It was a great pity the government did not stick with its mantra, No deal is better than a bad deal, when Mrs May was negotiating our exit from the EU. It is as true today over the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Two week-ends ago I read that a deal had been agreed and that we would hear it on the Monday and vote on it on the Tuesday. Nothing happened. Ministers assured us there was no deal. They told us they were still negotiating, yet various forces were briefing the press otherwise.
The same thing happened this week-end. I read we are on a 3 line whip today for an NI deal. There was no such thing on the whip sent out to Conservative MPs.
Clearly Ministers would like a deal, and are working on one. They now say they will not sign a deal which fails to tackle the issues over who governs Northern Ireland as well as the trade issues. Let me briefly remind you what the big ones are:
1 Does the deal remove all EU barriers to GB to Northern Ireland trade?
2. Does it remove all EU laws from economic activity taking part entirely within NI if that entails sales to NI, to the rest of the UK or to non EU countries?
3. Does it restore the UK’s right to settle all tax and state aids policy in NI?
4. Does it restore the supremacy of the Good Friday Agreement, as set out in Article 1 of the Protocol, allowing the restoration of Stormont by gaining the consent of the Unionist community to these arrangements?
It would be a bad idea to settle for partial success, as the EU’s aim will be to get the EU to accept a binding Agreement, leaving us open yet again to EU laws and legal challenge as we always were when in the EU.
February 27, 2023
Good morning.
I am give to understand that the EU has allowed the use of maggots to be used in its processed food production.
https://food.ec.europa.eu/safety/novel-food/authorisations/approval-insect-novel-food_en
What is His Majesties Governments position on this and, should the government wish to legislate against such adulterated foods, what checks have been put in place to prevent such products entering the UK Single Market ?
whilst I do not disbelieve the EU’s position regarding its concerns over its Single Market, I demand that the UK Government set out that there is a thing call the UK Single Market and, whilst Ulster remains legally part of the UK, it should be bound by the same rules as the UK. Anything contrary is a direct challenge to UK Sovereignty and independence.
It would be so nice if we could just say to hell with the EU and go about our business. But then again, this charade does seem to serve a purpose 😉
February 27, 2023
A little childish?
February 27, 2023
don’t like EU criticism, do you!
February 27, 2023
I am only mirroring that of your Overlords in Brussels.
February 28, 2023
Mark B
You are full of nonsense
February 27, 2023
Oh no! I visited an Irish Abattoir in my professional capacity many years ago and a box of meat was opened. It must have been sold into ‘intervention’ on a number of occasions, (out the back door, unintended defrost collect the subsidy and in the front door). It was covered in maggots!
So maggots and the EU have a long history.
February 28, 2023
Lynn Atkinson
You are so single minded
February 27, 2023
PVL -I have reminded you before that the EU has no right in how we manage our sovereign affairs .
February 27, 2023
I think this argument is pointless.
Brexit is clearly a failure. We’re a trading nation. We voted to leave one of the biggest trading blocks in the world. Now it is starting to cotton onto everyone that the low growth is killing us.
We will be rejoining the E.U eventually.
The end result of Brexit will be that we lose the pound. Thanks guys. Great work
February 28, 2023
Our low growth came about in the EEC/EC/EU. We did not thrive in a Franco German protection racket not designed to include our national interest.
Later, out of control mass immigration drove down wages and conditions, investment and innovation, and producitivity. It drove up the cost of housing and a whole lot else.
Low growth has been exacerbated recently by Net Zero. Cheap and secure energy is the foundation of a nation’s prosperity but 25 years ago the decision was taken to throw it away. No arrangements were made for our energy supply in the 2020s. Now the guilty men like former Energy Secretarey Ed Davey are blaming the ensuing fuel poverty on Brexit.
In March 2020 a further blow against growth was the decision to crash the economy and borrow and print money to compensate. A lot of people never came back to work. small business went bust. Big business cleaned up.
Now, growth is being aborted because the remainiac Treasury is impoverishing us by raising tax at a time when every other advanced country is lowering it. For example, Little Southern Ireland next door can have a 12% corporation tax, but we are to have ours put up to 26%. Naturally Astra Zeneca has moved there.
Remainiacs are waging a major full time propaganda war at the moment to convince people Brexit has failed, but as we saw yesterday, it still hasn’t properly happened. We haven’t even got rid of VAT, let alone the EU. If Brexit were to be completed and we be set free to realize our potential, you would not get away with badmouthing it.
March 1, 2023
rose: “Our low growth came about in the EEC/EC/EU. ”
I almost agree with you. Our low growth came as a result of the policy of ‘managed decline’ pursued by successive UK governments since the end of the war. Our ‘productivity’ was often compared to the ‘best’ in the Euro Zone, Germany.
But, guess what? Germany was only so affluent and prosperous because at the base of its economy was cheap Russian energy. Obviously, that’s gone now.
Germany now has to buy its energy from the USA, at by some accounts, a couple of hundred percent mark-up on cost. That’s going to clobber Germany economic activity. If all the UK heavy engineering capacity hadn’t already been exported to the far east by our political class, we might be in a position to compete with Germany on an ‘even playing field’.
Unfortunately, our economy is now a FIRE ( financial, insurance and real estate ) economy, we can no longer build a working aircraft carrier for our military.
The point is the FIRE economy is in the process of collapsing too, because after fifteen years of zero cost of borrowing, resulting in mal investment ( Tesla, ‘Green energy’, etc ) layering derivatives on top of derivates, there is more debt that money to pay for it.
The plan seems to have been to destroy the Russian government and loot it’s natural resources. Well, that isn’t going according to plan, and tragically the Ukraine has been caught between the neo-cons and Russia.
The Europe Union doesn’t come out of this in a good position, but then nor does the United Kingdom.
Buckle up!
February 28, 2023
Joining the EU means we lose the £. Where have you been?
March 1, 2023
Lynn Atkinson: “Joining the EU means we lose the £. ”
I’ve got some old pre decimal British coin. Prior to 1920 the coins were made of pure silver. After that date, they were composed of silver and cupro – nickel alloy, with about 50% silver by weight. Then again, in 1947 the silver content was reduced again. Since then we’ve had the traitor Heath’s decimalization, a huge devaluation by another name. And, the crowning glory of Tory ‘anti – inflation policy’ was Rushi Sunak’s huge inflationary printing in 2020.
The Bank of England boasts about it on it’s web page. But they split the 2020 QE graph into three bars in an attempt to disguise the enormity of the policy.
At the time I said it was an insane policy but, the PPE & foreign oligarchs ( WEF Placemen ) thought differently.
In short, we lost the £ years ago. Nobody in the declining US empire is permitted any degree of independence, viz Nordstream bombing of civilian infrastructure by the State Sponsor of Terror, the USA and its allies.
February 27, 2023
I submitted an FoI to DEFRA on this issue. The only response I’ve had so far (an automatic one) basically said they’re very busy and they might get around to replying sometime later this year …. but don’t hold your breath while you’re waiting.
My “Conservative” MP has ignored the email I sent him.
March 1, 2023
Donna: “My “Conservative” MP has ignored the email I sent him.”
Neither your ‘Conservative’ MP, nor Mr John Redwood MP will be eating maggots as a staple. Other than of course Lobster and Champaign.
February 27, 2023
Charade serves a purpose for those who want the UK to remain tied to the EU. Think on who makes up that group and what is happening with the news leaks.
I said last time if Sunak believed he had a deal his political acumen was sadly lacking. If the latest proposal cannot meet Sir J’s 4 tests them we have more evidence of his (in)competence.
Paraphrasing Wilde: To fail to make an EU-NI deal is unfortunate, to fail to make it twice begins to look like carelessness.
February 27, 2023
I agree with all but the last word, I suggest ‘suicide’.
