Background
Leaving under Article 50 was on EU insistence a two phase process. There was a Withdrawal Agreement. The Future Partnership Agreement could only be negotiated after exit. The Northern Ireland protocol was a difficult part of the Withdrawal Agreement which looked forward to the future relationship in ways the EU otherwise said were not allowed. The UK signed it, promising to improve it and tackle outstanding problems in the final Agreement on future trading. That Agreement did not in the end change some important contradictions and ambiguities of the original Protocol.
The EU has decided to assert authority and to implement with excessive detail and complexity the bits of the Protocol it likes. This has violated the parts of the Protocol the UK inserted to protect itself. The UK government agrees the EU has now broken the Agreement, and is arguing for revision. This was provided for by Article 13.8 which foresees the need for substantial change in the arrangements. Many only agreed to the Withdrawal Agreement on the understanding that the Protocol would be transitory.
Ā
Urgent political need
Ā
The majority community inĀ NI feels badly let down by the Protocol and resents the way the EU is taking over their part of the UK , diverting trade from NI/GB and requiring strict observance of a widening range of EU laws which they cannot influence. Sinn Fein is currently in the lead in opinion polls for the May Assembly elections. The Unionist parties are desperate for support and action from the UK government that would seek to rebuild the UK internal market in NI and reassert UK sovereignty and democracy as the form of government. The Unionists think the Protocol has upset the political balance and has undermined their Union with GB. They tried to take action to rectify some of the faults of the Protocol. This resulted in the collapse of the Power Sharing Executive with the resignation of the First Minister. The Protocol has caused a constitutional crisis.
Ā The UK case under the protocol
Ā
There are good parts to the Protocol which the UK wants enforced.
āThe Good Friday Agreementā¦.should be protected in all its partsāĀ Instead the EU has lost the consent of the majority community by alienating NI from the UK
ādetermined that the application of the Ā Protocol should impact as little as possible on the everyday life of communities in both Ireland and NIāĀ Instead it has gravely damaged GB/NI trade and the legitimacy of NI government
āNI is part of the customs territory of the UK and will benefit from participation in the UKās independent trade policyāĀ This is impeded by EU rules and controls
āthe importance of maintaining the integral place of NI in the UKās internal marketāĀ The position has been badly affected by gross restrictions on GB/NI trade
āshall use best endeavours to facilitate the trade between NI and other parts of the UKā They have done the opposite
This is why the UK government thinks they can exercise rights under Article 16 to redress the damage being done by the current lop sided interpretation and enforcement
Ā
How to proceed
Ā
Make one last attempt to persuade the EU to adoptĀ mutual enforcement. The UK will control the GB/NI trade, whilst legislating to ensure no GB to NI goods can find their way into the EU if they are not compliant with all EU requirements. The EU/Republic will be responsible for all trade flowing into the Republic and will undertake not to send goods to NI that do not comply with UK rules.
If they do not agree, the UK will go ahead and impose this system. The UK will legislate in Parliament with a money Bill to create a UK based system of regulating and taxing GB/NI trade. The legislation will instruct our courts and Customs and Excise service to obey our rules and controls on this trade, and to make it a criminal offence to send the goods onto the Republic to protect the EUās single market.
It is wrong that a UK supermarket cannot send a container of varied food products to Belfast with the minimum of fuss as it can to Birmingham. Trusted traders should have no more paperwork for NI than for England or Scotland.
Ā
January 28, 2022
You were warned in 2016 that Ireland was a massive problem. But you pressed ahead with Brexit without a semblance of a plan, against the wishes of a large majority in NI. And now here we are, Ireland is a massive problem, and all you do is blame everyone for this mess except yourselves, the Brexiters who had (and have) no plan
January 28, 2022
Ireland was not a massive problem. Both sets of customs officials and both governments agreed it was not, as did an EU Commissioner. There were electronic solutions away from the border. It was only the advent of Mrs May and Leo Varadkar which created the “problem”. This was largely to do with the presence in the North and the South of Sinn Fein/IRA, which both PMs were influenced by.
January 28, 2022
The main problems are nothing to do with customs, theyāre to do with the fact that after Brexit British rules on how goods are made are now different from EU rules, so there have to be compliance checks. Canāt do that electronically, thereās not a border in the world where thatās done electronically. So Brexit means a new hard border. Over 5 years since the referendum you still don’t realise what you voted for
January 28, 2022
There have to be “compliance checks” on goods arriving in Dublin from the UK, and they involve physical inspections of just 3% of the trucks:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/09/the-telegraph-offers-some-strong-advice/#comment-1290217
And if necessary those checks could be carried out at sites away from the port or border:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/19/the-politics-of-gas/#comment-1293216
January 28, 2022
That is trading standards Lee who check that goods for sale are up to scratch just as they would if we were still in the EU
No need for border compliance checks
January 28, 2022
British goods are not now different Lee.
If you sell goods into any nation they have to be compliant with all the rules for that product in that nation.
That compliance still carries on.
The only difference is getting the EU to accept the documentary evidence.
Whilst incoming goods from the EU are accepted.
January 28, 2022
UK goods should be allowed to circulate freely within all parts of the UK. The end.
January 28, 2022
“… and it is gross impudence on the part of the EU to presume that it should be able to continue to control goods permitted in the United Kingdom once we have freed ourselves from the EU, any more than the EU can expect to control goods permitted in the United States or other āthird countriesā”
From a letter in the Irish Times, September 21 2018, reproduced here:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/09/21/the-eu-is-more-preoccupied-with-migration-than-with-brexit/#comment-962198
January 28, 2022
That isnāt the deal you Brexitists negotiated and signed. The end.
January 28, 2022
No, it was Boris Johnson and his team that created the current problem. The solution that May proposed (and which was voted down by her own MPs) would not have caused any of the issues caused by Johnson’s “oven ready” solution.
January 28, 2022
Theresa May’s solution would have extended the same kinds of problems to the whole of the UK.
At least we would all have been in it together, GB and NI, all living under “Brexit In Name Only”, “vassalage”, with all goods arriving in ports across the whole UK and all goods produced across the whole UK being subject to EU checks in case any of them might find their way from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and then across the land border into the Irish Republic where they would play havoc with the sacred EU Single Market.
As my constituency MP she was directly offered this simple solution nearly four years ago:
https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/128146/easy-solution-to-eu-border-conundrum.html
but despite her acknowledgement she wasn’t interested, she wanted the CBI’s solution not mine.
January 28, 2022
May’s solution was the option which avoided both a border in the Irish Sea and a border between the North and the Republic in Ireland. Once her own MPs rejected that solution, there was going to have to be a border somewhere. Many of those same MPs voted to put it in the Irish Sea.
January 28, 2022
The border should have stayed where it has been for the past century, with any checks and controls that were necessary being performed at sites away from the actual border. Which is what Boris Johnson was contemplating in the autumn of 2019, until Irish politicians cut up rusty about the idea:
https://www.rte.ie/news/2019/0930/1079268-reaction-non-paper/
Whereupon he caved in and accepted the Irish government nonsense that “any checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard borderā:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/22/the-battles-over-gas/#comment-1294274
Why? Because he had set his heart on a “Canada style” deal with the EU, thereby turning the UK into a supplicant, and that was one of the concessions that they demanded.
January 28, 2022
Mrs May didn’t compose an exit clause. Sir John and Sir William did.
January 28, 2022
Exactly.
January 28, 2022
Ireland only became a massive problem because the Irish government decided to make it a massive problem and Theresa May found it convenient to go along with their nonsense.
Once again I bring up this Sky News report of November 24 2017:
https://news.sky.com/video/is-the-norway-sweden-border-a-solution-for-ireland-11141058
in which their Europe Minister Helen McEntee came out with her classic statement:
āWe have been very very clear from day one, there cannot be a physical border and that means ruling out cameras, that means ruling out technology, that means ruling out anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland, it is not an option for usā.
Theresa May should have reacted to the absurd extreme and intransigent position of the Irish government by dropping the idea of any special trade deal with the EU, which would be subject to a capricious Irish veto, and saying that we intended to default to the already existing WTO treaties to which all the countries were already parties. Instead she decided to use it as a pretext to please the CBI.
January 28, 2022
Theresa May? Her deal was rejected by Parliament, didn’t you know? Ancient history. Boris had freedom to pick any deal, but he picked one that cuts off NI from GB. That was the oven ready deal. Plenty of people said it was a stinkingly bad deal, but it’s what won him the last Election. All that is left is for the Uk to stick to the deal instead of – and today’s post by Redwood is a classic – misrepresenting what has been agreed
January 28, 2022
Try reading my last paragraph. If she had done the job that she should have done it would not have become necessary to replace her with somebody who would do that job, however badly.
