways. The first full year when we in the UK as a Nation State began to untangle ourselves from the European Union. The year when disenfranchised people across Europe, whether in France, Germany, Netherlands or Austria in huge numbers made choices to vote for far right or reactionary political groupings.
I said on June 24, 2016 after our own EU referendum result became known that we needed to await election results across Europe to see if the political elite there would learn the lesson which had not been learned in either the USA or in the UK. They did not, and they show no signs of so doing, unfortunately millions of European citizens are seeing a choice now between a range of pro establishment parties and others on the radical extremes.
In the UK we were told that House prices would plummet 18% following a vote to leave the EU, House prices have risen. We were told unemployment would rise after the vote, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created and filled.
The mythical concept of a 'hard border' emerged after the referendum. Some of us repeatedly pointed out it wouldn't happen because it couldn't happen, in other words no sane person or Government was going to try and place three hundred checkpoints on all the crossing points between NI and the RoI.
Most shamefully of all the dire predictions, was the one made on Londonderry's Peace Bridge by two former Prime Ministers, Tony Blair and John Major, when they declared that a vote to Leave would jeopardise the Peace Process here in Northern Ireland. This has proven to be as wildly inaccurate as the other 'dire consequences'. The difference with the latter one is that some people would have listened to two veterans of the UK's political establishment and out of fear voted to stay in the EU even though it has been described by the (pro EU) leader of Catalonia as a "club of decadent obsolete countries".
Thankfully both our own Northern Ireland economy and the wider UK economy as a whole has improved since the vote for freedom, and shows every sign of continuing to do so.
Deplorable
We also had in 2017 the deplorable decision by SF to collapse the Northern Ireland Executive. As time passes this is being seen as one of the most short sighted and self defeating decisions taken by SF. People of all backgrounds now suffer as a result of their decision not to go back into Government on an unconditional basis while the DUP received a massive endorsement in June with 300,000 votes and 10 MPs elected.
The completely short sighted nature of SF's decision can be seen when the potential outlook is assessed over the next 15 months. SF have closed down their elected Stormont platform, they have continued to boycott their elected Westminster stage, their elected European role will cease in March 2019 which leaves them with ONE elected avenue only, Dublin.
They have put all their elected eggs in the Republic's basket, and all of this as Gerry Adams prepares to leave the leadership stage. The outgoing SF leadership proved incapable of recognising that they were dealing with a Unionism that doesn't cave in when they make their unreasonable demands, the hope must be that their next leadership will reconcile themselves to that reality in 2018.
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