February 27, 2023
Yes and perhaps red and green lanes at all other entry points from third countries into the EU so there’s no leakage into NI. A similarly proportionate quid pro quo
February 27, 2023
You reveal an excellent contrast Sir Joe, snookering the EU’s false notion of fairness.
February 27, 2023
Not in a million years ….the current issues are to hurt the UK only
February 27, 2023
The European Union has never prevented nations for imposing their own stricter limits on standards.
It simply sets minimums.
Sir John’s piece relies yet again on the False Binary, aimed at those incapable of thinking in a more developed way, and upon whose votes his party depends absolutely.
February 27, 2023
Are you honestly saying that people who vote labour are more intelligent? Are you having a laugh? The fact that Labour areas are the least prosperous with the highest level of crime doesn’t bear this out. Mark is saying that because we don’t check EU imports these food items containing insects can enter our country and because they aren’t clearly labelled can be bought by unsuspecting shoppers.
February 28, 2023
Christine
If you believe what you are saying, you are very naive
February 28, 2023
Good idea we need to insist on much stricter import ‘minimums’ on things we can produce for ourselves, is that how it works Martin.
February 27, 2023
“It would be so nice if we could just say to hell with the EU and go about our business” that was more or less promised to Brexit voters (easiest deal, money to NHS etc).
And many bought it.
Reality however is more complicated.
February 27, 2023
I didn’t, hence why I advocated moving to the EEA first. But others thought otherwise. And so we are here.
March 1, 2023
In some ways that’s like where Northern Ireland is now, and will remain until the treaty is reopened.
And the Stormont Brake will prove to be as useful as Norway’s “right of reservation” over EU laws:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/09/06/eu-and-uk-laws-what-a-different-approach-to-framing-them/#comment-959329
“So, Mike, when was the last time Norway exercised its theoretical right to refuse an EU law, what was the EU law, and what were the consequences?
This may help you, from Martin Howe QC:
https://brexitcentral.com/dont-fooled-efta-eea-membership-not-let-us-take-back-control/
“If we tried to change our rules or refused to adopt new rules, we would be bullied into submission by EU threats of loss of market access. That’s what happened when Norway refused to follow the EU’s Postal Directive. They soon fell into line.”
February 27, 2023
Not sure such promises were made Billy. If so by whom?
March 1, 2023
The money has gone to the NHS Billy with more allocated but due to covid the back log is unmanageable and too many back room and not sufficient front serving staff have been hired.
February 27, 2023
A fourth insect? For goodness sake, this is taking the idea of reducing meat eating to the realms of the ridiculous!
Unfortunately, these insects are made into powder and are already being put into school foods in Australia, and I’ve no doubt in Europe too, to get the young used to the idea.
I agree our UK single market needs to be protected from insects being sneaked into Uk food items.
Funny how all the countries get the same ideas – like they were told to go with it? [sarc]
February 27, 2023
seems like we may have to just chew it over?
February 27, 2023
Mark, we don’t have to eat ready-made meals. We should ensure packaging shows this foodstuff when in the food, and British people can make an informed choice. So as NLH pointed out, we can expect UK standards and sufficient labelling shouldn’t be unenforceable.
If we don’t get some reassurance from ready-meal retailers, we will stop buying any of them.
February 27, 2023
No deal is better than a bad deal ? But we already have a bad deal, the oven ready deal negotiated by Boris Johnson and supported by the Conservative party
February 27, 2023
Just so. What is the PM up to? The rasamataz over this “new deal” is about as OTT, and probably as ill judged, as his PM job application video. He seems very confident it’s a winner with the DUP, let’s hope it is. If it’s all show and no go, then he’s on the fast track out of office.
February 27, 2023
So let’s not make it worse by doing another bad deal; but Sunk will.
February 27, 2023
Indeed, a bad deal that the EU have exploited ruthlessly as one would expect of them. I have no confidence Sunak will deliver anything sensible. He was an appalling Chancellor and has selected Hunt who is another appalling Chancellor and was an appalling Health Secretary.
Well worth watching Laurence Fox on GBNews on Friday 24th interview with Dr Tina Peers and the MHRA recent report.
February 27, 2023
A bad deal forced upon us by the Benn Act (surrender bill) and the undemocratic remainers in Parliament. That act took away 100% of our bargaining powers, ie. we could NOT leave the EU without a deal, and naturally, the EU took full advantage of it. I feel we are in a similar position today, where we have politicians willing to sacrifice the UK on the high altar of the EU.
February 27, 2023
Yes, Shirley M. We should not forget Benn and the remainers in Pareliament who did this.
February 27, 2023
Indeed the traitors of the Benn Act. surely guilty of blatant treachery. Many/most(?) are still “serving” (but serving whom) in Parliament.
February 27, 2023
Absolutely – and since all possible deals with the European Union were worse than what we had as members, the logic of John’s headline is that the whole dismal, sorry, brexit business should have been binned there and then.
After all, it’s what you do when moving house – the default is you stick with what you have. You don’t have it bulldozed and sleep on a pile of rubble.
February 27, 2023
A worse deal from whose perspective?
February 27, 2023
As ‘members’ we had the worst of all ‘deals’ signed by Royal Prerogative in 1972. No democratic approval was sought because it was KNOWN that it could not be obtained!
We did not exist as an entity for almost half a century. Then VGB Day!
NI and the heroic MPs fight on. When will be have VNI Day Sir John?
We held our seat on the UN Security Council, as France still does, in defiance of their definition of an independent country – we actually did not qualify even for a seat much less a place on the security council. So that’s the proof that the UN is ‘in’ on this push to fool and destroy that nations by taking their states first. Essential for One World Government.
The fact that Britain survived and that the people voted in 2016 to continue existing is miraculous.
We saved ourselves as Russia saved itself (from the USSR crusher). They have found their Orthodox Christianity which sustains them, we found WOKE which debilitates us.
The rest of the EU (as the rest of the USSR) will have their existence forced on them with the collapse of the un democratic, insolvent, unloved institutions that tried to destroy them.
God Save our people and our marvellous Islands.
February 28, 2023
2014 “The UK Treasury is paying for being one of the few among the EU’s 27 economies to strengthen this year. We all had to pay EU taxes for other people’s bad habits that the UK doesn’t tax!: sex work and drugs lift UK’s EU bill. Brussels needs more cash this year to cope with overspent budgets.” Guardian. “More importantly, Britain is paying more because this year it is simply bigger than 18 months ago while other countries have stood still or contracted.” One fifth extra annual tax charged!
Horizon Europe we pay in £15bn to get £1.5bn back perhaps, maybe, maybe not.
Erasmus, we pay the most in, taking European students in to Scotland, and other regions free of charge, student loans never to be repaid. The new Turin scheme is much more favourable to the British students who want to swap training places all over the World.
Paying substantial fees to the children in foreign countries when one of their parents took a part-time job here gathering maximum child and tax credit for six months work out of twelve. If it wasn’t so substantial Juncker would have just agreed that it should only be for children based in the UK with more expensive living costs or for parents working 37.5 hours per week for 40 weeks or more.
I can go on.
February 27, 2023
Wait for the big stitch up.
Fishy selling out to Brussels disguised by a few weasel words
He will be the death of your party, I read his bit in the Telegraph yesterday.
Sanctimonious gobbledygook.
February 27, 2023
Carson – I think that’s what JR means – we’d have been with no deal! Then we wouldn’t be in the stupid situation we find ourselves in now.
February 27, 2023
When you climb out of a swamp, having a rapid hose down to leave the area is the first step away. We could have lingered years with their mess brimming over our bottom lip, trying to build a perfect escape raft with hot showers and facilities.
We and our belongings have been repatriated to the UK, free to take our own choices for the better in our stride.
February 27, 2023
@Carson +1
Just so, the UK is but a Colony of the EU.
