Britain : A Westminster Member of Parliament leaves the Tory party and joins the far-right Reform outfit :

“Conservative MP Danny Kruger has defected to Reform UK, the first time a sitting Tory has joined the rightwing populist party led by Nigel Farage. The defection means Reform now has five MPs in parliament and is a big blow to Kemi Badenoch, Conservative leader, ahead of her party conference next month…..

With Reform leading UK opinion polls since the spring, Kruger’s defection will give further credibility to the party, as will his withering departing words aimed at the Tories. “The rule of our time in office was failure,” Kruger said at a press conference in London. “Bigger government, social decline, lower wages, higher taxes and less of what ordinary people actually wanted.” He added: “The Conservative party is over, over as a national party, over as the principal opposition to the left. “The flame is passing from one torch to another. The new torch is already alight, already brighter than the one it is replacing, held aloft in firm and confident hands.” – Financial Times Report.

These developments, which will continue, are encouraging the far-right in the 26 and 6 county bits of Ireland.
The Reform party leader Nigel Farage is already threatening to alter the Good Friday Agreement, and make it worse :

Speaking yesterday, Mr Farage said he wanted to remove human rights law from the peace accord to make it easier to deport illegal migrants.

Reform has signalled that if it gets into power in Britain the party will leave the European Convention on
Human Rights (ECHR), repeal the Human Rights Act and pass the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.

The ECHR is incorporated into the 1998 Northern Ireland Act, which codified the Good Friday Agreement into law.

Mr Farage said that as prime minister he would, in time, be able to renegotiate the agreement.

“We are not far away from major civil disorder,” he told a press conference.

Source, John Manley, Irish News August 27 2025

The Fermanagh and Omagh District Council adopted a progressive policy in 2022 which is an excellent start :

Despite Common Travel Area “There is an Invisible Hard Border in Ireland That leads to Racial Discrimination”

Council Meeting – 5th July 2022

Fermanagh & Omagh District Council notes that the Common Travel Area (CTA) enables free
movement within the island of Ireland. However, it excludes people of other nationalities, in
particular citizens of countries in Africa, Asia, and South America.

This Council further notes that persons who lawfully reside and have made their homes on both
sides of the border on the island of Ireland are prevented from fully living their lives here.

Council recognises that there is effectively an invisible hard border that leads to racial discrimination
stopping particular people from living fluid cross border lives.

We welcome and endorse the following key actions proposed by the North West Migrants Forum,
Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) and other partner organisations that the Dublin
government should take to assist residents of the North of Ireland seeking to travel into the Republic
of Ireland:

• All lawful residents in the North can cross the land border as visitors without prior
  permission.
• Stopping racial profiling including ending all selective passport controls on the land border.
• Restore the pre-2004 birth right to Irish citizenship and open a path through residence on
  the island.
• Ensure essential cross-border services are open to all.

This Council further resolves to write to the following to indicate its endorsement of this motion:

• the Shared Ireland Unit within the Department of the Taoiseach
• the Minister for Justice (Minister McEntee)
• the Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
  (Fergus O’Dowd TD).

Proposed by: Cllr. McAleer (Independent), Seconded by: Cllr. Ó Cofaigh (Cross-Community Labour)

Link :
Common Travel Area – Fermanagh and Omagh District Council Policy

A British Trade union BECTU (Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union, a sector of the larger trade union Prospect) also has a good policy :

The BECTU trade union conference has voted to lobby against racial profiling by the authorities at Northern Ireland’s borders.

The conference unanimously passed a motion which hits out at discrimination against people of colour when travelling to and from Northern Ireland.

The conference noted that:

• Cross border buses from Belfast to Dublin are being routinely boarded by officials in the Republic of Ireland and passengers subjected to a documents check, removed from the bus arbitrarily by the police and immigration forces and held despite there being a Common Travel Area, under the auspices of ‘Operation Gull’.

Black people and people of colour are now routinely carrying documentation on cross border journeys in fear where white people do not, as white people pass the ‘visual test’ of looking Irish, and where lack of any documentation is not an issue.

• Upon entering Northern Ireland airports, even on internal United Kingdom flights, police ‘stop and checks’ are concentrated on those who do not look Northern Irish i.e. black people or people of colour.

• Passengers using cross Irish channel ferry services are being routinely racially profiled with black people and people of colour being subjected to undue questioning and scrutiny.

There is one case of a black UK lawyer who was living in Northern Ireland, Jules Gnezekora being singled out for questioning in an all-white queue four times in one ferry journey between Belfast and Glasgow.

• Racial profiling within the CTA is a workers’ issue and a human rights issue. Conference therefore instructs the BECTU SEC to campaign and lobby both the UK Government and its Republic of Ireland counterpart on the issue of the use of ‘Operation Gull’, its continued misuse and the creation of a ‘hostile environment’ in Northern Ireland and around its borders both in the UK and in Republic of Ireland.

Link :

BECTU Trade Union Opposes Racial Profiling at Six County Borders

All the left in Ireland must oppose immigration controls and threats to free travel between the two partitioned states. People moving between both sides of the Irish border are already targeted by cops illegally demanding to see passports. Common Travel must operate for all. Racial profiling must be halted.

Hopefully the Catherine Connolly for President Campaign will adopt these policies.

John Meehan October 15 2025