Unionists completely over-react to Joe Biden’s even-handed remarks

Posted By: March 20, 2021

 

President Joe Biden’s administration has stuck to peace process platitudes on the Good Friday Agreement and explained it cannot take sides on the protocol because both sides, the EU and UK, have agreed to it. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik).

 

Newton Emerson. Irish News. Saturday, March 20, 2021

 

Unionists have badly over-reacted to Joe Biden’s St Patrick’s Day remarks in support of the Good Friday Agreement and the Northern Ireland protocol.

The UUP has accused the US president in strident terms of taking sides on the,  and, thereby, undermining the agreement. The DUP seems equally uncomfortable, although it has been circumspect in public – Arlene Foster shared a smiling first ministers’ video call from Biden and vice-president Kamala Harris.

In reality, the White House has been remarkably diplomatic and even-handed, as has Congress on the same subject. Statements from senior Biden administration officials have stuck religiously to peace process platitudes on the agreement and explained carefully that they cannot be taking sides on the protocol because both sides, the EU and UK, have agreed on it.

This is a far gentler outcome than unionists have any right to expect, on any day let alone St. Patrick’s Day, given recent lobbying in Washington by Dublin, Brussels, and Sinn Féin, plus the dire trans-Atlantic messaging from London and unionism itself. Biden’s record suggests it would not take much more provocation for him to say what he really thinks.