January 28, 2022
Denis
CBI what a load of absolute nonsense, can we have some proof of that sti
January 28, 2022
Why don’t you prove that it is wrong Billy
Isn’t that how debate usually works?
January 29, 2022
Yes, but as JR has declined to publish my reply here I will try again later at the end of the thread.
January 28, 2022
Norway is a member of the EU Single Market so the Sweden/Norway border so I can’t see that it is comparable to the NI/RoI situation. It would have been if May’s deal had gone through, but that was not to be.
January 28, 2022
Ireland is not a massive problem. The EU made into a massive problem in the hope of thwarting our escape.
January 28, 2022
+1 Absolutely, I pray that our Conservative friends fully support the Unionists. They are the innocent victims of the EU hatred of Britain.
January 28, 2022
It’s pretty evident where the true hatred lies.
January 28, 2022
+1
January 28, 2022
Mike
This seems more imagination
January 28, 2022
Ireland is only a problem if you THINK it is a problem. I don’t. You say the EU needs to do compliance checks on UK goods entering the single market because our standards are now different to theirs. But this is THEIR problem, not ours. And it is ONLY a problem for them if they act like arrogant scum and say that UK standards are not acceptable. The best solution is therefore for the EU to say that although UK standards are different they are nevertheless EQUIVALENT, and will ALWAYS be so (even if our standards deviate further, which they will inevitably slowly do), because the UK is a high-standard country that can be trusted without question and compliance checks are thus NOT needed.
If the EU are too belligerent and arrogant to adopt this policy then THEY can impose checks at the North-South border … except that they have said they will NOT do so! So that is NOT going to happen. So they have two further options: (i) impose checks on goods from the Republic to the rest of the EU (this would upset the Irish who might challenge it in the ECJ); or (ii) just turn a blind eye to the trickle of UK goods entering Ireland and the rest of the EU, on the basis that this is such a tiny problem that the solution is worse than the cure. My money is on them adopting this latter policy. Problem solved all round!
January 28, 2022
Got it. So you think the EU should continue to pretend the UK is still a member of the EU, when that suits the UK. I don’t think so. You chose to leave, so you get what every single other country in the world gets when it trades with the EU – border checks. It’s what you voted for
January 28, 2022
Then let the EU institute those border checks which every other country gets when it trades with the EU – including on the Irish side of the land border, where they would properly belong.
January 28, 2022
It would also suit the EU to carry on as before, except that they then wouldn’t be able to demonstrate their beligerence and awkwardness.
January 29, 2022
reminds me of the very old joke.
A tourist in a car pulls up alongside a local man walking.
‘How would I get to Ballyxxxx, old chap?’
Local scratches head for a while, and finally offers-
‘well Sir, that would be complicated, you had better start from somewhere else!’
January 28, 2022
How often does the EU have to say ānoā to this mutual enforcemnt mumbo jumbo for you to grasp that the days of shouting at foreigners and telling them what Britain wants are over?
January 28, 2022
Sir John’s claims as to the position have never been agreed by any European Union representative nor upheld by any arbiter, so they remain just that – claims.
January 28, 2022
Sir John has quoted from the text of the NI protocol. Read it yourself.
January 28, 2022
His claims against each of his quotes have not been proven.
E.g. words like “gravely” are relative, and, if deemed inapplicable, do not engage the criterions for operating e.g. Article 16.
January 28, 2022
You mean that mutual enforcement mumbo jumbo proposed by former EU Commission Director-General Sir Jonathan Faull and two professors of European law in August 2019:
https://verfassungsblog.de/an-offer-the-eu-and-uk-cannot-refuse/
“An Offer the EU and UK Cannot Refuse”
And resurrected by Sir Jonathan Faull in July 2021 here:
āA dual autonomy approach would help with the Northern Ireland protocolā
But you are right that the EU rejected this suggestion out of hand and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so, and that is why the UK should proceed unilaterally by passing UK laws to control exports across the Irish land border, and then tell the EU that we are making an effort to protect their EU Single Market and it is up to them to decide what they want to do on their side of the border.
January 28, 2022
Denis
You know what the answer is so stop pretending it’s possible as it means a border
January 28, 2022
It doesn’t “mean a border”, there already is a border and there has been for a hundred years, and it should be up to the Irish government and the EU what they do on their side of that border. That was another stupid mistake made by Theresa May, gratuitously accepting responsibility for ensuring that they did not fortify their side of the border, and that too was noted at the time:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/05/28/social-care-and-the-nhs-2/#comment-937422
“Who’s side is she on? Why is she rehearsing one of the EUās arguments for them?”
January 29, 2022
Dennis
They have never wanted any border on the Irish side now in the past or the future
January 29, 2022
Actually it was the Irish Free State that set up the first customs posts on the border.
48 minutes in, here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000wnm3/the-road-to-partition-series-1-episode-2
January 28, 2022
+1
January 28, 2022
Good morning.
Ah ! Shades of Munich all over again. How we sold the Czech’s down the river for a little piece of comfort. Or for that matter what happened to Serbia over Kosovo.
This is the thing about Continental Europeans, they spend a great deal of their time eyeing and stealing their neighbours lands. That is why they fight so many wars and had to create the EU. Otherwise they would butcher themselves out of existence.
Today, Germany and France use not armies, but words on pieces of paper to conquer others. Much cheaper and less bloody. But what is happening to us is no different to what has happened through the ages with this lot, especially the French, who think they are the natural rulers of the continent.
We are supposed to be a sovereign country free and able to make our own decision in our own best interests. If that were so, and the EU is in breech of said agreements, then there is nothing to discuss.
As they say – “Actions speak louder than words” And actions are what these people only understand.
January 28, 2022
+1 Mark B
January 28, 2022
+1 Mark B from me too!
January 28, 2022
I think that the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh might agree, and remark on how typically European the English have been over the ages in that regard.
January 28, 2022
+1
January 28, 2022
And how is England behaving like Europe with N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales NLH?
By the Labour party giving only their children in the union free-university education with no extra taxes collected for that purpose? Then giving grants and awards to the regions students only!
By giving EU students that same free education in Scotland, Wales and N Ireland but not the English? Is it just the Scottish taxpayer that pays for that – No!
By allowing them free prescriptions for all, whilst slapping on extra charges for the English even those earning less than Ā£20,000 pa. Free hospital parking. Free social care. Very generous.
Then Ireland obtains its independence with no divorce payment, no stops on the movement of people, heck they can even claim all our benefits whilst not paying the same rates of corporation tax and stealing industry and jobs because of that.
January 28, 2022
Indeed. The Common Market was created by a Frenchman keen never to see his country invaded by Germany… yet again.
We were not meant to be in it.
The BBC at it again yesterday. Holocaust Day. Some mysterious and disappeared tribe called The Nazis did it. Yet somehow this is a lesson to the English of how nasty *we* can be – I suppose two Jewish men were shown in footage being beaten up on a London street the other day though.
As for Ireland. A thorn in our side for over a century and unification almost a demographic certainty with or without Brexit. Had it not been for the IRA it would probably have been unified long ago. The most successful endings to imperialist rule by the English have always been through peaceful campaign.
If it were a fair world then the EU cities would bear the brunt of future troubles seeing as it is they who are so keen to annex this land.
January 28, 2022
Absolutely ! The worst foreign policy disaster since 1776 and the war with the colonies in America. And yet, there are those here and now determined to repeat the mistake.
January 29, 2022
‘The Common Market was created by a Frenchman keen never to see his country invaded by Germanyā¦ yet again. ‘ – and the terrifying prospect of needing UK to rescue them AGAIN meant they’d agree to anything.
January 28, 2022
Mark. Great comments particularly about France and Germany who, let’s face it, have never REALLY been friends with the UK.
January 29, 2022
the politics of envy….sigh. As Martin would say.
January 28, 2022
Mark B
Much of what you say is correct, you do not need gunboat diplomacy any more to have influence over another Country, as Russia and China are proving at the moment with the supply of raw materials, manufactured goods, general trade, copyright infringements and so called Aid with strings attached.
The problem is too many Countries and Politicians have poked their nose into Ireland over the years, causing even further complication to what has previously been a finely balanced arrangement.
January 28, 2022
That’s why Napoleon felt compelled to abolish the title of Holy Roman Emperor (and make himself Emperor of the French,using the Byzantine ritual of crowning himself rather than having a cleric do it),thus diminishing the Germans and seeking to establish himself as the western equivalent of the Tsar-Emperor of All the Russias (and seeking a Romanov marriage alliance to cement it).