February 27, 2023
Remember when Remain correctly explained to Leave voters who were “sick of hearing about the EU” that they would hear vastly more about it if we left than if we had stayed?
They were correct yet again, weren’t they?
February 27, 2023
In the past, it took a N. Ireland referendum to make the DUP slowly give up its opposition against the Good Friday Agreement.
Polls have shown for some time that if a referendum were held on the protocol, there is a clear majority in N. Ireland to keep it.
Maybe the DUP can be bought off, just a few years ago, when it was “thrown under the bus” by the ‘oven ready deal government’?
February 27, 2023
@Peter van LEEUWEN – its your unelected unaccountable masters the EU, is the ones refusing to recognise the Good Friday Agreement. They didn’t create it, they weren’t involved in it, so don’t want it. As they are not held to account they can play games with people live forever.
February 28, 2023
@Ian B: the Good Friday agreement was obviously a fruit of EU membership and over the years the EU donated many millions for cross community peace work in N. Ireland. The ultimate power in the EU rests with the 27 heads of government. That the head of the EU civil service is called president and is even allowed to visit the British king shows that 27 countries collectively can have a rather powerful civil service.
February 28, 2023
Ian B
A naive and totally unnecessary reply to our Dutch friend
February 27, 2023
They were bought off by May at a cost of £100 million per DUP MP (10 MPs, £1 billion total).
February 28, 2023
That is slander, as we so often get from the EU apologists. They have no real arguments. The money went mostly to mental health, across the whole Province, many people still being affected by the Troubles the EU is manoeuvring to reawake.
March 2, 2023
I wonder who is in needs of mental health service …
£200 m out of £1 bn went for NI health services (independently of whether had been affected or not by the Troubles), £400 m went for infrastructure, £150 m for better broadband, £150 m for education, £100 m to tackle deprivation.
February 27, 2023
Yes this is the perfect recipe for the return of the Troubles Peter. You forget that the DUP is itself unimportant except as its role representing a hefty minority in the Province. You would have to ‘buy them all off’. This is not Ukraine you know!
When the Republican movement was in the minority, the U.K. did not take the same attitude to them as you propose. That’s why foreigners i.e Continental Europeans, would be better served minding their own business.
If Biden scuppers the GFA by forcing a ‘deal’, he would be very unwise to visit NI.
February 28, 2023
@ Lynn Atkinson:
You are correct that the UK government didn’t have much sympathy for the Irish republican movement, certainly when compared to the “love” for the DUP. The Belfast Agreement recognises two national identities. It is good that Risho Sunak takes a more even handed approach to the difficult issues in N. Ireland.
February 28, 2023
I said the exact reverse. I did that when the Republicans weee a minority the British Government did not try to ‘buy off their representatives’ as you suggest for the DUP MPs.
We don’t do politics like that, as I pointed out, this is not Ukraine.
February 28, 2023
It is the other way round, Peter. The British political class and media have long been sentimental about the IRA and Sinn Fein. Only Mrs Thatcher was strong against them. Sinn Fein/IRA were able to keep the Assembly down for three years without a murmur of criticism from the establishment. Whatever they ask for they get. Parliament jumps to and delivers. The Unionists on the other hand are betrayed again and again, as we are seeing now, and treated with scorn and contempt. It is all part of the liberal self loathing which afflicts so many people nowadays.
February 28, 2023
Ian B
A naive and totally unnecessary reply to our Dutch friend
February 28, 2023
Lynn Atkinson
There are five million continental Europeans living in the UK so of course they should have a say
February 28, 2023
Why?
February 27, 2023
PvL the EU commission spokesman.
February 28, 2023
@Ian wragg: Too much honour. I don’t even speak for the Dutch, the Dutch who’s economy was damaged by the hard Brexit the UK politicians in power decided on.
February 28, 2023
What a totally childish and unnecessary reply
February 27, 2023
Be honest, NI is no longer part of the UK …maybe its time for a referendum in NI
February 27, 2023
There is a common saying in N Ireland: only people who didn’t read it voted for the Belfast Agreement. The DUP did read it. It is the same with all these treaties. You may be sure Sir John will be reading this new document.
February 28, 2023
@rose: A good thing then, that the DUP ultimately accepted the Belfast Agreement and helped to form the devolved government.
February 28, 2023
PS and having not voted for it, the DUP peacefully and democratically accepted the result of the referendum, applying it and abiding by it ever since. Would that the EU showed it the same respect.
February 27, 2023
Absolute rubbish . You should get your facts right before commenting .
February 27, 2023
From The Times this morning:
“It has also agreed that more than 90 per cent of single market rules on products made in Northern Ireland will not apply as long as they were not exported to the republic.”
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/02/21/update-on-northern-ireland/#comment-1373557
‘Will the UK be expected to operate export controls on goods being despatched across the land border into the Irish Republic?’
February 27, 2023
Denis.. looks like goods manufactured in Ni can be exported without border checks into the EU. As far as I know NI is treated as being in the EU SM for goods. This has to be a great opportunity for any manufacturing business in GB that wishes to also export to EU countries – in this xase there’s only need for them to relocate their manufacturing base to NI – where they’ll get the best of all world’s
February 28, 2023
The exact same rules should be applied quid pro quo on to the Irish Republic goods coming into the UK. The exact same paperwork, regulations, and requirements. What’s sauce for the goose!
February 27, 2023
Today we will find out if Rishi Sunak can be trusted. At present, I think he’s too inexperienced (in life, business and politics) for the job of PM – a job he acquired unfairly. Triggering Article 16 ages ago would have brought the EU to heel.
February 27, 2023
Agree – If the final arbiter is the ECJ, then it’s a bad deal
February 27, 2023
@Sea_Warrior +1
February 27, 2023
Rishi is being groomed by the civil servants to smooth the way for Labour. It’s that simple.
February 27, 2023
He’s not just being groomed by the Civil Servants. So is the WEF, the BBC and the unelected Remainers in the House of Frauds.
February 27, 2023
Include the whole parliamentary tory party
February 27, 2023
I agree, Javelin, some of our conservative MPs are a total letdown.
All we hear from the left and our media is spending on this has been cut ‘in real terms’; spending on that has been cut. So what has spending increased on ‘in real terms’? Military spending down, education down according to them, health down, social care down, money for councils down. It can’t all be down!
When the Tories came to power in 2010, Brown had bust the banks and agreed the rest of us had to bail out the whole kit and caboodle. Brown’s favourite banker at the RBS even bailed out a Dutch failure before he was ousted with his golden payoff.
The personal income tax-free allowance in 2010/11 was £6475
The National Insurance personal allowance in 2010/11 was £5075 (with a 1% extra tax on employees and employers).
The corporation tax was 28%, and the small company’s corporation tax 21%.
The lifetime allowance on pension savings was £1.8m.
________________________________________
The personal income tax-free allowance in 2023/24 is £12570 (inflation rate increase would be £9027). However, For every £2 you earn above £100k pa the pa reduces by £1: £125,140 or more the personal allowance is zero and effective 62% tax rate for the higher earnings, very Labour (although they do want to put the higher rate up to 50% from 45%). The Tories have quietly lowered the Additional tax rate band from £150,000 to £125,140 from April!
The National insurance tax-free pa in 2023/24 is £12570 (an inflation NI rise would be £7075 using inflationtool).
Corporation tax will be 25% (a 31% increase on what has been helping growth out of the covid close down). The smaller profit tax reduction is on profits of under £50,000 of 19% between £50,000 and £250,000 marginal relief will offer a gradual increase of tax .
The pension pot will not change from £1m.
There is a 10% increase in the National Minimum coming on line (so private business pay differentials will cause a 10% rise in your payroll. Age 18-20 £6.83 to £7.49 : 21-22 £9.18 to £10.18, and the National Living wage from £9.50 to £10.42.
