BRITISH efforts to create “a cold house” for President Joe Biden during his Belfast visit yesterday have stymied American hopes of using the historic trip to help rebuild the powersharing institutions at Stormont.
Bowing to DUP pressure, the British insisted on a lightning visit by the world’s most powerful leader rather than the major intervention, complete with visits to peaceline communities and meetings with pro-Agreement parties, that the President wanted.
“They have made Northern Ireland a cold house for President Biden,” said a senior civil servant who spoke off the record.
Across the North, there was dismay at the failure to include a mammoth open-air address at Belfast City Hall — similar to that held by President Clinton in his pivotal November 1995 visit.
“There has been an effective cold war between the British and the Americans since President Biden came into office, in the process dumping Boris fan Donald Trump. Joe Biden’s constant referencing of his Irish roots, his warm relations with Sinn Féin, and his trenchant opposition to any deal on Brexit which entailed a return to a hard border have made him persona non grata in London. (British Prime Minister) Rishi Sunak had to invite the US President when it was clear that he wanted to come to Belfast to celebrate this 25th anniversary of the Agreement but there is no love lost between the pair.”
Our source said the Americans have fired off their own salvoes in the ‘cold war’.
“It’s no accident that the British PM and Secretary of State weren’t invited to the keynote address at Ulster University.”
Our Stormont source says the DUP had told the British Prime Minister that they wanted “the most perfunctory of welcomes” to be given to President Biden.
“Needless to say, when the DUP said ‘Jump’, the British asked, ‘How high?’”
Yesterday, former DUP leader Arlene Foster attacked President Biden. “He hates the United Kingdom,” she said.
President Biden's Irish visit continues today with an address to the Oireachtas. Last night, he was feted in Dundalk where he met members of his extended family.