However,the Romanovs wouldn’t contemplate a royal Grand Duchess marrying a Corsican upstart and the Habsburg ruler unilaterally upgraded his own title from Archduke to Emperor.
January 28, 2022
And not forgetting the Sun King, Louis XIV. Named, because be believed all of Europe should revolve around him. Another French tyrant.
January 28, 2022
Let’s put some things into proportion.
The population of N Ireland is 2 million.
The population of just Metropolitan London alone is 10 million.
Whatever the rights and wrongs of Britain’s relationship and governance of Ireland have been (and remember that the initial invasion of Ireland in an attempt to stop constant piracy and harassment on English shores was begun by Henry ll), it’s surely time to stop centuries of harmful internecine strife and outright warfare.
It was the Scots, under James Vl, who put ‘plantations’ of their own subjects into Ireland – let Ms Sturgeon offer those of Scottish descent a subsidised return to Scotland, let Westminster offer repatriation to those who regard themselves as loyal to the English Crown, and let the rest of Ulster be rejoined to Eire and encourage them (?darn well tell them?) to all start behaving like adults.
One can but dream!
January 28, 2022
+ many
Great idea but would it fit the plan?
Theyād have to get into little boats and wash up on our shoresā¦..
January 28, 2022
SM
Dreams can come true.
The money it is costing for all the thousands of dingy invaders could be better used in relocating those NI residents that just want peace in their lives. The advantage would be a lot would possibly have skills we need , have sold their properties and businesses or be trained trained NHS staff. Let the Irish government and the EU have the north of the island and all the problems that go with it. Like the joining of the two Germanany’s when the wall came down it will take millions of euros. Any problems will be theirs not ours.
January 28, 2022
Turbo. Only 2 million and only a small percentage of those would actually make the move. Sturgeon is always going on about under populated Scotland so many would be happy there. I am sure we could accomodate a few thousand. After all our politicians welcome thousands a year of whom most them they know nothing about.
January 28, 2022
F U S
Totally correct. The only people even considering re location to the rest of the UK would be all those that voted to leave the EU. The rest would get what they voted for control by the EU curtesy of the Irish Parliament. It might really re focus people’s minds but a bit like the anti vaccine minority its a bit late to realise your mistake when your in ICU fighting to stay alive and saying I should have taken the jab. But in the real world you get what the majority voted for, if you have a problem with that? SHIP OUT.
January 29, 2022
underpopulated ? – why have they all left over the years?
Clues, anybody?
January 28, 2022
Moving populations around to fit grand ideological designs is a 20th century phenomenon which got a very bad name. But then the EU is a grand ideological design of the 20th century.
January 28, 2022
There are no NATO bases in London.
Nor would there be on the island of Ireland if it were all the neutral Republic.
January 28, 2022
As far as I am aware there are no NATO bases in Northern Ireland.
Bases designated for NATO and US use are in Herfordshire, Yeovil, Cambridgshire, Dorset with a NATO HQ in Gloucestershire.
January 28, 2022
JR declined to publish my comment relating to the neutral Irish essentially freeloading on other countries while setting out to cause maximum problems to the neighbour which is providing their defence.
January 28, 2022
NLH and Ireland doesn’t contribute its 2% to Nato whilst getting this free protection.
January 28, 2022
Sorry, but I don’t understand your reference to NATO bases in answer to my comment, NLH.
But I believe the neutral RoI does happily accept airborne military protection given by the UK.
January 28, 2022
The ROI happily remained neutral during WW2. Goodness knows how many merchant seamen lost their lives because we couldn’t use ROI ports to send U boat cover far enough out into the Atlantic.
January 28, 2022
Just out of interest.
Why did anyone think that the EU would behave in an upright and cooperative manner?
U.K. govt always so very caring and sharing and seemingly trusting.
Except with its own people.
January 28, 2022
For the EU it was a slap in the face. So many countries lining up to join. Most of them poor and in need of much cash. So to have one of its major financial donors to effectively give them the old English Agincourt Salute was simply unbearable. We put a real spoke in their expansionist plans as neither France, Germany, the Netherlands or the Scandinavians fancied dipping their hands in their pockets.
No wonder they were so p***ed off with us. He he š
January 28, 2022
+1
Oh yesā¦big lol š¤
January 29, 2022
Correct -‘All the basket cases join an orderly queue, and you lot who have sold your self-respect to join the EU dole CLUB – well you’ve had your turn !.
January 28, 2022
The NIP is used as a stick to beat us with.
Traitorous May put us in this position with the remainer civil service.
Unless it is scrapped peace in Northern Ireland will be shattered.
For goodness sake walk away from that and the TCA before it’s too late.
January 28, 2022
The Northern Ireland Protocol had nothing to do with Theresa May. It was negotiated entirely by Brexitists Boris Johnson and unelected bureaucrat David Frost.
January 28, 2022
The present protocol developed out of her protocol, making it worse not better.
January 28, 2022
Denis
Can we have some proof of the facts again please
January 28, 2022
You know you could do some of the research yourself, you know, or you could make a note of information that other people have provided here so you don’t have to ask again.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/new-protocol-on-irelandnorthern-ireland-and-political-declaration
“The new Withdrawal Agreement sets out the terms of the UKās exit from the European Union, with changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol to remove the so-called backstop and replace it with arrangements that meet the Governmentās objectives.”
Do you see, “with changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol”, which can only make sense if there was already a protocol to be changed.
January 28, 2022
But it has an escape clause. In that respect it is better.
January 28, 2022
The Withdrawal Agreement was in effect a NIP for the whole of the UK to remain firmly attached as a colony to the EU. For why? They needed our money. The NIP is a lesser version built on the fantasy of a return of the Troubles. Remain, Sturgeon, May/Robins, and the EU all colluded to keep us in, it failed. The EU succeded in causing maximum difficulty pour discourager les autre. We will see. You now have a choice, take your family and self south to your interpretation of paradise or continue leeching off a nation , its people , and a way of life that through you pen you so obviously despise. A bientot.
January 28, 2022
The Blob is not just remainiac but also anti unionist.
January 28, 2022
And not electronic either.
January 28, 2022
You are utterly wrong. Mrs May negotiated a deal that would have meant NO checks between NI and GB, she respected our Union. The Brexiters wrecked that excellent deal, replaced it with Johnson’s oven ready deal which requires checks between NI and GB – as Northern Irish politicians angrily said at the time. Now faced with what they have done the Brexiters are trying to pretend the checks between GB and NI are the EU’s fault. They aren’t. This is exactly your oven ready deal,
January 28, 2022
Mrs May negotiated a deal which effectively kept us in the EU with no representation and no escape. The Traitors’ Parliament passed an illegitimate directive which prevented the new PM from leaving without a deal. That meant it prevented him from negotiating us out properly, and we were left with unfinished business which now has to be done.
January 28, 2022
So nothing to do with a stuck-up second rate negotiator?
January 28, 2022
+1 Rose. The undemocratic remainers in Parliament are entirely responsible for ruining our chances of a good, or even fair, deal.
January 28, 2022
Shirley
Can we please have some facts supporting that statement please
January 28, 2022
Better to provide your own contrary facts bill.
You are just a lazy boy.
January 28, 2022
Parliament represented the will of the people in 2017. The traitors are those of you who didnāt respect it.
January 28, 2022
Andy, I disagree conservative MPs were elected on a conservative manifesto in 2017 and they reneged on that manifesto and worked against May’s government. That is why people use the ‘traitor’ word – “The meaning of traitor is one who betrays another’s trust or is false to an obligation or duty” Merriam Webster.
January 28, 2022
Most people didnāt vote Conservative in 2017 – and the Conservatives didnāt even have an overall majority. Parliament is supposed to represent all of us – not just your Tory minority.
January 29, 2022
Boris did not need to ratify it and could have ditched the TCA before the EU got round to considering and signing & agreeing it the EU parliament . But he didnt. Why? Maybe because he is a remainer.