The dividend allowance is changing, with the current £2,000 threshold reducing in April 2023, and then again in April 2024. This means that you’ll pay tax on more of your dividend income. The dividend allowance for each year is:
2022/23: £2,000
2023/24: £1,000
2024/25: £500
February 28, 2023
+1
February 27, 2023
I don’t like to hear Conservative Brexiteers like Dr Fox and Lord Howard urging Brexiteers to vote for something they haven’t seen in the hope it willl be better than the NIP. This is the one chance to get things right, not better, and why have a deal at all? As you say, no deal is always better than a bad deal.
Briefing the press before Parliament is a red rag to a bull where the Speaker is concerned and you would think HMG had taken that in by now. But, Maylike, the Usurper is obviously trying to bounce Parliament by making them agree, Starmerlike, to something they haven’t seen. How many red flags are there on this behaviour? We have been here before.
I have only one test: No EU presence in our country.
I.e. no EU law, no EU regulation, no EU oversight, no EU customs, no EU red and green lanes, no data given to EU bureaucracy, no EU bureaucracy, no EU court, no EU personnel.
I still cannot see why the existing border between Northern Ireland and the South, which is already an excise border, a tax border, and a currency border, cannot cope with a little bit of very superior dairy produce passing over it assisted by electronic communication. The IRA recognize it as a border because they smuggle across it. They don’t smuggle across the artificial border in the Irish Sea.
February 27, 2023
PS and no EU tax.
February 27, 2023
Spot on Rose, well said ….today confirms that parliament had no intention of fulfilling the mandate of the people referendum
February 27, 2023
Well said, rose.
February 27, 2023
@rose +1 Thankyou…
February 28, 2023
+1
February 27, 2023
Exactly JR – also does the ECJ remain in any way as a clearly biased final referee on disputes.
February 27, 2023
They’ll say that the role of the ECJ is just another backstop, nothing to worry about, will never be used ….We don’t believe you
February 27, 2023
@Lifelogic For the ECJ to be involved in passing judgement on the UK is the UK Government surrendering it own right to exist. Its not about fudges, compromises it is about Democracy, its about who Governs what happens inside the UK.
February 28, 2023
+1
February 27, 2023
So even if the wording is acceptable (it almost certainly will not be) then having a clearly political ECJ as a final referee means the agreement will be worthless anyway.
February 27, 2023
This government is weak and cannot make the real important decisions to the electorate to save its life. Talk in the open and deluge of conversation behind closed doors.
No deal is very much better than a bad deal. A bad deal that leaves the latch ajar for all our many remainer MPs to slowly prise the door open, ably abetted by the EU who still have to show strength to their members that you can never really leave. Parliament as it is, is pathetic and a disgrace.
February 27, 2023
@turboterrier +1 Not only weak but making itself redundant by the refusal to do what we pay and empower them to do. There is no halfway House, they either manage the UK 100% or walk away and admit all along they just lied about leaving the EU, Sovereignty and Democracy.
February 27, 2023
I can see a lot of benefits to the EU and Ireland, but I can’t see a single benefit to the sovereign UK
February 27, 2023
It is evident to most that trade is being used by the EU and Ireland to assert control over the entire area of NI in all areas and no doubt hoping to splinter the UK from within. I have no doubt that with the help of the various Remain factions (Labour especially) who despise this nation that the EU will eventually succeed.
A proper Tory party would expose Labour and the Left’s hypocrisy and connivances on many issues including driving the UK back into the EU but no, we have a Tory party that is now so obsessed with its own survival and the careers of those that belong to it that there is no issue that they will not appease to protect themselves eg the new Workers Protection bill is another woke attack on speech but wrapped around a veneer of faux concern about welfare and concern.
Tory betrayal of their own history and convictions is destroying our most precious freedoms and this nation
February 27, 2023
@DOM +1 – Despicable people that have no right to suggest the are Tory
February 27, 2023
If Sunak thinks his traitorous actions will improve his party’s chance of survival then he is deluded. The only good thing he has done is stand up to Sturgeon. Even that will backfire when he experiences her replacement.
February 27, 2023
I’m sure we had a referendum to regain our sovereignty, to leave the EU and all its institutions …I’m sure the referendum was applied throughout the UK ….shame on our politicians
February 27, 2023
It looks like you are all being played Sir John. Reminiscent of negotiations to leave the EU. Does no one ever learn that it is always counterproductive to negotiate with the EU.
The aim is to keep NI subject to their rules and the ECJ. John Major on BBC last night lending his unwanted views in support of a deal, any deal.
It is quite unacceptable.
February 27, 2023
Everyone’s over the moon with the deal, Sunak, the Irish, the EU, Labour, the LibDem, the Green, the SNP and Sinn Fein and the remain voting Tory MPs …there’s only two groups opposed to the deal; the ERG Tory MPs and the people that voted to leave the EU
February 28, 2023
I wonder why?
February 27, 2023
I suspect that genuinely Conservative, Brexit-supporting MPs are going to find that when they meekly accepted the imposition of an illegitimate Prime Minister and Chancellor, following what was basically a coup, they are going to get a lot of other things they didn’t want.
They’ve already got increased taxes they didn’t want.
They’re going to get a criminal migrant amnesty they didn’t want.
And they’re going to get a further betrayal of Brexit and a NI “deal” they didn’t want.
I strongly suspect Sunak will be doing it without the DUP’s agreement and that will be the end of the Good Friday Agreement: caused by the EU, the interfering idiot Biden and LibCON Remainers.
February 27, 2023
….and the meek will say ‘’we got assurances from Sunak, no role for the ECJ, positive assurances, firm assurances’’ so they’ll parade through the government voting channel like sheep
February 27, 2023
@Donna +1
It would appear that everyone in the Country knows or suspects what a traitorous anti UK bunch that have grabbed power are. It would also appear it is the Conservative Party that are in fear of themselves in that they refuse to step up and represent their Constituents.
The UK is being trashed by its own Government in pursuit of personal ego determined to sacrifice Democracy, UK Law and all future UK Governments
February 27, 2023
Well put, Donna.
February 27, 2023
Well Said, Donna.
Rarely do I agree with every word a contributor posts.
I cannot see how Sunak or VdL could expect to get away with any deal that does not satisfy the Unionists enough for them to return to Stormont ?
The Protocol puts the GFA front and centre, so all previous attempts by the EU to create acceptable terms were doomed to fail because they were clearly not in compliance with that requirement.
February 27, 2023
Labour have said that they will vote in favour of ANY improvement. Any ‘improvement’ could be miniscule. Many in Labour favour EU interests above those of the UK and their colluding with the current PM is dangerous for our freedom. The UK voted in the Referendum to LEAVE the EU, not for it to remain in control of what we do.
February 27, 2023
@Bloke +1 A big chunk of the UK Parliment needs a higher power directing them, but not thos that pay and empower them – the people of the UK
February 27, 2023
The BBC, LBC, the Labour Party, and Sinn Fein all support this “deal” without having read it. So do the lightweight remainers on GB News. What does that say about it?
February 27, 2023
That says its a rotten deal
February 27, 2023
Sunak seems to be playing a blinder for the EU. Meeting up with Ursula today, getting Labour to support his ‘deal’ ( with whom the details have presumably been shared) therefore pressurising the DUP to cave. NI will surely continue to be subject to new EU laws with vague wording about NI being ‘consulted’ or such like, going forward.
February 27, 2023
Sunak is a Globalist UK Establishment government puppet doing the WEF bidding and there are MANY MORE like him.
February 27, 2023
Out means out, with a clean break to enable the two combatants to take time to reevaluate their position, let the wounds and hurt pride heal and then and only then rebuild separate but with areas of joint concern lives.
