Mary Dejevsky - arsehole of the week

Thanks to The Count for drawing my attention to this. Mary Dejevsky is the chief editorial writer for the Independent and, according to the puff that accompanies her column, is "one of the country’s most respected commentators on Russia, the EU and the US".

"Sell Ulster, and earn a peace bonus" is the title of her offering on Friday. "How much longer must the British Government go on trying to expiate the sins of our fathers and forefathers in Northern Ireland?"

Wow. Here was me thinking it might have something to do with the will of the majority population of the province. Silly old me.

With the Protestant majority in the North smaller than it has ever been and fast-vanishing, assent to unification may anyway be just a matter of time. Would it not be in everyone's interests to hasten it along, and allow Britain to bask in a rare moment of magnanimity?

Just one teensy problem: the Republic of Ireland wouldn't have Northern Ireland as a gift, let alone pay for it. Dejevsky's conclusion is of such breath-taking stupidity that it deserves quoting in full:

It could be objected that if the UK is open to selling or ceding territory, why start with Northern Ireland? Surely it would make sense to deal first with the more acrimonious disputes, such as the Falklands or Gibraltar. But culture and language are far bigger obstacles here than they would be with Ireland and, for London, relinquishing either would be seen as a diplomatic defeat. There is no such difficulty with Northern Ireland, whose transfer to the Republic would make cultural, demographic and geographic sense. At once, the security of Britain and Ireland would be enhanced. The biggest bonus of all, though, would be that relations between Britain and Ireland, as sovereign states, would become normal in a way they have never been in recent times.

I am not the first person to note what an imbecile she is. Last year the diplomat Craig Murray blogged about "the mind-numbingly stupid Mary Dejevsky", concluding with this decidedly undiplomatic summary:

For someone who lectures us on morality, Dejevsky's own seems to be curiously pliable. Besides which, she must have fucked someone at the Independent to be writing there rather than at Mills and Boon, where she belongs.