January 29, 2022
I recently had a message from somebody close to a Tory MP explaining that as Theresa May had already accepted that there should be an Irish protocol it would have been impossible for Boris Johnson to get a deal without a protocol, even if it was a modified version. My reaction to that argument is that it would have been much better to default to WTO terms, which would have been only marginally worse than his “Canada style” trade deal. The fact that the government is unable or unwilling to publish any realistic assessment of the likely economic benefit to the UK of the TCA tends to confirm that they know it is worth very little but do not want to reveal that reality to the public.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/03/net-zero-did-not-even-make-it-to-christmas/#comment-1288594
āWhen Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the nation on Christmas Eve he may have broken his personal record for mendacity with this claim:
āWe have completed the biggest trade deal yet, worth Ā£660 billion a yearā.ā
January 28, 2022
It was not an “excellent deal”, it was “Brexit In Name Only”, “vassalage”, for the whole of the UK. But out of his profound love for Northern Ireland Boris Johnson decided that its people alone would be left in subjugation while the rest of the UK escaped, and “Conservative and Unionist” MPs voted that through. Now he pretends that he had no idea that the EU would implement the protocol in a pettifogging and insane way, even though he had spent years as a journalist telling us about the pettifogging and insane ways of the EU.
January 28, 2022
It was a perfectly workable deal which would have satisfied most people in these islands.
However, not the ERG, DUP and other assorted fruitcakes, including a few commenters here.
January 28, 2022
No doubt it would have satisfied you to see the country made a vassal state.
January 29, 2022
Denis
You throw words around like vassal state as if it was the case, remember we decided to leave the vasals could not
January 28, 2022
Mrs May screed to the backstop which would have kept the whole ukin the single market without any voice. Johnson got rid of the backstop and MRS had article 16 inserted for just the sort of problems we are now having.
I believe todays article that Sunak is blocking the use of article 16 because he has go e native with the treasury officials.
January 28, 2022
MPs.
No glasses.
January 28, 2022
Doesn’t seem to have been a major problem for Switzerland and Norway, which the Leave campaigns held up as examples as to how good life would be outside the European Union, does it?
January 28, 2022
That the NIP exists at all is evidence of political circumvention of democratic governance
January 28, 2022
+1
What a hurdle democracy was for the elite.
And how easily they have destroyed it!
January 28, 2022
DOM, +1
January 28, 2022
Yes, for the versions of the protocol produced so far. It would not be intrinsically wrong to have a protocol to set out detailed special arrangements for Northern Ireland , but not the present arrangements. But in my view we have the present protocol because that is what the EU would accept in exchange for giving Boris Johnson the “Canada style” free trade deal to which he had hitched his political wagon. I have asked five ministries how much that trade deal is worth to us – three ex ante, two ex post – and none of them can or will tell me. The EU reckons it is worth about 0.75% of GDP to us, near the centre of a range of non-governmental estimates from 0% to 2% of GDP. A pathetically low gain for turning part of our country into a condominium with the EU.
January 28, 2022
It’s terrible Denis, I agree. A Conservative Brexit delivered by the Conservatives. And it’s terrible.
January 28, 2022
Luckily it need not be like that.
January 29, 2022
Denis
Once again you throw figures around and forget the figure of more than 4. Pct loss over 5 years for leaving in the first place (OEF and OECD)
January 29, 2022
Figures which you believe, without asking for proof …
January 28, 2022
The whole NI situation is a mess and has dragged on for far too long.
All the problems from the EU are the desperate mans last ditch effort to show authority and control over GB to send out to all the remaining members of the EU that like in all bad divorces one side still has an element of control.
It is time to say enough is enough implement Article 16 and move on. Things may change, if there is a change in the French Presidency in the forth coming elections, but that’s a big if..
Since Brexit it is the perception that over several key areas fishing and immigration we are being played as a weak minded government that they believe they can win back. We roll over everytime wether it’s our ministers or the back room negotiators wishing to have remained in the EU.
Push has to go to shove. Fully support NI, invoke Article 16 and show the EU that the divorce is now final and absolute. The money this is and has costed us is desperately needed for the UK residents. Line in the sand moment.
Tell them that the pissing down our necks and telling us it’s rain is well and truly over.
January 28, 2022
Before invoking Article 16 perhaps you should read it? As, amusingly, it doesnāt do what you think it does.
Reply I have and I am also recommending UK legislation!
January 28, 2022
Sir John knows the way in which the more fervent europhobics will misconstrue the wording of the Article in their usual absolutist manner, and plays to them on that basis, I think.
January 28, 2022
Agreed TT, but it is just your wishful thinking. Boris & co will just make a fuss, pretend they care, and then roll over as usual, and give the EU whatever they want and then declare it a ‘success’.
January 28, 2022
A depressing ring of truth … and he was the best the Tory party could find to succeed Theresa May.
January 28, 2022
Which was not hard given how woeful she was as PM and as Home Secretary. Went totally AWOL in 2011 and the riots if I remember correctly.
January 28, 2022
Turboterrier,
Unfortunately Liz Truss was a Remainer and a former Liberal Democrat. She has got herself good headlines in the press with various trade deals and photographs of herself in an army tank.
However, more recent coverage pretends she can solve Northern Ireland by being nice to the EU. Reading between the lines, it seems she may try to gain a concession or two from the EU and claim this as a resolution of the issue instead of invoking Article 16 as leavers have been urging for a very long time.
Meanwhile the EU are happy to prolong the issue, citing elections in NI as the latest reason.
January 28, 2022
In the video clip here:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/uk-wont-step-in-if-dup-orders-halt-to-brexit-checks-at-ports-says-foreign-secretary-liz-truss-41286122.html
she says she wants a deal which can be supported by all sides in Northern Ireland, including the unionists, and she cares passionately about the union … but she needs to realise that it is not just about the Irish Sea border, it is about Northern Ireland being singled out to be left behind subject to swathes of EU laws under the supervision of the EU court while the rest of the UK escapes, and that constitutional outrage springs directly from Boris Johnson ruling out any checks and controls on the goods in which the Irish government and the EU do actually have a legitimate interest, those entering their territory.
I’m wondering whether to write to her and ask what she would do if her kitchen tap was dripping?
a) Call in a plumber to sort out just that troublesome kitchen tap, or
b) Call in the water company to shut down her entire water supply.
January 29, 2022
Well, that’s the logic of the brexiter.
Have your house demolished because you don’t like the wallpaper.
January 28, 2022
She made a total plank of herself in Australia recently.”Demented” was just one of words former PM Paul Keating had to describe her.And the Russians have had a right old laugh at her attempt at referencing medieval Russian history and clearly not having a clue what she was talking about.
January 28, 2022
Plus 100
January 28, 2022
Obvious I suppose, but it seems that all this is just a continuation of the EU ( and its helpers here) trying to break up the U.K. A long term objective I believe.
Ireland can only become one again when a majority in North and South want to unify.
So we see the usual bullying and coercive tactics going on now.
Scotland and Wales are well underwayā¦England has been divided into ghastly āregionsā. We canāt get away from the EUā¦Johnson still implementing its rules.
And because of our idiot politicians the people who wanted liberty and independence are being blamed for the jealous and spiteful actions of the EU.
January 28, 2022
The only time Ireland was one was when the whole of it was part of the United Kingdom. Before that it was a disparate collection of tribes.
The idea of a united Ireland is just a romantic fantasy of Sinn Fein.
January 28, 2022
Yes DA your bang on the money
January 28, 2022
Yes, and Ulster in particular was always a separate kingdom, long before the Ulster Scots arrived.
January 28, 2022
āThe Good Friday Agreement (also known as the Belfast Agreement) recognises the right of the people of the island of Ireland to bring about a united Ireland, subject to the consent of both parts. Therefore, in order for Irish reunification to take place, border polls must be held in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Irelandā.
From āInstitute for Governmentā.
āReunificationā surely suggests unity at some point in the past?
āKingdom of Irelandā under British kings? United political entity.
January 28, 2022
Dave Andrews,
There was no king of England until Athelstan in the 10th century.
Centuries before that the Irish had established the kingdom of Dalriada extending into SW Scotland.
Irish Christianity had also established itself via St Columba in Iona. Irish Christianity also took hold in the North East Of England -Lindisfarne and Durham for example.
January 28, 2022
Scotland might want away but the Welsh know which side their leeks are buttered on. The nonsense emanating from Cardiff is just a play for more English money to waste, nothing more.
January 28, 2022
Presumably we were going to take back Northern Ireland after Christmas and a little turbulence would have been anticipated. So the Blob and the BBC et al have miraculously created massive artificial turbulence to stop the Government from proceeding, with Cummings as the useful idiot. It really, really matters to the EU that they hang on to N Ireland.
January 28, 2022
So itās all āthe Blob and BBC et alāās fault? Obviously no responsibility from this side of the arguments. Thatās Level Zero of Understanding.
āPresumably we were going to take back NI after Christmasā: Oh yeah, what made you think such a thing?
āA little turbulenceā āA massive turbulenceā āCummings as the useful idiotā
Ever thought you might be a similarly useful idiot for Sir John?