Too many people have the perception that the oven ready deal and this one did not and will not tick all the boxes. No matter how many fanfares, spin is applied if the perception is its weak and not fully completed that is what it will remain. In the real world perception is all there is.
February 27, 2023
“No Deal is better than a bad deal”……..IF Only !
97% of the Worlds trade is done under WTO rules, why on earth were we looking and agreeing with the EU at something different, when the EU trades with others under those rules!
February 27, 2023
WHY? indeed.
February 27, 2023
+1
February 27, 2023
Because the UK is a voluntary signatory to the Good Friday Agreement, an international treaty which requires the UK to handle an international border in specific ways which simply don’t exist elsewhere in the world.
February 27, 2023
Apparently, Alan, according to the remainers of twitter, the EU is reneging on any trading deals by blocking EU exports to the UK in preference to their home market. The Aldi’s and Lidls are fully stocked of salad and fruit in Northern Europe we are told, yet they tell us they can’t get supplies for the UK. We are being played and our media once again are fully in on the ‘Crisis’ act. I haven’t had problems getting fruit and veg but if they short-run stock into London the world is ending.
Apparently, other countries have told us they can supply us, yet Eutice just throws his hands up and says it will be a month before it gets sorted. Get stuffed man, it will serve them all right if we collectively find alternatives and leave their salads on their shelves come April! Then you’ve got stupid companies trying to claim they are short of pizza tomato topping. We rely too much on Italy for pasta and passatta/tinned tomatoes that they can pull on the rope around our necks – time for a change.
February 28, 2023
Pasta is high in carbohydrates , which we all know changes to sugar and if glucose levels become to high for insulin levels to use as energy then it is stored as fat. English vegetables are much healthier.
February 27, 2023
Mayhap the problem is with the magik mantra?
Convert to one of their ( they think hypnotic ..lol 😵💫) mantras…
Don’t Do Deal.
They might just understand that!
February 27, 2023
Would the last Tory in the union please doff their cap to the EU, our lords & masters, as we wave goodbye to NI
February 27, 2023
Oh ….I see they’ve already left
February 27, 2023
Sir John, again this looks like politicians trying to please other politicians who are part of some Global or European like me club. Once elected under a so called democratic system they then do what is necessary to promote themselves and not the wishes of the majority of the people who elected them. The EU is trying to retain political control over part of the UK under the cover of a trade deal. The basic issue of Brexit. Agreeing common standards for goods, services, costs etc. Is a matter for the Irish Republic and the UK to agree. Any civil or criminal issues arising from trading is a matter for the Irish Courts(North and South) to deal with not Brussels. Why is the EU involved ? We are not part of the EU (in theory that is )
February 27, 2023
John Mcdonald
Exactly. Totally agree
Time to cut the external puppeteers strings.
February 27, 2023
Everything you are complaining about here is in the deal that Boris agreed. It is all already a binding international Treaty. Why are you undermining Mr Sunak as he tries to negotaite a better deal by demanding things that are obviously impossible for the EU to agree?
February 27, 2023
The best way to give a two-year-old an even bigger tantrum is to give them exactly what they demanded in their first.
February 28, 2023
Well Martin it seems these tantrums seem to work for you ultra remainers.
February 27, 2023
Why is it imposible for the EU to agree to leave our country?
February 28, 2023
@rose: The EU HAS left, or better, you have left the EU. But no country is an island, even if physicaly an island.
February 28, 2023
All democracies are political, legal and legislative islands Peter.
February 27, 2023
It was agreed as a temporary measure as is clear from the draft and the way it is being implemented by the EU is in clear contravention both of the act of union and of the Belfast agreement, both recognised as part of the body of ‘international law’
February 27, 2023
It is more about te practical interpretation of the treatment Gary.
Even the EU and the Republic is trying to help reduce the bureaucracy created.
Why are you so desiring of intransigence?
February 27, 2023
treaty not treatment….
February 27, 2023
The BBC is campaigning for a new EU deal. I heard the today programme interviewer start a question in a very soft interview with labours Rachel reeves “obviously it would boost economic growth if we got a better deal with the eu…” before allowing reeves to evade a question on planning to talk about how she wants more wind farms. Obviously, Justin Webb, it depends what the deal says as to whether it would boost economic growth. If it ties the U.K. into the EU regulatory orbit and prevents divergence and free trade, it would be bad for economic growth.
Let’s see the deal at least before judging it but obviously it’s going to be a fudge of some sort.
February 27, 2023
Justin Webb repeatedly asks why we can’t rejoin the Single Market. You would think as the BBC’s American specialist of some distinction that he would remember we aren’t in political union with our biggest trading partner – the USA. Nor do we even have a trade deal.
I wonder how he would feel if Japan suddenly announced she was going into political union with much of the Asian mainland.
Or does he just not understand that the Single Market is political union and was intended to be by its creator the EU Commission?
February 28, 2023
@rose: actually, it was Margaret Thatcher who was seen as the driving force behind the Single Market.
February 28, 2023
No, Peter, she wanted free trade based on mutual recognition and trusted trading. Read all about it in her Bruges speech.
March 2, 2023
Thatcher was a driving force behind the single market.
But she opposed to political integration and pooling sovereignty (the “ever closer union” from the Treaty of Rome can be interpreted in different ways) which Jacques Delors was striving for. Take Norway and Switzerland, not politically integrated with the EU but still with all the trading benefits of the single market.
Reply Mrs T was not the driver. The EEC was the driver of the single market, a major Commission led legislative programme. The UK had many disagreements with their proposed laws, most of which were not needed to have a common market.
February 27, 2023
Calling the ‘Northern Ireland Protocol’, ‘The Windsor Framework’ is the same as calling ‘Global Warming’, ‘Climate Change’ …just another PR stunt
February 28, 2023
or call it NIP (Northern Ireland Protocol) WTF (Windsor THE Framework).
February 27, 2023
Edit – should read…
We’d have been better with…
February 27, 2023
Thanks Sir John I completely agree.
February 27, 2023
Well sumarised. I hope there are the numbers to block a bad deal, by which I mean any residual EU law or ECJ jurisdiction in NI , put another way, the UK. If Rishi thinks he can finesse it in the HoC, but forgets the electorate, he is in trouble.
February 27, 2023
Agreed ‘No deal is better than a bad deal’.
Unfortunately parliament scuppered ‘no deal’ and gave the EU the upper hand in negotiations.
I was also expecting news some time ago.
The more it dragged on the more I expected that a deal would be quickly forced through, with the Prime Minister telling us how good it is and omitting to address any shortcomings. The full details will only emerge later. The DUP and ERG will not be happy. The promise that the DUP have to be satisfied will be dropped.
What happens then and the reaction will be interesting.
February 27, 2023
‘’and gave the EU the upper hand in negotiations’’
I don’t see any evidence of UK negotiations …only capitulation
February 27, 2023
After an initial reading of the agreement, I note section i, page 7 of 29:-
“And once pulled, that Brake will give the UK Government the sovereign power to veto the new EU rule from ever applying in Northern Ireland. That veto can only be challenged through independent arbitration mechanisms, not the ECJ – removing the ultimate authority of the ECJ in areas in which it would affect day-to-day lives. The result is that EU laws will apply only where strictly necessary to provide privileged access to the whole of the EU market under a new legal framework of democratic consent and control. ”
So no ECJ but ‘independent arbitration mechanisms’, whatever they are.
I await the lawyers’ views and comments.
February 28, 2023
you spotted the ‘trap’.
February 27, 2023
I have never understood why our Government feels it has to strike some form of agreement with the EU. Why is this preferable to enactment of the Protocol Bill. We are out, so why are we so fearful of calling the shots? The present Protocol conflicts with the Belfast Agreement, so why must there always be some form of compromise which would inevitably leave NI subject to some EU jurisdiction or influence not suffered by the rest of the UK?
