Brexit Speech: Theresa May Not

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Stormont is in crisis, in case you hadn’t heard.

Following the Secretary of State’s announcement yesterday that a Northern Ireland election will take place on 2 March 2017, today it was Prime Minister Theresa May’s turn to take to the stage for her Brexit speech.

Watching and listening along with many others to the government’s views on the single market, customs, and migration, I couldn’t help but notice one thing in particular: “A Global Britain”.

Never underestimate the power of language. In terms of building trust, words are as important in the original stages as the subsequent actions.

In any speech, we must examine not only its message, but also the language used to deliver that message.

In her third key point on the United Kingdom’s plans for leaving the EU, the Prime Minister spoke of “strengthening the Union”.

“Foreign affairs are of course the responsibility of the UK Government, and in dealing with them we act in the interests of all parts of the United Kingdom. As Prime Minister, I take that responsibility seriously.

“I have also been determined from the start that the devolved administrations should be fully engaged in this process,” she said.

“We won’t agree on everything, but I look forward to working with the administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to deliver a Brexit that works for the whole of the United Kingdom.”

Quite clearly, this suggests a move to promote a more unified United Kingdom, opposing Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s agreement with the BBC that another vote on independence was now “all but inevitable”.

Theresa may state that the government wants to promote a more cohesive United Kingdom, but the language used suggests that Theresa may not.

The one thing that stood out to me throughout the PM’s speech was the glaring use of the word “Britain”. On closer inspection, I found 89 mentions of “Britain,” 13 mentions of the “UK,” and 10 mentions of the “United Kingdom.”

And the very last word of the speech? Yep, you guessed it: Britain.

And let’s not debate again the misleading construct that is the word “Brexit”. You can read more about that here.

It is a real shame that after months of talks and negotiations behind closed doors, the government is still determined on undermining its own message of unity, not to mention the views of 3% of the UK’s population at 1.8 million people.

Perhaps the recent unraveling of the NI Executive and power sharing makes our voice largely an irrelevance, or maybe it always has been.

What does it say if even Theresa May, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, doesn’t seem convinced by her very own message?

I hope we never find out.

For now, we the people of Northern Ireland, at home and abroad, must take our future into our own hands and exercise each and every one of our rights to vote.

Our voice is already muted; we must not allow it to be silenced.