January 28, 2022
How rude hef.
Do you talk in this manner to people face to face every day?
January 28, 2022
Peter 2
Debate please on the facts thank you
January 28, 2022
What facts.
hefner didn’t reveal any facts
January 28, 2022
So unecessary Hef. Do at least try to be civil.
January 28, 2022
Boris Johnson lost his nerve in November when the EU threatened to take away his trade deal, or worse.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/11/06/plastic-in-the-oceans/#comment-1274272
“And now we have the EU allegedly threatening to possibly halt all trade with the UK if Article 16 is invoked …”
I’m not necessarily in favour of invoking Article 16 until it becomes the only way to put a stop to EU legal action over something else we have done, or not done. We are already breaching the protocol through our unilateral extensions of grace periods for checks on certain classes of goods, but the EU decided to stay its hand and not proceed with a complaint to its court. There are other things we could do which would not actually be in breach of the protocol and which we could do unilaterally, the obvious one being to pass the UK export control laws foreshadowed the July Command Paper:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/11/we-need-an-economic-policy-based-on-promoting-growth-and-limiting-inflation/#comment-1290741
“However if the EU is genuinely concerned about the risk that their Single Market could be contaminated by unacceptable items in the trickle of goods coming in across the open land border then the UK government could easily seek to allay their fears by passing the export control laws foreshadowed in paragraphs 43 and 62 of the July Command Paper.
There would be no need to seek EU permission to pass and enforce those UK laws, it would be a unilateral step on the part of the UK; and in any case why should either Brussels or Dublin object to a helpful UK move to protect their market?ā
January 28, 2022
No Rose, this has got nothing to do with ‘the Blob’, the BBC or Cummings. The fault is entirely that of the traitor Boris Johnson who refuses to do anything that will upset the EU. Lord Frost proposed an ‘honesty box’ solution, with lorries only being checked if they voluntarily reported that they were carrying goods destined for the EU. Boris rejected this. We were promised that this would be resolved by the end of November (long before the stories of Christmas parties came out), but Boris the Traitor has allowed this to drag on indefinitely. As long as he remains determined to appease the EU then NOTHING will happen and NI will continue to be ruled by Brussels and Dublin. This treachery must end, but it won’t until the ERG find their missing spine and give Boris an ultimatum: revoke the Protocol or we all vote against you.
January 28, 2022
“revoke the Protocol or we all vote against you” Agreed but that is not enough: add, drop net zero, revive energy self sufficiency, and food self sufficiency, drop the new CAP, and get back the fishing grounds before they are laid waste like the Mediterranean. And repeal and revoke all treaties and laws preventing border security.
January 28, 2022
PS flatten and simplify taxes. Continue the drive for simplicity Nigel Lawson and Geoffrey Howe were engaged in.
January 28, 2022
Exactly right, but it seems there is no political will for these actions. Also no political will for scrapping net zero, the climate change act, the vast Sunak tax hikes, reducing the bloated size of government, having a bonfire of red tape or even reforming the dire state monopoly NHS. But fine for Truss to fly on a private jet for Ā£500,000 to Australia it seems. When it can be done using about 1/500 of the fuel & Carbon by just taking a scheduled commercial flight.
January 28, 2022
+1. L L. And Ms Truss aspires to leadership of the Con Party. God help us all!
January 28, 2022
She insists that āevery government decision is based on value for moneyā if only some were!
I estimate it would have used over 120,000 litres of aviation fuel producing about 300,000 KG of CO2.
Still we all know that C02 plant food is a ruse & not really a serious problem.
January 29, 2022
“We all know”
No, “some believe”.
And others know the facts on the other hand.
January 28, 2022
We are back with Mrs .May’s betrayal withdrawal agreement and the Alexander Johnson’s endorsement of the betrayal by signing the wretched thing.
There must be no compromise on this or our ,country will soon be Great Britain.
Perhaps we need the help of Mr Putin in this negotiation, as he eases Eastern Ukraine back under Russian control!
January 28, 2022
It’s a good point. We’re sending troops to the other side of Europe but not defending our interests right here.
January 28, 2022
Bozo used the somewhat Orwellian term “Europe whole and free” this week;doesn’t sound like he’s remotely interested in sovereign statehood.
January 28, 2022
+1
It seems the only border that matters to Western politicians is that of Ukraine.
January 28, 2022
So some places still require masks!
Not so keen on following govt. guidelines now.
And Johnson doesnāt even have the guts to insistā¦NO MASKS!
When is he repealing the Covid Act?
Silly question.
January 28, 2022
They are now a fetish item for all but the most vulnerable who should have been wearing FFP3 types BEFORE Covid at this low level of risk.
“You protect yourself. Don’t worry about protecting me anymore, Dear.”
January 28, 2022
NLA
+1
Reckon you are correct.
This morning my sister got two letters.
One from NHS saying restrictions had been lifted.
The other from her surgery saying all restrictions still in place!
Waiting outside, social distancing and masks still required for a visit.
Does this amount to breaking the law??
January 28, 2022
No, owners of private property can make whatever requirements they like for people to enter.
I wouldn’t allow any tradesperson into mine without a mask, for instance.
January 28, 2022
Everhopeful. I do not believe there is any intention of repealing the Covid Act. As for masks simply do not comply. I am in hospital right now, and do not wear one and everyone knows where I stand.
January 28, 2022
+1 on both points.
Hope your stay in hospital is short and you get home OK.
January 28, 2022
They certainly do.
January 28, 2022
+1
Wish you better soon.š
Glad you are not complying!
If everyone had been like you weād not be in this situation now.
January 28, 2022
Well, a few hundred thousand more probably would very much not be, no.
January 28, 2022
EH, some shops haven’t been bothered to take down their now incorrect and probably unlawful signs misrepresenting what the law says. But what’s the difference when ignorance of the law is no longer ‘no defence’, the traditional saying, but in this case the desired outcome?
January 28, 2022
Most shops are private property.
The owners of that property can require whatever condition they like for others to enter onto it, as long as they do not ask anyone to break the law.
Would you rather that people lost those proprietary rights?
January 28, 2022
NLH. I went into Sainsburys today and most people were still wearing face nappies. . As soon as I saw a couple of shoppers going in without and a few members of staff mask less mine went back in my pocket. Freedom at last.
January 29, 2022
Ah, only safety in numbers eh?
How like a Leave voter.
January 28, 2022
+1
I did wonder about private property.
But then I think there are other considerations like discrimination maybe and the fact that a shop or business āinvitesā one in?
However, I found out later that all the no mask stuff is couched in āadvisoryā and other weasel words. Masks also should be worn in doctors etc.
January 28, 2022
You’d think the British Establishment would have learned by now that appeasement of an aggressive continental neighbour doesn’t work.
But no ….. Johnson signed a deal he was warned gave the EU the ability to impose its governance on Northern Ireland, and by implication therefore remain at least partly in control of the rest of the UK (we are told one reason why VAT hasn’t been removed from Energy bills is because it can’t be applied in Northern Ireland so would highlight the betrayal).
The EU will not willingly surrender its control; they told us that Northern Ireland would be their price for the UK leaving their Empire and they meant it. Like Putin, the only thing the EU respects is strength.
He will have to invoke Article 16 of the Protocol.
January 28, 2022
The moral of this story is that if you are up against experienced and clever EU negotiators, you need very sharp people indeed to negotiate with them. Unfortunately, we had Govey and his Lordship.
Johnson was desperate to “get Brexit done” . The EU adroitly exploited this imperative – and the result was an “Agreement” that will cause trouble for us in Ulster/Eire/EU for years to come. And probably with Biden – who believes he is Irish
January 28, 2022
Theresa May took over, and she was never more than half on our side.
https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/130695/irish-border-a-problem-for-the-eu-not-the-uk.html
āIrish border a problem for the EU not the UKā
āOur Prime Ministerās āturn the other cheekā approach to negotiations with the EU may be consistent with her Christian upbringing, but it is not necessarily in the national interest.”
January 28, 2022
Donna
+1 Exactly.
January 28, 2022
Sunak captured by the Treasury, Civil Service pro EU. PM in trouble and hasnāt got the balls.
I donāt know why you post this. You know it wonāt happen. So do we.
January 28, 2022
No need to dial up the rhetoric on the NI protocol, just dispense with all the checks. If the EU complains, tell them we hear their concerns and carry on doing things as we please.
Perhaps BJ feels obliged to keep to the protocol seeing as he signed it. But there again, it’s not like him to honour his agreements.