February 27, 2023
Typo in the last sentence – should say “….get the UK to accept a binding agreement……”
I appreciate your consistent and clear thinking on the Robbins/May poison pill protocol. Barnier said the price of Brexit would be the loss of N.I. and that would lead to the ultimate goal of a united Ireland. Quite a land grab without a shot being fired – at least so far. Who knows what kind of sectarian horror that might unleash.
I have no doubt that whatever “concessions” have been agreed by our friends in Europe, they will have come in return for even greater concessions by Sunak. Sticking to the insane 25% corporation tax for example?
We are yet again being nudged and misled. But we got used to it over the decades as we were remorselessly but quietly entangled in the EU web. We thought we had broken free in 2016. Time up.
February 27, 2023
So it seems a deal has been done by Sunak yet the DUP have clearly been side-lined and have not even seen any text agreed behind their backs. I cannot trust Sunak one inch on this or anything else, his record as Chancellor was serial incompetence and waste, his record as PM (following the globalist coup) is dire too.
February 27, 2023
“No deal is better than a bad deal” you say from your comfy armchair perspective but with no thought at all for the rest of us living over here. Also I would remind you that the Unionist vote is now in the minority and trending downwards – we ‘others’ deserve some consideration as well.
The DUP has since the beginning of time being fighting a rearguard action on everything that might have had a chance to improve conditions here but has opposed all including the chance to help their own at home – always preferring to be in London bending the ear of the likes of Mark Francois, Boris and the other half baked – well we’ll see where that gets them today. Lastly I don’t think anyone really minds if Stormont doesn’t come back in its present form – it might only bring on something better – something that will remove the veto from politics here.
February 27, 2023
Northern Ireland and the UK can and are completely free to negotiate as we see fit.
The EU is most certainly not free to negotiate.
The EEA is sacrosanct. It is agreed to by all the EU nations and very detailed. It contains the four freedoms. It has deliberatively restricted trade for non members. So I am afraid that just hoping that the EU will shut its eyes and sign on the dotted line is impossible.
Solve that one without fudging!
February 27, 2023
Rishi Sunak is doing what he thinks is good for HIM, rather what’s good for the country.
If he tries to ram it through by shifty means (short time to examine a large document), you and others will vote against it. If he actually pass it with Labour votes, letters must be put in and a new leader selected ASAP.
February 27, 2023
I have no confidence in this PM and government to achieve anything that is in our interests, They are clearly working to instructions from others rather than the sovereign people of the UK whom they were elected to serve.
February 27, 2023
None, absolutely none of the stupid lame situations the Country finds itself in would have happened if the Government and the House of Commons with its MP’s had done what was requested – to ensure the UK became an independent sovereign State. We needed the UK Parliament to create, amend and repeal the Laws Rules and Regulations that Govern and control the way we live inside the UK.
Its that simple, that is not to deny it would be ‘hard work’ and that getting back to being a democracy wouldn’t throw up mistakes and miss-steps, but they would all be our situations to sort and correct – not for of an unelected unaccountable foreign bureaucracy to dictate.
There is no halfway house, just ‘lazy’ Government. A foreign court, a foreign legal system dictating to the Democratically elected representatives of the UK how they must act in their own Country, defines a subservient Government and Parliament in fear of their foreign master.
February 27, 2023
I completely support your view of this: it seems the only sensible, honest and honourable one. I am afraid though, that in the present House of Commons there is no majority for anything that is sensible, honest and honourable, so it is virtually certain to approve anything that Mr Sunak puts in front of it.
February 27, 2023
I’m glad that our host, at least, does recognize how deceitful the EU can be:
Wouldn’t it be nice if, for once, the EU got over their shock that we should want to leave their corrupt regime, having had enough of their foul laws and imposed dogma, and actually came up with honest responses to the problems they created for us?
February 27, 2023
The BBC would like the UK to be back in the EU.
February 27, 2023
whatsamatter John? have you nothing good to say about anything?
February 27, 2023
If there is any half truths in what is being bandied about today I would suggest Northern Ireland should declare itself an independent sovereign Country in its own right. The treachery being suggested by the main parties in the UK Parliament with connivance of the EU is hanging them out to dry – the peoples of Northern Ireland deserve better as with elsewhere they are big enough and capable enough to go there own way.
You don’t compromise or fudge the rule of law, how your legal system works or democracy, you define it yourself without outside interference.
February 27, 2023
Rishi Sunak needs to accept the problems created and are as the result of his and his Governments refusal to permit the UK to leave the EU. Until the UK is permitted to be a self governing independent sovereign state these situations will continue.
February 27, 2023
Nothing that the EU agrees to can be a good deal. Just rescind the protocol and walk away. UK voters would have more respect for your party if Sunak did this.
February 27, 2023
Conservative and Unionist Party, or Conservative and Europeon Union Party?
February 27, 2023
Northern Ireland is an integral part of the United Kingdom ; the EU has no legal or any sort of right to determine how our affairs are conducted there . Goods being sent to Southern Ireland should go to their Ports and locations and not to ours . The borders between N and S Ireland should be controlled similar to the conditions that exist between France and Switzerland . Friendship and a good relationship with the EU is important but it does not mean one of subservience .
February 27, 2023
According to The Times:
“Under the plan, businesses that sign up to a “trusted trader scheme” can avoid all checks when moving goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. They will simply need to declare whether the goods are for sale in Northern Ireland or onward export to the Republic of Ireland.”
So any company in Great Britain will automatically be trusted to send any of its stuff anywhere within Great Britain with no additional formality, but to send the same stuff to the other part of the United Kingdom that company will have to get itself signed up as a “trusted trader”, and then declare that all the stuff it sends to Northern Ireland will be sold there and none of it will ever be exported onwards to the Republic of Ireland.
How can it possibly know that? Will it be obliged to get some kind of “end user certificate”, guaranteeing that none of the stuff it sends to Northern Ireland will sold on outside the province? It’s totally barmy.
Surely that could even end up with small businesses in Great Britain deciding that despite the antics of An Post it is actually less hassle to supply customers in the Irish Republic than customers in Northern Ireland?
It is blindingly obvious that the rational way to solve the relatively minor problem of unsuitable items possibly getting into the trickle of goods carried across the open land border into the Irish Republic and the EU Single Market is through export controls on that flow of goods out of the province, not import controls on the inward flow of goods, and I am left wondering why our government is pretending to be too stupid to see that.
February 27, 2023
I live in your constituency Sir John.
The situation is insoluble with only either one of the following options:
1, The UK invading Ireland and taking it back,
2, Ireland reunites
3, some form of negotiated settlement with the EU
I’m sure that you won’t like the first 2 options so, that only leaves ten third.
I support Sunk’s approach, please don’t scupper it.
Philip Hatton
February 27, 2023
Looks as if the EU objective includes getting us to drop the Protocol Bill. Sunak seems happy to oblige. I despair.!
February 27, 2023
From Wokingham to Windsor is only half an hour by car, so if you leave now . . .
February 27, 2023
Agreed 110% Sir John.
No deal is better than a bad deal.
February 27, 2023
The only thing that really matters is the restoration of the full working of the GFA. This was the mistake made by May, but then her deal didn’t satisfy anyone !
Boris had to take a chance on agreeing a deal, assuming there would be goodwill on both sides, but it became clear that the EU would not negotiate, just laid down their own view to the detriment of all others.
We are now back in the same situation as with May, where the PM took over secretive negotiations, excluding her Brexit Secretary, although on this occasion it is the NI Secretary Sunak has excluded, presumably because he is also a Brexiteer. This is no way to keep all sides on board and does not bode well.
As in our host’s penultimate paragraph, it is only the GDA that counts here. If the “deal” does not satisfy the Unionist side, it will not solve the problem, and the blame for this must rest squarely with the intransigent EU.
