Maeve McTaggart and Molly Kavanagh explore what the New Year looks to bring in politics – brace yourselves for the roaring ‘20s.
BREXIT… finally (-ish).
Boris Johnson, flanked by his newly-found and Labour-debilitating majority of 80 MPs, has finally received the go ahead to depart – crashing or otherwise – from the European Union on January 31st. While Brexit-induced political limbo will be over, the aftermath seems eternal. 2020 will be the year where Brexit gets ‘done’ only in name, the trade, immigration and diplomatic deals to come will stretch well beyond even next New Years’.
WORLD WAR III
A light-hearted list we have gifted you for 2020, it seems ‘start a war’ was a New Years’ Resolution President Trump wanted to get a headstart on. After ordering a drone strike which assassinated Iran’s General Qasem Soleimani on January 3 and tweeting that Iran “WILL BE HIT VERY FAST AND VERY HARD” if perceived threats to the safety of American citizens continues, Twitter settled on the hashtag ‘World War 3’ to define the first major event of the 2020s… at least we have the memes?
AT SOME POINT, AN IRISH ELECTION
After a no confidence motion against Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy barely failed late last year and another being hinted at against Minister for Health Simon Harris, Fine Gael are most likely cursing themselves at their hopeful promises for an early election in 2020. The Taoiseach, in an invariably tone-deaf stunt this year, was forced to cancel his commemoration plans for the RIC following public black lash about the ‘Black and Tan’ party plans – antagonised further by The Dubliners song which smugly achieved the number 1 spot on the UK and Irish charts in early January. Maybe April, maybe May.. and maybe a harder time for government parties than previously thought.