January 28, 2022
It would be better to minimise the inevitable reputational damage we will suffer from breaking the treaty, and the best way to do that will be to voluntarily and unilaterally address the legitimate concerns of the EU and the Irish government by introducing export controls for the small trickle of goods entering their territory over the land border from Northern Ireland.
It is now six months since paragraphs 43 and 62 of the July Command Paper “Northern Ireland Protocol: the way forward” said:
āWe also stand ready to bring in new legislation to deter anyone in Northern Ireland looking to export to Ireland goods which do not meet EU standards or to evade these enforcement processes.ā
āOnce again we are also ready to put in place legislation to provide for penalties for UK traders seeking to place non-compliant goods on the EU market.ā
and yet despite standing ready all that time absolutely nothing has been done about it.
Why not, because Boris Johnson never meant it?
January 28, 2022
We need to revoke the Protocol in its entirety, not just invoke Article 16 to try and resolve specific problems. And if the EU complains we need to tell them very clearly, at the outset, that if they impose ANY reprisals we will immediately and without further warning revoke ALL fishing licences granted to EU boats. That will ensure the EU acquiesce with no more than a few cross words.
January 28, 2022
Enjoy the blockade of not just Calais, but of all near Continental ports eh?
January 28, 2022
I never realised Calias was blockaded.
Who did that NHL?
January 29, 2022
Really. Some of our remainers still believe. Would be a great lesson for them and us of where players stand.
January 29, 2022
You have a short memory, even for a Leave voter.
Do you not recall Operation Stack, over just a couple of fishing boats and a few hundred metres of inshore waters?
January 28, 2022
Suggest we invoke Article 16 now. As UK is supporting USA in Ukraine whereas the EU is largely opposing them it’s unlikely Joe Biden would do much about it.
January 29, 2022
NHL
Operation stack was also used whilst we were in the EU
I recall a few French fishing boats for a day or two but that happened with French unions many times over decades whilst we were in the EU.
Regular strikes
Near riots in the streets
Burning lamb and so on.
You have a very short memory even for a remain voter.
January 28, 2022
The Reality:
The current arrangements are the “oven ready deal” which would “get Brexit done” (or so we were all told in 2019). If so, why is there a need to re-negotiate?
The implementation of the current NIP is not something that was imposed on the UK. It has all been agreed and signed off by a Joint Implementation Committee on which the UK was an equal partner. The UK lead on that Committee was leading Brexiteer Michael Gove. It is Gove’s signature, acting on behalf of this Conservative government, on all the documents in which the UK signed up to all the current arrangements.
This is Brexit. These are the consequences of electing to leave a free trade area and choosing by the nature of that leaving to erect barriers to trade which were not there before. The current situation is entirely down to the choices made by Conservatives and Brexiteers. It’s about time those people started taking responsibility for those choices they made willingly.
January 28, 2022
Wrong, it is the consequence of an over-ambitious and reckless Boris Johnson using the false vision of a “Canada style” free trade agreement with the EU to bolster his chances of replacing Theresa May.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/08/a-test-for-the-foreign-secretary/#comment-1290010
“The question is: does Boris Johnson have it within him to admit that his much-vaunted alternative to Theresa Mayās Chequers deal was always ill-conceived? From September 28 2018 … “
January 28, 2022
A “Canada style” deal requires a border and checks.
January 28, 2022
As I said beforehand, it would not solve the largely fabricated Irish border problem. And it would be of marginal economic value. And asking for it would make us a supplicant.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/09/21/the-eu-is-more-preoccupied-with-migration-than-with-brexit/#comment-962171
It was, and is, Boris Johnson’s vanity project, and he has no scruples about his misrepresentations:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/11/advisers-advise-ministers-decide/#comment-1283033
“Well, last Christmas Eve Boris Johnson went on TV and told us that his āCanada styleā trade deal with the EU was worth Ā£660 billion, which would work out as about 30% of our GDP. Clearly we could not easily afford to lose such a āfantasticā trade deal, but then of course luckily it is only another of his fantasies.
The EU estimates that the trade deal is worth forty times less than that, 0.75% of GDP … “
January 28, 2022
Sir JR.
At least you have now realized that it is worth giving the negotiations a chance before invoking Paragraph 16 and further Uk legislation. Which I suppose in your terminology is progress as lang as negotiation are ongoing.
Reply We have given them a very long chance. I am impatient now for a Yes No from the EU about these proposals
January 28, 2022
Yes but at least you are now negotiations a chance
January 28, 2022
The EU says that it is not negotiating.
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/brexit/sefcovic-warns-number-10-ni-protocol-isnt-up-for-negotiation-40950370.html
January 29, 2022
Dennis
The EU is negotiating within the existing deal, so the negotiations are about interpretation of existing deal
January 28, 2022
The Irish also have a statistics office, the Central Statistics Office based in Dublin. Their figures on post-Brexit trade show that the value of imports from Ulster surged by 60% in the first nine months of 2021 and are now valued at ā¬2.8bn (Ā£2.33bn)
Trade in the other direction has also increased, with a 48% rise in exports to Ulster from the republic, valued at ā¬2.57bn (Ā£2.14bn)for January to September 2021.
Unfortunately, comparative figures are not available to show any changes in trade between Ulster and the UK as the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (another useless QUANGO) does not collect such data!
This is the root cause of the current difficulties over trade. The EU (read Macron and the French) are desperate to prevent us gaining access to their single market via a “back door” from Ulster. Hence the ridiculous move of the border to the Irish Sea – which has enraged the Loyalist community.
January 28, 2022
Six questions about those Irish statistics:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/17/the-continuing-shortage-of-wind-on-some-days-means-there-is-an-urgent-need-to-change-energy-policy/#comment-1292659
The first being why they have compiled statistics on cross border trade when the Irish government always likes to pretends that there is no border – and one must not be permitted to “re-emerge” – and through to the sixth and last, which is why the UK government always allows this Irish nonsense to go unchallenged when it should be publicly exposed for the nonsense it is?
January 28, 2022
This is a EU policy not a French policy
January 29, 2022
Well the point is that if the UK tries to behave abusively towards any European Union member country, Ireland, France or any other, then they will come up against the whole and its institutions.
That is exactly the point.
January 29, 2022
Not “the Loyalist community” but “the fanatical absolutists within the Loyalist community”.
January 28, 2022
This āNorthern Ireland Protocolā issue is, I think, another one of those issues that get a lot of coverage in the media but which is not understood by many people – including me.
Letās say I make wooden jigsaws for children. I sell them into toy shops in England, Wales and Scotland. I take orders, package them up and get them delivered by a nationwide delivery company. Then I get an order from someone in Northern Ireland who has a shop in Belfast. What do I have to do differently for the order to Northern Ireland?
January 28, 2022
gov.uk āSending parcels to and from Northern Irelandā.
January 28, 2022
I couldn’t find anything on there apart from sending ‘excise goods’ to N. Ireland. So, presumably, sending my toy jigsaws to N.Ireland would be no different from sending them to Manchester. So, what is the big issue?
January 28, 2022
Alas. Your wooden jigsaws are made of, erm, wood. This means you could very well be liable for SPS checks on the wood. Or, at the very least, you will need to confirm that you donāt need to go through such checks. All at your expense and inconvenience. Products of plant and/or animal original require significant extra checks – and many producers have found they canāt send their goods to the EU or NI at all. You might well be one of them. This is not the EU being difficult. SPS checks on goods of plant or animal origin face tough checks at all customs borders. And you put in a place a new customs border.
Assuming you can sell your wooden jigsaws you are likely to face significant extra paperwork. This will significantly add to the cost of your product. It will make your wooden jigsaws less competitive than those made in the single market. You are also likely to struggle to find someone who will deliver it for you. They are no longer taking hasslesome goods. This adds significantly to your workload – meaning you are unlikely to make a profit in your jigsaw so you probably wonāt sell it. This is the situation very many small traders now find themselves in as a result of your Brexit.
It isnāt just NI either. You now canāt sell anywhere in the single market easily. But, on the plus side, you have now taken back control of all rules relating to wooden jigsaws.
January 29, 2022
“On the plus side, your government has now taken back control of all rules relating to wooden jigsaws…in this country, but now, unlike before, has ZERO influence of them in the UK’s former largest export market”
January 28, 2022
Basically the same as you would have to do for an order from the Irish Republic or any other EU country.
January 28, 2022
So, I would have to fill out a customs declaration of some sort?
January 28, 2022
As far as I know, yes.
January 29, 2022
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/trading-and-moving-goods-in-and-out-of-northern-ireland
“Trading and moving goods in and out of Northern Ireland”
The contents section has 13 headings, “Sending or receiving goods in parcels” is the last.
