Current Affairs Irish Border and Brexit

[peteblue]

If the EU is stupid enough to retaliate over the NI Protocol, it will mainly be hurting itself

Britain is in a much stronger position than when we signed the treaty – we should call Brussels’s bluff

www.telegraph.co.uk

“Trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is equivalent to 0.0008 per cent of the EU’s GDP. Yet Brussels conducts around 20 per cent of all its goods checks on this trade. Some of the current arrangements – making people fill in forms to send a parcel to another part of the UK, for example, or making them pay to take their pets with them – are plainly meant to irritate.”

 

[Deleted member 48881]

 

[Bluerover]

If the EU is stupid enough to retaliate over the NI Protocol, it will mainly be hurting itself

Britain is in a much stronger position than when we signed the treaty – we should call Brussels’s bluff

www.telegraph.co.uk

“Trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is equivalent to 0.0008 per cent of the EU’s GDP. Yet Brussels conducts around 20 per cent of all its goods checks on this trade. Some of the current arrangements – making people fill in forms to send a parcel to another part of the UK, for example, or making them pay to take their pets with them – are plainly meant to irritate.”

Pete 2/3 of NI's exports are to EU MSs, with ROI its single biggest market. Stick a hard border on, or tear up the Protocol, and NI is going to be really badly hurt.

Yes it doesn't matter a ff to GB, but the reality is that NI needs easy access to EU more than easy access to GB.

You are looking at it purely from GB's point of view which is becoming increasingly obvious to even hardened Unionists.

Donaldson is a complete prat - read the article above by a long time Unionist journalist Susan McKay who is withering in her criticism of him. @Ruairi77

22% holding 78% to ransom

 

[peteblue]

Pete 2/3 of NI's exports are to EU MSs, with ROI its single biggest market. Stick a hard border on, or tear up the Protocol, and NI is going to be really badly hurt.

Yes it doesn't matter a ff to GB, but the reality is that NI needs easy access to EU more than easy access to GB.

You are looking at it purely from GB's point of view which is becoming increasingly obvious to even hardened Unionists.

Donaldson is a complete prat - read the article above by a long time Unionist journalist Susan McKay who is withering in her criticism of him. @Ruairi77

22% holding 78% to ransom

There is no need for a hard border. Right from the beginning the U.K. has said it would not put one up. So either ROI or the EU will do it if they insist. I very much doubt the ROI will do it, so let’s at least acknowledge the only grouping that will insist on it……

 

[Bluerover]

There is no need for a hard border. Right from the beginning the U.K. has said it would not put one up. So either ROI or the EU will do it if they insist. I very much doubt the ROI will do it, so let’s at least acknowledge the only grouping that will insist on it……

I know I am repeating myself but the EU market is 2/3 of NI's exports. If goods are allowed to arrive into an EU MS without any checks from a non-MS. then they can proceed all over the EU without any checks.

Donaldson is a PITA. Realist Unionist business people know that the EU is vital to their export trade. If the Protocol is torn up, we will have no choice but to impose a hard border - of course this will hurt us, but it will destroy many businesses in NI that currently transport seamlessly to the South and on to the full EU.

The EU, and indeed the ROI do not want crappy product arriving unchecked from all sorts of countries that do not have the same Regs and standards that are insisted upon by the EU. AFAIK UK is happily looking to South America for cheap food of animal origin to fill the gap, if the sources from EU plummet. The standards of welfare and hygiene in South America are, to say the least, questionable

If the Protocol is torn up, then the EU will come down like a ton of bricks and NI exporters will be up the proverbial creek. We will be forced to create a hard border

We have also many exporters whose main export market is NI - less so to GB as they have had time to seek markets elsewhere.

Donaldson is a complete muppet, and he is ignoring the travails of his largely Unionist farming community, which will be hammered if they don;'t have easy access to the EU market.

I repeat - read the article posted by @Khalekan by Susan McKay earlier - a lady who is from a Unionist background.

A panicked DUP flounders as Northern Ireland embraces change

Northern Ireland has changed – and unionism has been left behind. But if the party can’t dominate, it won’t participate

t.co

 

[peteblue]

I know I am repeating myself but the EU market is 2/3 of NI's exports. If goods are allowed to arrive into an EU MS without any checks from a non-MS. then they can proceed all over the EU without any checks.

Donaldson is a PITA. Realist Unionist business people know that the EU is vital to their export trade. If the Protocol is torn up, we will have no choice but to impose a hard border - of course this will hurt us, but it will destroy many businesses in NI that currently transport seamlessly to the South and on to the full EU.

The EU, and indeed the ROI do not want crappy product arriving unchecked from all sorts of countries that do not have the same Regs and standards that are insisted upon by the EU. AFAIK UK is happily looking to South America for cheap food of animal origin to fill the gap, if the sources from EU plummet. The standards of welfare and hygiene in South America are, to say the least, questionable

If the Protocol is torn up, then the EU will come down like a ton of bricks and NI exporters will be up the proverbial creek. We will be forced to create a hard border

We have also many exporters whose main export market is NI - less so to GB as they have had time to seek markets elsewhere.

Donaldson is a complete muppet, and he is ignoring the travails of his largely Unionist farming community, which will be hammered if they don;'t have easy access to the EU market.

I repeat - read the article by Susan McKay earlier - a lady who is froma Unionist background.