If this proves to be the case, Sunak will have given up all his political capital in a foolish attempt to force the Unionists into submission. They are made of sterner stuff and that will have been an immense, and possibly fatal, miscalculation by the Prime Minister.
February 27, 2023
Both the BBC and Sky News seem unable/unwilling to accept that something like half of the goods crossing the border into the Irish Republic have actually been produced in Northern Ireland, and in the absence of any controls on those exports all goods production in Northern Ireland will have to stay under EU rules.
That is, unless the EU has belatedly realised that this has always been a load of nonsense cooked up by the Irish government to try to stop Brexit, or at least limit damage to Ireland’s exports to the UK, and realistically whatever goods may go across they will not pose significant threat to the integrity of the EU Single Market.
https://facts4eu.org/news/2021_jul_eu_laughing_stock
“EU makes itself world laughing stock over claims N.I. goods threaten “integrity of Single Market””
“N.I.’s exports over the border are only 1/500th of total entering EU Single Market”
February 27, 2023
Don’t know how the deal can matter to Jeffrey Donaldson DUP or Sammy Wilson anyway since they both spend most of their time in London – they get full salaries and personally won’t have to undergo any border checks.
February 27, 2023
What will the Court of Session make of a petition to strike down the Sunak deal as unconstitutional? Let us trust we find out.
February 27, 2023
From the Telegraph
‘It’s not uncommon for His Majesty to accept invitations to meet certain leaders’
‘The King to meet Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission,’
The point is, is Ursula von der Leyen the President of a Country(Head of State, etc)? So confirming the EU is a single Sovereign State or is she(‘they’ is the pronoun nowadays) as was intended the leader of a Trade block. The EU needs to make up its mind, as it also plays into the legality and binding of agreements between the UK and themselves. Also the point of the EU’s political court the ECJ, on the international stage.
February 27, 2023
@Ian B
From the MsM
“For me, there is also a strategic and tactical reason, which is to use Ireland for the future negotiations. Isolating Ireland, and not closing this point, to leave it open for the next two or three years.
“And in that case, we will face clearly permanent pressure on the negotiations about trade, the single market because of Ireland. And we have to be careful what the reaction will be of the European Council and the member states.”
Mr Barnier
March 1, 2023
Even if the EU were a proper state, Mrs von der Leyen would still not be its president. She is only President of the EU Commission – its bureaucracy. There is an obscure Belgian who is President of the Council and he might qualify as Head of State if the EU were a state, but he doesn’t promote himself as she does.
February 27, 2023
Well Said, Donna.
Rarely do I agree with every word a contributor posts.
I cannot see how Sunak or VdL could expect to get away with any deal that does not satisfy the Unionists enough for them to return to Stormont ?
The Protocol puts the GFA front and centre, so all previous attempts by the EU to create acceptable terms were doomed to fail because they were clearly not in compliance with that requirement.
February 27, 2023
We provide support to Ukraine and risk an escalation of the war with Russia …. and yet we are afraid of the EU ?
February 27, 2023
Any “deals” simply entrench the NIP as the permanent solution.
Whereas it should be only temporary, until such time as an electronic border for goods can be implemented.
If we simply tore up the NIP, we would see very quickly how much the RoI and the EU really care about the GFA when they hurriedly erect a hard border for goods. I think we should call their bluff.
We won’t though.
February 27, 2023
does the deal protect England from out of control immigration coming via the route:
fly into Dublin (unable to get a visa to enter mainland UK)
cross land border
get ferry to mainland UK
that’s my main concern.
I am prepared to bet the government is going to sign up to even more uncontrolled immigration into South East England via this route.
and for this and many other reasons I think the Conservative party is toast.
February 27, 2023
I don’t see how any true Tory could agree with the deal, how they could support this government for doing the deal, how they could remain in a party that supports this deal
February 27, 2023
getting the King to bless a deal is not going to help.
we are not the Japanese at the end of the war who thought the emperor was a god. we know how human Charles is.
February 27, 2023
Sir John. I fear that Sunak is intent on getting a deal even though it will be a bad deal.
Sunak just does not have the capacity to deal with all the UK’s present problems.
So he hopes to shelve this one for the time being.
I hope you and others in your party, along with the DUP do not let him get away with it.
February 27, 2023
First reaction to NIP resolution. If de facto the ECJ is the final arbiter of EU law, then all that needs to happen is the removal of any existing EU law in NI and the refusal to accept any new EU law in NI. Simplistically you cannot be fined for speeding if there is no law against speeding. No EU law, ergo no ECJ involvement.
February 27, 2023
EU to re-admit UK to Horizon science research programme
Q: Will this deal allow the UK to participate in the EU’s Horizon programme?
Von der Leyen says, as soon as the deal is agreed, the EU will begin the process of admitting the UK into the Horizon programme. That is good news for researchers, she says. Sounds very generous of them doesn’t it.
“UK allocates £6.9B of its science budget for Horizon Europe/Science Business
https://sciencebusiness.net › news › uk-allocates-ps69b…
28 Oct 2021 — The UK has set aside £6.9 billion for its contribution to Horizon Europe until 2025,” we’ll take all your money thank you very much and make it sound like we’re doing you the favour.
February 27, 2023
Oh silly me. Make that £15bn.
How much does UK contribute to Horizon Europe?
around £15 billion
The UK has set aside around £15 billion for Horizon Europe alone. The EU’s research and innovation community has been calling on the European Commission to associate the UK to these programmes.16 Aug 2022 The EU’s research and innovation community has been calling on the European Commission to associate the UK to these programmes. gov.uk
Time to start telling us exactly what the UK gets out of this.
February 27, 2023
Its all just a ruse to funnel money into the EU for minimal UK benefit. To tie us back in. Watch out for the exit penalties when they need more money. Inventive arent they? Wonder if the flow of the money was slowing down!
Sellout imminent.
Democracy confirmed DOA.
February 28, 2023
The UK total science budget was increased from £15 bn to £20 bn by Chancellor Sunak in October 2021. The total R&D budget is supposed to be £39.8 bn for the period 2022-2025 (gov.uk 14/03/2022).
The previous EU Horizon 2020 budget was €60 bn from which the UK as full member got £7 bn (12.1%) (nature.com, 22/12/2020) when the UK contribution to the total EU budget was 11.4%.
The 7-year Horizon Europe budget (2021-2027) is €95.5 bn.
When/if the UK goes back to the Horizon project its contribution will have to be (re)defined (sciencebusiness.net 16/02/2023) as it will have missed two years.
George Freeman’s Plan B (ie, UK out of the EU Horizon) was for £11 bn, which would fit with £15 * 5/7 = 10.7
‘what the UK gets out of this?’: Treatment for leukaemia, prototype zero emission buses, hydrogen fuel cells, materials chemistry hub in Liverpool, nanoparticle plant in Nottingham, …
from Horizon 2020.
As gov.uk ‘Horizon 2020: the EU research and innovation funding programme’ has it ‘This collection was withdrawn on 31 January 2022’ and now appears under UKRI. The national archives under ‘Innovate UK’ have the relevant reports but it takes dedication to now extract what was funded by Horizon and what might have been funded by other means.
February 28, 2023
Sorry hefner I dont understand were we a full member of Horizon right up to 2020? How much did we pay in from 2016 to 2020 do you know? It looks like I need to do some more reading in this project. So are you claiming the UK has always got more out than we put in just to be clear or just that last year? That makes me curious.
March 2, 2023
The UK was a full member of Horizon 2020. In terms of R&D money the UK got a bit more back from the EU than it had put in. The EU budget is apportioned between different ‘shares’: agriculture, regional development including infrastructure, science (including research, technological development, innovation), …
The UK paid 11.4% of the total EU budget for 2014-2020, which included the Horizon 2020 programme.
