A play set during the Troubles brings home the monstrosity of a few English politicians| Rowan Moore
The Windsor framework offers hope for Northern Ireland, yet some, such as Boris Johnson, played with peace and voted against it
It was possible to hope, last Wednesday afternoon, that the toxic idiocy of British politics might recede a little. Even as Boris Johnson spaffed truth and common sense up the wall, in his seemingly vain effort to redeem his reputation, a slow defeated sigh, as of air leaving a leaking balloon, came from the rightwingers’ rebellion against the Windsor framework, the plan to rescue Northern Ireland from the worst effects of Brexit.
That evening, I went to Under the Black Rock by Tim Edge, a play set during the Troubles and performed at the Arcola theatre in Dalston, east London. It featured torture, murder, the destruction of a family and the deaths of children as collateral damage from bomb explosions, all of them realities of the conflict that the Good Friday agreement helped to end. The play brought home the monstrosity of English politicians such as Johnson, who voted against the framework, casually playing games with peace in Northern Ireland. Do they really want this sort of stuff to come back?