Tbh I think you are just making excuses for the EU. The U.K. has quality standards at least as good as the EU and has so for a great many years. No, this is about giving the U.K. a kicking and for ROI to try and grab NI. It may work, it may not, but it will ruin U.K./EU relations for a long time unless addressed. The problem is that the EU think the solutions lay in more paperwork and more bureaucracy…what will be will be….

 

[peteblue]

The Northern Ireland Protocol is destroying the Good Friday Agreement

John Hume and I made huge sacrifices to help Northern Ireland find peace. Now it’s all at risk

www.telegraph.co.uk

 

[Bluerover]

Tbh I think you are just making excuses for the EU. The U.K. has quality standards at least as good as the EU and has so for a great many years. No, this is about giving the U.K. a kicking and for ROI to try and grab NI. It may work, it may not, but it will ruin U.K./EU relations for a long time unless addressed. The problem is that the EU think the solutions lay in more paperwork and more bureaucracy…what will be will be….

Pete, my dear friend, the ROI has absolutely no interest in a "grab" of NI. Unless there is a clear majority north and south in favour , a United Ireland is way down the line.

What is urgent NOW is the economic future of the people who are so dependant on free movement of goods across the border both ways.

By leaving the EU, the UK has put itself beyond the standards clearly laid down in EU Regs - believe me the EU was a PITA in their constant audits while I was a Civil Servant . Really obnoxious at times, but extremely thorough.

However, I must agree that the whole EU cannot allow the possibility of goods coming as a back door through NI into ROI, and thus into the EU, without being assured of compliance with EU standards.

NI voted to stay (Donaldson ignores this). NI exporters depend hugely on the EU as their market regardless of their political sympathies.

Brexit has created a monster for all sorts of reasons. NI was pretty low on the list of GB voters' priorities, but it is now the biggest thorn that needs to be excised.

I have no simple answer, but the position of the DUP is non-democratic by any definition of what is democracy.

78% being ignored by Donaldson and £300m + sitting for relief of people in NI that are living on the edge, which cannot be released, because Jeffrey wants to play the 1690 drum.

 

[Neiler]

Pete 2/3 of NI's exports are to EU MSs, with ROI its single biggest market. Stick a hard border on, or tear up the Protocol, and NI is going to be really badly hurt.

Yes it doesn't matter a ff to GB, but the reality is that NI needs easy access to EU more than easy access to GB.

You are looking at it purely from GB's point of view which is becoming increasingly obvious to even hardened Unionists.

Donaldson is a complete prat - read the article above by a long time Unionist journalist Susan McKay who is withering in her criticism of him. @Ruairi77

22% holding 78% to ransom

Wouldnt worry about it mate, the U.K. will draw up legislation but it will never be enacted, there will be climb down and dialogue with the EU. It’s a great trick of a slight of hand, distract from inflation, interest rate hikes, cost of living crisis, tanked economy through Brexit and Johnson's own profile issues - to be seen to be taking on the EU.

The legislation being enacted, it will never happen, not even he could be that let’s say - not savy, he was already climbing down earlier and let’s face it throwing the DUP under the bus, well it’s like clockwork at this stage.

 

[Bluerover]

Mary Lou is an impressive performer - atm she is likely to be the next Taoiseach in the ROI. She wipes the floor in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) with the leaders of the other parties,

Since she took over from Adams she has brought SF to an incredible level North and South - that would never happen with Adams in charge.

Compare her with dreary "No" Donaldson.

I still would not vote SF for various reasons, but hats off for what she has achieved north and south.

 

[Neiler]

Mary Lou is an impressive performer - atm she is likely to be the next Taoiseach in the ROI. She wipes the floor in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) with the leaders of the other parties,

Since she took over from Adams she has brought SF to an incredible level North and South - that would never happen with Adams in charge.

Compare her with dreary "No" Donaldson.

I still would not vote SF for various reasons, but hats off for what she has achieved north and south.

Id have loved to be there today, I say she ate him up and spat him out. Seeing what breakfast tv presenters do to him, I’d say Mary Lou mopped the floor with him. She’s an excellent politician and performer, she’s tireless and taken SF to unprecedented territory North and South. Like you i likely wouldn’t vote for SF, but she as taken them to thepopulaer vote in both countries. She won’t make the same mistake in the election in the republic she did last time.

 

[Deleted member 48881]

Mary Lou is an impressive performer - atm she is likely to be the next Taoiseach in the ROI. She wipes the floor in the Dáil (Irish Parliament) with the leaders of the other parties,

Since she took over from Adams she has brought SF to an incredible level North and South - that would never happen with Adams in charge.

Compare her with dreary "No" Donaldson.

I still would not vote SF for various reasons, but hats off for what she has achieved north and south.

I like how she says north of Ireland instead of Northern Ireland

 

[Haydn]

Channel 4 News asking Johnson the killer question. Back on the naughty step for them !

 

[Haydn]

The full clip of the Channel 4 News feature on the protocol is linked. Worth watching the full Johnson interview from around 2:40 to 7:40. His face as he turns away shows how much he enjoyed it.

 

[Alan Whittle]

The U.K. has quality standards at least as good as the EU and has so for a great many years.

Yes @peteblue, because we were in the EU.lol
Now, the rush for a “bonfire of red tape” and “WTO terms”, both of which you have championed on this forum, will erode those standards very quickly.
Again, like Boris, you want your cake and eat it.