If you ever go across the sea to Ireland

If one of the pretenders to 10 Downing St turned up in Wexford, you’d expect that it would be newsworthy, wouldn’t you? You’d think that it would be up there in our media if not page 1 nationally well at least mentioned in dispatches?

In politics, they say timing is everything so perhaps it’s not silly enough for the silly season, but last week we had a visit from Stephen Crabb MP, one time challenger to Theresa May and former UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Last week he traveled to Rosslare Europort to meet with newly appointed Minister for State Michael D’arcy to discuss the future for West Wales and the South East Ireland post Brexit. Mr Crabb is MP for Pembrokeshire which contains Fishguard and Milford Haven, 2 hugely important ports with considerable links to Ireland.  As Britain lurches from shambles to catastrophe over their departure from the EU there is growing concern in West Wales at how trade and jobs will be impacted once Britain leaves in 18 months time.

One might have thought Mr Crabb would have understood better than most the need for timing in politics. You see Mr Crabb is one of the foremost campaigners for Brexit and one might have expected that he would have come here to see the possible impact before he threw his weight behind Farage, Gove and Johnson. Presumably it was his desire to get into No 10 that prioritised his personal ambition over that of his constituents.  Now in the wake of Tory infighting it’s very much a case of every man for himself and he has to be seen as fighting for his local interests.  The reality is that another election in the UK could see the Tories beaten out the door.

And that’s why he set sail from Fishguard last week, following in the grand maritime tradition of Cook, Nelson and Drake. Exploring foreign lands beyond the Tuskar Triangle to see what trinkets he could bring home to astonish the natives. His foreign frolics feature in the Welsh media this week. The concern in Fishguard and Pembroke is that a return of a hard border will see less Irish trucks using the land bridge to Europe given the departure of Britain from the customs union.  The increase in inflation, the strength of the pound and drop in growth forecast for the UK economy into 2018 suggest that personal taxes will increase leaving less to spend. That will mean a reduction in exports to the UK from Ireland but add to that the likely levies applied to Irish goods in Britain and vice versa it makes for grim times ahead both here and across the water.

For all his new found concern in his local economy, Crabb cares little about Wexford and the Irish economy nor for the wider social and economic consequences of Brexit.  Brexit simply sounded good at the time and as a concept explains perfectly how Tory men use narrow nationalism as a vehicle advancement.

During the week I went to see the movie Dunkirk.  Dunkirk was a national humiliation for Britain that fixed Britain’s resolve to undo the disaster of Dunkirk and to ensure the UK could have a role in Europe. In 1940 Britain didn’t know where and didn’t know when but it still knew it had a role to play.

I once had an Uncle, long deceased, who was rescued after 4 days from Dunkirk.  Uncle Monty returned home after World War 2 and stood for the Labour Party in a local election in his home town. Monty eventually became Mayor. As a teenager I remember once being in his home and reading his election literature. What struck me about his leaflet was how he said he’d lived all his life in the town except between 1939 and 1945 when he served his country. He didn’t have to add anything else. That generation understood a sense of wider communal duty to put your community ahead of yourself and serve because someday things can be better. Many in the present generation of UK politicians and indeed in Ireland espouse the exact opposite.

Which brings me back to Mr Crabb. Once firmly en route home to Wales, Minister D’arcy tweeted to him, a tweet which Mr Crabb in turn retweeted.  At some stage Minister D’arcy appears to have had second thoughts about his away day with the Welshman and he deleted his tweet.  

It was that sort of day in Rosslare.