January 28, 2022
The NI Protocol is an elephant trap. The original trap was the May/Robins Withdrawal Agreement that would have kept the UK firmly tied into the EU. The fallback trap is the NIP that settles for keeping NI tied into the EU. Our governments anxiety to get Brexit done led to them not seeing the trap of the NIP. If they assumed EU good faith they were very wrong. The whole process was orchestrated to humiliate the UK from 2016 onwards by making the cost of Brexit as damaging as possible, lest the example we were setting encohraged others to follow. May/ Robins were complicit in it.
The way forward is simple. We activate Art 16, returning NI to normality as a part of the UK. Any border the EU want can be on RI territory. The miniscule trade we have with RI can remain or fall on the actions of the EU. Then enjoy the squabble between the RI and the EU. Continued free movement of people from RI to the UK can be down to the reaction of the EU. End of story.
January 28, 2022
+1
January 28, 2022
“The UK will legislate in Parliament with a money Bill…” – a money bill so that the quislings in the ‘Lords cannot thwart it?
Underlying this matter is the strategic question of whether we want to retain Northern Ireland in the U.K., itself shaped by awareness that the Good Friday Agreement does in some circumstances provide for its exit if the people there so vote.
The second strategic question is how do we respond in future to the enmity exhibited by the Evil Empire?
January 28, 2022
No no I had no idea…I just stumbled into it and turns out they had arranged a surprise protocol … well who could have know?
Did you seriously have no idea what was in it
Absolutely NOT… and any suggestion I did is talking an inverted pyramid of rhubarb piffle
So you do not feel it is part of your job to understand your own agreements
Well …ah you put it like that yes maybe .. you will have to wait for the report.
But it was absolutely your decision to inflict this disaster on us all along with the many other malign consequences of Brexit
No… or ..yes or what days is it ? Oh Christ cant we hide the puppies somewhere else that cushion cost more than your car .
January 28, 2022
OT; We are told the Gray Report will be “published in full”, with today’s news perhaps the printed version should be published in a ring binder, at least that people can re-purpose the ream of blank(ed) paper!
January 28, 2022
Never looks at ease, Cressida Dick, does she?
I wonder why ever not?
January 29, 2022
@NLH; I note the front page of Saturday’s Daily Star once again cuts to the quick….
January 29, 2022
Can’t find any reference on line, Jerry.
January 29, 2022
Got it – quite.
My question is, why, exactly, is she so agreeable?
January 28, 2022
‘Boris’ has been promising in the HoC for months in response to questions from NI Unionist MPs that something would be done about their concerns over sovereignty and the NI Protocol but of course, as with other matters where effort is needed, he has done nothing. He is an appeaser of opponents, he has no courage, nor any principled beliefs.
‘Boris’ just continues to betray us all. His only aims are for personal glory, if it has to come from conceding to foreign interests then so be it.
January 28, 2022
The current situation is no threat to him and resolving it will not substantially enhance his already tardy and tattered reputation. He therefore can afford to ignore the situation and has done so.
January 28, 2022
Yesterday there were two very interesting, connected, reports in the Belfast Telegraph.
The first is here, with a story which has been covered elsewhere:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/dup-to-halt-brexit-checks-at-northern-ireland-ports-as-sinn-fein-accuse-party-of-stunt-politics-41284605.html
“DUP to halt Brexit checks at Northern Ireland ports, as Sinn Fein accuse party of āstunt politicsā”
But the second, later, story has gained much less coverage:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/uk-wont-step-in-if-dup-orders-halt-to-brexit-checks-at-ports-says-foreign-secretary-liz-truss-41286122.html
“UK wonāt step in if DUP orders halt to Brexit checks at ports, says Foreign Secretary Liz Truss”
“Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has said itās a āmatter for the Executiveā if officials are ordered by Edwin Poots to stop checks required under the NI Protocol.
In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, she said she was hopeful that the EU and UK would find a āsweet spotā in their negotiations ā led by Ms Truss herself and European Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic ā which would resolve problems with the protocol while still protecting the EU single market.”
There is no way to be sure that the second story is accurate, or that even if it was accurate last night it will not cease to be accurate when Boris Johnson intervenes and contradicts Liz Truss out of fear that the EU will suspend or cancel his “fantastic” trade deal, as happened last November when suddenly Lord Frost went into reverse, but anyway at the moment I would suggest that if the administration of EU mandated checks and controls on imports into Northern Ireland is to be treated as a devolved matter then the administration of UK checks and controls on exports across the land border into the Irish Republic should also be treated as a devolved matter, and that would make sense insofar as the Northern Ireland authorities are on the spot and its officials would be best placed to sort out a simple and flexible system of export licences adapted to the complexities of the border, and setting up that system would not infringe the protocol and would not require the agreement of the EU and should not arouse any credible opposition.
January 28, 2022
Gavin Robinson explained the legal justification to Mrs Foster today and both seemed to believe what the FS had said.
January 28, 2022
I understand that this government wants to āsave-faceā and continue its close links with the EU, but when a bad law is a bad lawā¦itās a bad law (agreement, treaty, protocol etc) and needs repealing
January 28, 2022
John, what are these goods moved internally within the UK that it is too difficult or expensive to move over to Northern Ireland?
Are they things the UK imports from other countries in the World? Or items actually made or grown in the UK?
Reply It includes all U.K. grown and reared food
January 28, 2022
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-checks-dup-liz-truss-b2002745.html
“Liz Truss says government wonāt stop DUP from suspending Brexit checks”
“Unionist ministers have pledged to halt inspections in Northern Ireland”
“Foreign secretary Liz Truss has said the UK government would not intervene to prevent DUP ministers in North Ireland halting checks required under the Brexit deal.
Ms Truss said it would be up to the Northern Ireland Executive to decide if officials in the province should stop inspections on goods if ordered to do so by DUP agricultural minister Edwin Poots.
First minister Paul Givan said on Thursday that his DUP colleague Mr Poots would order a stop to the checks ā a move branded a stunt by Sinn Fein and other parties on the executive at Stormont.
Sinn Fein deputy first minister Michelle OāNeill claimed the proposal would expose the DUP to āpublic ridiculeā ā and said civil servants would be obliged to defy any order from Mr Poots as such a direction would be unlawful.
Asked if Boris Johnsonās government would intervene, Ms Truss told the Belfast Telegraph it was a āmatter for the [Northern Ireland] executiveā to decide upon.”
I repeat, if the operation of EU mandated checks and controls on goods coming into Northern Ireland is to be treated as a devolved matter then logically any UK checks and controls on goods leaving Northern Ireland for the Irish Republic should also be treated as a devolved matter, and therefore I would argue that the Northern Ireland executive should get cracking on a system of export licences for that contentious trickle of goods at the same time as it ends the unnecessary EU import controls on goods arriving from Great Britain.
January 28, 2022
What the good people of this country need to do is to set up entities amongst themselves – not through government – and for those quasi-public institutions then to deal directly with the European Union completely over the heads of this utter disgrace of a Tory “government” , and come to a proper, modern, civilised understanding between the decent people of this continent, with arrangements determined by whatever consensus we might reach.
January 30, 2022
What is that understanding NLH the EU is better than us and lets capitulate, interesting to see you support anarchy. Or is it only anarchy if it suits your purpose?
January 28, 2022
NO, Sir John, I’ve told you before: your so-called solution does NOT solve the problem that Northern Ireland would continue to be treated differently to any other part of the UK. Goods and lorries travelling from London to Belfast will still be treated differently to those travelling from London to Birmingham. Checks will still be necessary. These not only slow traffic down but also incur costs for the companies involved, and they indicate that Northern Ireland is not part of the Union on the same terms as all the other parts. This is unacceptable. In addition, your proposal only deals with the movement of goods. But Northern Ireland would still be under EU law on issues such as state aid, and standards. Again, this is incompatible with the indivisible unity of the country.
The checks that you propose do NOT benefit the UK. They only benefit the EU. Why the hell would we want to benefit our ENEMIES??? Your proposal makes no sense at all. The only sensible solution is to completely revoke the Protocol and treat the six counties in NI exactly the same as Berkshire. Nor, by the way, do we need the EU/Ireland to regulate traffic entering NI. The fact is that trade and movement between the North and South of Ireland is MINIMAL and the best solution is simply to let free movement really be free movement. Completely free. What harm would be caused by Irish or EU goods entering NI? None really. There are no tariffs, so no money is lost. Nor are there any dangerous or illegal goods entering from the South. Politicians always believe that they must control everything, but sometimes the best solution is simply to decide to do nothing.
