The Unionist community in Northern Ireland has been ignored and angered by the actions and words of the European Union. The Northern Ireland Protocol has as its first Article a statement that the Good Friday or Belfast Agreement takes precedence over the Protocol. It states that the constitutional status of Northern Ireland is to be upheld and all has to proceed based on the principle of consent. The hard won peace in 1998 established Stormont as a devolved Assembly where all decisions were to be agreed between the two main communities, Republican and Unionist.
The EUâs insistence that all new laws passed by the EU apply to Northern Ireland breaks that promise of consent. Northern Ireland sends no Ministers to the Council to frame the laws and has no MEPs in the Parliament to approve them. The European Court of Justice is the ultimate authority on how those laws are interpreted and enforced. For this reason all Unionist parties in Northern Ireland refuse to return to Stormont to govern in agreement with their Republican colleagues.
The EU wishes to portray this dispute and the rest of Brexit as a matter of trade, when it is primarily a matter of who governs. There are various ways of smoothing the passage of goods between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland that do not require EU laws to apply to Northern Ireland and do not end up in the European Court of Justice. It is the EUâs refusal to explore such options that have left this issue unresolved for so long. The EU should return to the negotiating table willing to accept Article 1 of the Protocol and the Articles of the Good Friday Agreement, and to see they are incompatible with Northern Ireland having to accept EU law and the EU Court.
The UK and the EU have both said they do not want new physical border controls. There is no need for them. The EU now seems to want to walk away from this promise, by proposing new border posts and controls between GB and Northern Ireland, whilst respecting the wish not to have such further controls between NI and the Republic. It is neither sensible nor fair to suggest creating a complex internal border within the UK to avoid one with the EU. The UK would happily make it an offence to seek to send unwanted or non compliant goods to the Republic from Northern Ireland, and would use full state powers to enforce against smuggling. Checks needed on GB to NI trade can as now take place at the premises of the company despatching the goods from GB or at the premises of the buyer in NI. All will be covered by the usual standards, enforcement and electronic paperwork that is used to regulate internal trade in GB. Trusted trader schemes work well. Surely a UK supermarket chain which can send sausages to Liverpool without a border check at the city edge can also be trusted to send the same sausages to Belfast for its store there?
The UK government has said it cannot accept proposals which do not result in the restoration of Stormont. As Unionists have made clear, it will require a sensible fix on trade issues which end the idea that Northern Ireland is governed by EU laws and is still under some influence or jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The EU/UK trade agreement has reference to an independent arbitrator for disputes, not to the ECJ. That is what is needed as a long stop in issues of UK to EU trade across the invisible Northern Irish border. People in Northern Ireland will follow EU rules and requirements for anything they export to the Republic as all countries selling into the EU need to do, but not for the rest of their business activity.
February 16, 2023
The EU doesn’t care about people, it only cares about power. And it is a bully, when it is given a chance. We should have stood up to it.
February 16, 2023
Indeed but NI were betrayed by the not really Brexit deal and Sunak seems set for further betrayal. Excellent podcast for the weekly sceptic this week and videos from Dr John Campbell on some worrying NICE guidelines.
February 16, 2023
Allister Heath today in the Telegraph today is surely right.
âBye-bye, Nicola Sturgeon: your absurd, dystopian vision for Scotland wonât be missed. The First Ministerâs quest to turn her country into the wokest nation in Europe is over, as may be her dream of breaking up the United Kingdom.â
He claims it was triggered by Sunak, in perhaps his only sensible decision so far, vetoing Sturgeonâs mad gender ideology agenda. Let us hope the replacement will concentrate on more practical concerns by reversing wonderful Scotlandâs appalling recent decline under Sturgeon towards woke, socialist failed state.
Sunak should do the same for England and the rest of the UK.
February 16, 2023
Nicola Sturgeon admitted yesterday that she had devoted her political life to Scottish independence. A shame she did not do anything positive for Scotlandâs health service, its declining education system and its appalling drug record.
The real blame however lies with Blair, Brown & New Labour and the botched devolution that has done such vast harm to Scotland, Wales and indeed to the English who pay for so much of this lunacy. Thank goodness the sensible Scots have finally worked this out. Let us hope we do not end up with Labour/SNP/Libdims within 2 years. But this seems to be the Sunak/Hunt plan.
