Brexit is entering some make-or-break weeks. The contentious issue of the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is coming due.
Movement on all things Brexit -- be it the internal machinations of British Prime Minister Theresa May's government or direct talks with the European Union -- has been glacial.
Agreements arrive incrementally, often accompanied -- to quote Matthew 13:42 -- amid much "wailing and gnashing of teeth" to the point that many of us want to close our ears until the next phase of Brexit is done with.
But to do so this week would have meant missing some of Britain's constitutional crockery being banged around by those who should know better.
Some hardline Brexiteers on both sides of the House of Commons have been undermining Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement (also known as the Belfast Agreement), calling it "unsustainable".
The agreement has survived the tumult of 20 years of provincial point scoring. It ended 30 years of bloodletting. But now some appear prepared to see it sacrificed at the altar of a so-called hard Brexit.
The pressure on May is mounting when members of her own party are ready to call Northern Ireland's peace process dead.
She came to office under a cloud of rampant Scottish nationalism that was threatening to end a union that has lasted more than 300 years.
Direct from meeting the Queen, before even setting foot inside 10 Downing Street, she told the country she would not countenance Britain's breakup. < "The full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party, and that word unionist is very important to me.
It means we believe in the union -- the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."
Whether she can keep the union together will depend on her ability to pull her hardliners back from the brink of scuttling the Good Friday Agreement, and convincing the DUP that a marginally looser union might be the only one that can survive Brexit.
Read more: Why Brexit risks ending the United Kingdom as we know it - CNN
Movement on all things Brexit -- be it the internal machinations of British Prime Minister Theresa May's government or direct talks with the European Union -- has been glacial.
Agreements arrive incrementally, often accompanied -- to quote Matthew 13:42 -- amid much "wailing and gnashing of teeth" to the point that many of us want to close our ears until the next phase of Brexit is done with.
But to do so this week would have meant missing some of Britain's constitutional crockery being banged around by those who should know better.
Some hardline Brexiteers on both sides of the House of Commons have been undermining Northern Ireland's Good Friday Agreement (also known as the Belfast Agreement), calling it "unsustainable".
The agreement has survived the tumult of 20 years of provincial point scoring. It ended 30 years of bloodletting. But now some appear prepared to see it sacrificed at the altar of a so-called hard Brexit.
The pressure on May is mounting when members of her own party are ready to call Northern Ireland's peace process dead.
She came to office under a cloud of rampant Scottish nationalism that was threatening to end a union that has lasted more than 300 years.
Direct from meeting the Queen, before even setting foot inside 10 Downing Street, she told the country she would not countenance Britain's breakup. < "The full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party, and that word unionist is very important to me.
It means we believe in the union -- the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland."
Whether she can keep the union together will depend on her ability to pull her hardliners back from the brink of scuttling the Good Friday Agreement, and convincing the DUP that a marginally looser union might be the only one that can survive Brexit.
Read more: Why Brexit risks ending the United Kingdom as we know it - CNN
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