January 28, 2022
BBC reporting update from No10 today that both the PM and the Chancellor are committed to the National Insurance tax rise
Manifesto promise out the window ā we donāt believe you
January 28, 2022
We are paying the price for all those other panic stricken reversals, for example on billionaire Rashford’s moral blackmail. This tax reversal makes sense to everyone because the situation has changed all round; and it is the one we aren’t going to get.
January 28, 2022
I have just heard that C2C is announcing that masks must be worn at every station.
So doctors, dentists, supermarkets and now railways are making public health decisions in total defiance of the government.
CAN they do this?
January 28, 2022
Oh I see.
Looking at govt. site regarding ālifting of restrictionsāI see it is the usual contradictory, confusing-on-purpose b*ll*cks.
Wear a maskā¦donāt wear a mask.
Johnson keeps one foot in both camps all the better to imprison us again!
January 28, 2022
Of course they can.
It’s private property.
Do you understand what that means?
January 28, 2022
It isnāt as simple as that.
For example if a shopkeeper bars someone with a hidden disability then that shopkeeper risks being done for discrimination.
So a blanket ban on the unmasked is not advisable.
Equality Act 2010.
January 29, 2022
The rule serves its purpose.
Normal people are not so fixated as to pretend to have such a hidden disability as an excuse to behave antisocially by exposing the staff and other customers to increased risk of infection.
I prefer not wearing a mask, but I’m happy to comply with reasonable requests to do so for the short time that I’m in a supermarket.
So the polite request from shops still has a general, useful effect.
January 29, 2022
@EH; “For example if a shopkeeper bars someone with a hidden disability then that shopkeeper risks being done for discrimination.”
Indeed, but remember it will be for the complaint to prove their case, such as by way of a (per-existing) doctors letter, not for the shopkeeper to disprove it, given that the Law already gave dispensation to those with medical reasons for not wearing a face covering, and that it has been the accepted norm for such people to simply explain their exemption should they be challenged…
January 28, 2022
@EH; Owners of private property can make whatever entry rules they like, if you do not like their rules, do not wish to wear your mask for example, remain in a public place, beyond their property line!
Railway platforms (and land, such as buildings, car parks etc) are private property, always have been, and the railways have always be able to make their own by-laws (enforced by their own statutory police force, since 1948 the BTP), so NR and/or C2C can indeed make you wear a mask, if you refuse they can if they choose;
a/. stop you traveling
b/. ask (make) you leave the station
c/. they might even now have power to ban you, just as airlines/airports can.
January 28, 2022
I’ve just been reading this article on the conservativehome blog:
https://www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2022/01/the-dups-threat-to-suspend-border-inspections-further-turns-up-the-pressure-on-truss.html
and my heart sank when I got to the final paragraph:
“Ultimately there are only three ways out of the impasse: a land border which will offend nationalists, a sea border which offends unionists, or pretending there is no border at all, which offends the EU … ”
So what about a fourth option, namely accepting that there is a land border which is still exactly where it has been for the past century and which is still just as open as it was when the UK was still in the EU with its customs union and single market, but now by virtue of a different international legal arrangement which sufficiently guarantees the respective integrity of the two markets?
Impossible? The SNP were among those who didn’t think so, at one time:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/10/31/this-site-in-the-election/#comment-1067597
āThe solution I have proposed in a long series of letters which two successive editors have been kind enough to publish is not entirely original. It is already being used to keep the border between Liechtenstein and Switzerland open, and in 2016 the SNP mooted that the same principle of āparallel marketabilityā could be applied at the Anglo-Scottish border.
Moreover similar proposals have been made recently by Sir Jonathan Faull, who previously held a high position at the EU Commission, and by Lord Empey, who was previously the leader of the Ulster Unionist party.”
January 29, 2022
“arguing for revision” of the NI Protocol!
The EU will always look for advantage to itself and disadvantage to the UK. The only sensible and acceptable solution is to bin it in its entirety. Why not reverse the stupid devolution and re-unite the UK too? If both those issues were intended to disadvantage us then they succeeded.
January 29, 2022
When they checked in June the EU was not happy with the way their orders were being carried out:
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2022/0128/1276525-system-of-checks/
“Checks on goods to NI from Britain ‘not fit for purpose’ under protocol – EU”
“EU inspectors have found that the system of checks on goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain under the protocol was “not fit for purpose”.”
This is what is known as “Taking back control”.
January 29, 2022
Yesterday Bill brown asked for proof that Theresa May’s “Brexit In Name Only” plan was designed to please the CBI, and other business pressure groups, and that she used the largely fabricated problem of the Irish land border as a pretext to give those groups most of what they wanted. If he had followed events over the years he might have seen this happening for himself, but in any case I offered a reply, which however was not published. I think it is important to understand as much as possible about how we have been led, or rather misled, into the current mess and therefore I have picked out three of the many relevant references on this blog, all from March 2019 but with internal references reaching back to August 2018.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/03/10/tuesdays-vote/#comment-1001836
“The Chequers deal is proof that the government has listened ā it is as close to what we asked for as we were ever likely to get ā and the Prime Minister has shown considerable fortitude in squaring the circles needed to deliver it. The rest of the government and all of Parliament now need to get behind it.ā
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/03/17/i-see-no-reason-for-a-delay-in-brexit/#comment-1004134
“Is it not significant that the CBI and other business lobby groups support her deal, not as an ideal outcome but as the best that they could hope for short of the UK staying in the EU? And is it not significant that the Irish government pretty much agrees with the CBI, and so is very willing to provide her with a pretext for doing what the CBI wanted her to do? For the Irish Prime Minister the issue of the open Irish land border is a ruse, while for our Prime Minister it is a pretext, and both are happy to collude on that.”
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/03/17/i-see-no-reason-for-a-delay-in-brexit/#comment-1004361
“As I have said before until I myself am sick of saying it, Theresa May has been doing what what first Tory and then also Labour governments have been doing for more than half a century: giving priority to the interests and convenience of the 6% or thereabouts of UK businesses which export about 12% of GDP to the rest of the EU, and especially to the larger and more vocal businesses. It was noticeable and significant that she even went to talk to the CBI about her deal before she told the House of Commons:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-cbi-19-november-2018
āPM speech to CBI: 19 November 2018ā
āLast week the Cabinet agreed the terms of the UKās withdrawal from the European Union ā¦ We now have an intense week of negotiations ahead of us in the run-up to the special European Council on Sunday. During that time I expect us to hammer out the full and final details of the framework that will underpin our future relationship and I am confident that we can strike a deal at the council that I can take back to the House of Commons.ā”
January 29, 2022
Michel Barnier has had something to say:
https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/vdl-texts-barnier-speaks-putin-thinks/
“Mr. Johnson is a skilled and experienced politician, he has around him very high quality civil servants ā¦ they know exactly what they signed up for and they are the ones who negotiated.ā
āThe British government has very consciously accepted this complicated solution which preserves the all-Ireland economy, protects the internal market, provides the controls we need and keeps the peace.ā
January 29, 2022
The UK government has put out a short video about the need to “fix” the protocol, which can be seen here:
https://www.thejournal.ie/irish-politicians-criticise-british-government-ads-5667261-Jan2022/
It has been criticised by some Irish politicians, for example:
āImagine the Irish government putting out ads saying the peace process is at risk. We wouldnāt be putting out ads ā weād be going to the North and meeting with people. Thatās leadership. If Boris Johnson was serious about the peace process, serious about their unionist friends, they should show leadership and go sit down and make this work.ā
Clearly that person has forgotten what the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar did in October 2018:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/victims-of-ira-accuse-taoiseach-of-hyping-up-hard-border-violence-fears-37439393.html
“Victims of IRA accuse Taoiseach of hyping up hard border violence fears
The son of a Methodist preacher killed in an IRA attack has hit out at Leo Varadkar after he claimed a hard border posed a “real risk” of a return to violence.
The Taoiseach held aloft a copy of the Irish Times during a leaders’ dinner at the latest European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday.
It featured a story about nine people, including three IRA men, who were killed at a border checkpoint in 1972.
He later described the article as “a useful prop to demonstrate to all the European leaders the extent to which the concerns about the re-emergence of a hard border and the possibility of a return to violence are very real”.
Hypocritical, or what?
January 30, 2022
So within a week of Heseltine flag waving a white paper the Scot who can’t get elected in His own land Gove is about to produce said paper, is this why they got rid of EVEL John? so they can carry on doing the EUs work and wiping England of the face of the Earth. said many times, Why do the English have No representation on the BIC?