February 16, 2023
We very likely will end up with Labour – probably now with a majority – in 2 years, but it was the selection of Liz truss as leader which has done for us. If Sunak had been picked last summer he would have been able to work off a starting point of -5% in the polls not -25%, and we wouldnât have hunt as chancellor most likely.
February 16, 2023
Letâs hope Scotland gets a decent leader and not another WEF puppet. I expect Sturgeon has gone not because of her woke policies but because she knows whatâs coming soon as the world heads towards a huge financial crisis and possibly a world war instigated by our deranged western leaders. Expect to find her in a bunker on a remote Scottish island.
February 16, 2023
Sturgeon and her ilk have set back womenâs rights decades. Who would have believed that the demands of a rapist would be put above the protection of women? Who would have ever thought that biological men would be allowed to compete in womenâs sports? Who would have thought that our children would be allowed medical procedures without the knowledge and permission of their parents? Why are adult immigrants placed in our schools putting our children at risk? The majority of people in this country disagree with these policies. What planet are these politicians from to think they can enforce their warped beliefs on the British people?
February 16, 2023
Who will the BBC fawn over now?
February 16, 2023
+1
February 16, 2023
@Ashley “Sunak should do the same for England…”
You mean he should resign?
February 16, 2023
Or do endless U-turns. On taxation levels, HS2, net zero, the NI issueâŠ
February 16, 2023
The WHO is putting the world in danger
The failure to speedily investigate Covidâs real origins leave us vulnerable to another pandemic
Matt Ridley today in the Telegraph it certainly is doing.
February 16, 2023
Wake up they are the danger.
February 16, 2023
The UK government need to distance themselves from these supranational organisations forthwith.
February 16, 2023
All true, and worse, it’s not as though we didn’t know the EU’s attitude towards us and their intention to damage the the UK. What did we do….well we had Mrs May and the Bunter Johnson to defend the UK. Now, who do we have? Is there any hope of improvement?
February 16, 2023
Peter
No matter what the Irish people want, North or South, it would seem the EU would prefer a United Ireland, as it increases their area of expansion and control.
Thus they are doing all they can to get their own way.
The solution is in the hands of the Irish and UK, to push against it if they do not want that to happen.
Halfway measures or fudges rarely stand the test of time.
February 16, 2023
Fishy will roll over and accept the EU position because he’s more interested in Bidens view than the people if Northern Ireland.
Rejoice, krankie has gone.
February 16, 2023
Yes Krankie has gone but to be replaced by whom and in the meantime with SNP off balance it should mean a few more seats, or maybe more, for Labour when election time comes. Of course the real winner in all of this has to be Starmer and Scottish Labour – for the short term anyway.
February 16, 2023
The whole of NI’s community – which solidly voted Remain on consensus – has been ignored by the Tory, brexit-obsessed absolutists in Westminster.
Rather than address this properly they stoke division and legitimise the dadaistic demands of 16th century fruitcakes.
February 16, 2023
The majority of Unionists voted for Brexit. Awkward fact which is as censored as the similar one in Scotland that more people there voted for Brexit than voted for Wee Nicola’s Scottish National Socialist Party..
February 16, 2023
Yes, and the majority of illegal dog breeders in England also voted brexit I’d guess.
Does that mean that a sane country should be ruled by them?
February 17, 2023
I love your guesses, what next? You should consider publishing them as there are a number of extreme organisations that would lap them up as facts. Hero overnight Martin.
February 16, 2023
Ignored? They’ve had more time and column inches trying to sort this out than any other region of the United Kingdom. They are in the CU the SM they have EU passports.
There were five more regions in the UK that voted even more solidly to Leave it is them that have been completely ignored, the Midlands two regions secured a near 60% leave vote – where is the attention to them to deliver on leave? They were the regions shackled being into the EU, their jobs lost to the EU, and their children moved away as large companies moved to low-cost regions in the EU. You say you’re in Nottingham, moved from Wales and lived in Yorkshire for a spell, yet you do not listen to any other view than your remain/return/shackled attachment zealotry.
February 16, 2023
I’m sure I read he was now in Spain?