So considering only the science ‘share’, the UK paid in 11.4% of it but got 12.1% back.
March 3, 2023
Thank you I will have to do a lot more reading into this.
I found this https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/uk-research-and-european-union/role-of-EU-in-funding-UK-research/how-much-funding-does-uk-get-in-comparison-with-other-countries/
Structural funds are allocated to build capacity in the least economically developed regions of the EU. Countries with lower GDPs therefore tend to receive a greater proportion of these. This is demonstrated by figure 8 that adjusts total EU research and development funding (FP7 and structural funds) for GDP.
The UK, Germany and France are shown to receive proportionally less overall funding when their GDP is taken into account.
Figure 8
Difference between the percentage proportion of EU funding on for research, development and innovation (Framework Programme 7 and structural funds) received and the percentage proportion of EU GDP for each EU Member State. 2007 – 2013.
Google tells you quite quickly how much we got out but it doesn’t so quickly tell you how much we put in every year.
February 27, 2023
If Rishi Sunak had spent more time in Windsor and gone round asking local business people whether they ever had any involvement with EU Single Market laws then he would have found that now we are out of the EU only a small percentage were affected because only a small percentage ever export anything to the EU.
Maybe this calculation is going a bit far:
https://facts4eu.org/news/2020_oct_truth_about_UK_exporters
“99.3% of all UK businesses do NOT export to the EU”
But if it’s more than 0.7% of businesses that export to the EU it’s only about ten times more, perhaps 7%.
That percentage will be similar in Northern Ireland, but there 100% of businesses will be under EU laws.
It really seems quite insulting to unionists to tell them that this is OK; we shall see how they will take it.
But this is inevitable once it is decided not to introduce export controls to protect the EU Single Market.
February 27, 2023
Is that enough for you Sir John?
February 27, 2023
If the PM pushes the new deal through Parliament with the help of Labour over and against the DUP and some Conservative MPs, would there be enough Tory MPs to trigger a leadership election? The problem is that could lead to an early election and Sir Keir in Number 10. What are the ERG and strongly Unionist MPs to do?
February 27, 2023
The “new deal” – which seems to have been put together with contant breifings to the BBC – includes a role for a foreign court in our affairs which no soveriegn country could possible accept.
The propganda seems to be designed to pain the unionists as the bad guys.
I hope the Unionists throw it out. I hope most people see past the propaganda and see it for the shoddy peice of work it is.
February 28, 2023
Great stuff Kenneth throw it out and you know what will happen then?
Well it will only herald on a border poll – I don’t think the DUP will like that very much either.
It alwzy’s comes back to unintended consequences?
February 27, 2023
“No deal is better than a bad deal”. So said Mrs May when she was PM. A pity that she never practised what she preached.
However, the same principle resonates successfully throughout the Private Sector BUT when it comes to the Public Sector and in recent Government circles in particular, it appears as “Any deal is better than no deal”.
Why is this country so dominated by those who reside in Downing Street? Why, as democracy, are we, the electorate, ignored once the Elections are over? Why is there no redress when Government fails to carry out the pre-election manifesto promises? Where are OUR true representatives in Parliament standing up for OUR rights? Why does the Government instead appear to be so concerned with the rights of others? What is wrong with them?
It must be the duty of ALL elected MPs to challenge any Government over the status of our sovereignty as an independent nation, when they even dare to actually permit a foreign country to have any influence over us.
Consequently, any deal, especially the NI deal, must exclude the EU from having any legal influence over OUR affairs.
Any such deals MUST immediately be rejected to retain our independence. It is called democracy and something that we Brits are not feeling right now, as has been the case over the past decade or so.
February 27, 2023
Unfortunately lies are a sign of the time . The money makers hack and lie , people tell us they have done positive things in their line of work and it seems they themselves have been no where near decisions and actions taken , but think they should have the credit. I despair . Sometimes to prove they are wrong would cost a lot of money and this is what the lawyers want . The little daily fights have no connection to the old Brits where we could distinguish who the scoundrels were. I despise lies.
February 27, 2023
I am thinking ahead to when Stormont applies its brake and the UK government vetoes the implementation of a new EU law in Northern Ireland, and how the EU would react to the prospect of some non-compliant goods being included in the flow coming in across the Irish land border into its Single Market. Given that the rational option of export controls has not been adopted, and so there will be no way to weed out unsuitable items. But then that may never happen, the brake may never be applied to any new EU law, so then Northern Ireland will gradually drift away from the rest of the UK along with the EU while the rest of the UK heads off in a different direction. However it is not worth continuing to flog the obviously dead horse of export controls, even though it is as obvious now as it was five years ago that they would be the correct solution to the border “conundrum”.
February 28, 2023
I guess the EU can make those goods unsaleable in the EU. So to the contrary, a similar brake solution could surely have been applied to the whole of the UK since pre-Lisbon, stopping all that regulatory paraphernalia applying to the UK, and us from quitting the trading but non-regulatory area in the first place.
February 27, 2023
We are now begining to get meat on the bone. Quoting de Lyden, the final arbiter of any residual EU law is the ECJ. I do not see the DUP accepting this because a Stormont and ultimately a HMG veto is in the hands of Shin Fein. SF want into a united Ireland within the EU, end of story
February 28, 2023
de Lyden? Do you mean Ursula von der Lyden?
February 28, 2023
All of this fuss about a region with less than two million people incidentally costing us sixteen billion per annum at least in block grant and other. I would have thought the DUP by now would be better able to conduct their affairs instead of alway’s biting the hand that feeds. No No No! won’t be acceptable this time.
February 28, 2023
If Ulster only had Unionists in it like the people who vote for the DUP and all the other Unionist parties and Unionist independents, there would not be trouble or a large bill. The DUP are demonised but they are not the problem.
Did you notice Sinn Fein kept the Assembly down for three years to help their cause in Southern Ireland, and no-one in the establishment said a word against them? Did you? Did the Democrats? Did the EU?
March 1, 2023
Where are those who were shouting about the SNP dog wagging the Labour dog when we have (again) the DUP tail wagging the ERG/Conservative dog?
February 28, 2023
We have now seen the deal and it is blindingly obvious that almost everything Brussels has now agreed to, was proposed by the UK during the initial negotiations and which they refused to even consider.
They finally realised, thanks to the steadfast resistance of the DUP, that without considerable movement on their part, power sharing, and therefore the GFA, would be dead in the water. Make no mistake, that is the only reason we have seen any movement at all. It is proof, if any were needed, that their concerns about protecting their precious single market were entirely artificial and created for no other reason than to make life difficult for the UK.
But Brussels is still playing political games : they have only conceded the bare minimum that they think Sunak might be able to get through Parliament and Stormont. It may still not be enough and for certain, if the Unionists go along with it, it will be with the greatest reluctance. That does not bode well for future relationships.
February 28, 2023
Now, it would be good to read Sir John’s assessment whether/how the Windsor Framework deals with his four questions.
February 28, 2023
You will have to wait unitl he has read it properly. A lot of dense documents to get through, probably full of hidden EU traps. All the Brexiteers and Unionists, from Boris to the DUP, are keeping their heads down at the moment, reading the damn things.
February 28, 2023
“No deal is better than a bad deal”
Why was this mantra never applied to, for example, the Australia trade deal (the one negotiated by Liz Truss)?
February 28, 2023
Rishi Sunak sold his deal hard in the Commons yesterday. If it’s good as he says it is, the only way we will get better is to take Northern Ireland out of the EU Single Market entirely. I would welcome that but would most other UK people?
February 28, 2023
The Express poll is showing a 60% majority against the Sunak sellout.
March 1, 2023
Self-selected sample. What do you think a similar self-selected sample of Guardian readers would show?