Part of the Union?
Back after an Easter break spent egg trundling at the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, I turned to today's Daily Telegraph and Gordon Brown's sterling defence of the union Why we must stand up for the union . Before the DUP and UUP take too much heart from having such a staunch ally, they might note that the PM mentions England, Scotland and Wales a few times, but this corner of the UK seems strangely air brushed out of his picture.
On the topic of the union and its citizens, my colleague Ruth McDonald pointed me to a Westminster Early Day Motion from the Islington Labour MP Emily Thornberry taking the former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith to task over his suggestion that Irish citizens resident in Great Britain should lose their right to vote in Westminster elections. Amongst other things, Ms Thornberry castigates Lord Goldsmith for not consulting with representatives of the Irish community or the Irish government Early Day Motion 1204
I looked back at Lord Goldsmith's review, published earlier this month. He makes it clear that he doesn't want to take away the right to vote in Westminster elections from anyone from Northern Ireland who is exercising their right to Irish citizenship under the Good Friday Agreement. Instead he says " it would be necessary to distinguish this group of Irish citizens from others. I have not been able to examine the different practical means of doing this but this would have to be part of further consideration of the issue. My proposal is dependent on finding a satisfactory means of distinguishing the two categories in a way that did not affect the position of those exercising rights under the Good Friday Agreement."
He adds "the restriction of the right to vote in Westminster elections should be phased, so that no person who is already resident or registered to vote in the UK loses the right to vote". Where this would leave, say, our Education Minister Caitriona Ruane, who lives in the Irish Republic but would like to be the MP for South Down, I don't know. Apart from the response from nationalists (Mark Durkan has signed the EDM), I can imagine the Irish government could get exercised on this topic - presumably any move by Westminster to remove the right to vote from Irish citizens would provoke Dublin to review the reciprocal arrangements which allow British citizens to vote in Dail elections.
I'm 