February 16, 2023
Your problem NLH (as usual) is that over half the voting population seems to comprise “16th Century Fruitcakes” – and calling them names will hardly enamour them to your cause. Personally, I prefer Fruitcake to Pandolce but I am quite partial to Torta Margherita! đ
February 16, 2023
NLH.
Give it a rest, you equate with those gobby flag waving remainers in Parliament Square who cannot accept a democratic vote.
Reality is that everyone of voting age, in the UK, was free to enter into the ballot box their desire as to whether they wished th UK to leave or remain in the EU. They collectively decided to leave the EU. What the people of Scotland and Northern Ireland voted, all 7 million of them, is intersting but irrelevant ,as was the vote in Upton Snodsbury. Irrelevant because it was a UK vote on the future of the UK.
If you are so desirous of life in the EU, and I would highly recommend life in the part I lived in, then it begins about one hundred miles south of you, assuming you can meet their criteria for residence.
February 16, 2023
It is directly mendacious to claim that ‘the whole of NI’s community solidly voted Remain on consensus’. 44% of NI voters voted to leave, joining the majority of voters in the UK who voted to leave the EU.
The NI Protocol – the High Court and Supreme Court have determined – has breached the Act of Union that holds the United Kingdom together politically and commercially. That is a clear breach of the GFA, and must be remedied by the foolish parliamentarians who caused this ‘ultra vires’ breach in the first place.
February 16, 2023
Turnout in N Ireland was 62.7% (38.3% not bothered either way?) So the âwholeâ community didnât come out.
In England turnout was 73%.
February 17, 2023
Thank you a-tracy, a helpful reminder! That makes 35.11% of the electorate voting to remain in the EU – not exactly a ringing endorsement.
February 16, 2023
That is a very well written article which concisely outlines the issue.
Unfortunately the EU has a hidden agenda and an obstacle is also an opportunity for Continuity Remain.
It looks like Sunak will cave and the outcome has already been conceded. He is just picking a time to let the rest of us know.
February 16, 2023
The EUâs agenda is not hidden.
February 16, 2023
Nor is the Tories & Labours desire to rejoin
February 17, 2023
Conjoin is more what they want. To join together (things, such as separate entities) for a common purpose.
February 16, 2023
@Wanderer +1 Dictators in the extreme, they deny their own Parliament the right to amend or repeal the dictates they hand down
February 16, 2023
Wanderer:
To some extent EU behaviour bears similarities to that of a gang. Gangs often have an initiation process to fulfil membership. In those standards the EU maintains a high bar, often intended for good.
Worst gangs cause their members to pay high fees, often providing âprotectionâ to members and the community by demanding money with âmenacesâ; or âtaxâ in common parlance.
Worst gangs react angrily to members wanting to leave and enforce enduring punishments on those who try.
There may be much about the EU which is good, but we are better maintaining our own quality standards, above their control.
February 16, 2023
Nothing about gangs is good, yet you claim there may be good about the EU, I have so far failed to see it.
February 17, 2023
During better times, Ralph Readerâs Gang Show was about Scout Movement activity in pursuit of goodness. Current-day gangs tend to have opposite intent.
Chain gangs did constructive work and there are probably signs of good in all.
Even the EU, with signs such as EXIT.
February 17, 2023
Wanderer – You state “The EU doesnât care about people, it only cares about power…….. Why did you not include the Globalist UK Establishment government, the UN, the WHO, NATO, the US Deep State, the Bilderberg Group, the Council for Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Group and many others who do not give one iota about the people. Not forgetting that Southern Ireland is the most corrupt country within the EU.
February 16, 2023
I’m sick of hearing about what is good for the EU and what they want. Can someone please consider, just once, what’s good for the UK or is that too much to ask? We have left the EU. Let’s make our own decisions.
February 16, 2023
What’s best for the UK? Parliament allowed the treasonous Benn Act, so Parliament (as a whole) allows unlawful acts and betrays the voters and democracy just for the benefit of the EU. The UK doesn’t stand a chance with these undemocratic MP’s that sit in Parliament.
I know not every MP voted for the Benn Act, but none of them got the treasonous bill stopped. Likewise when Heath took us into the EC.
February 16, 2023
@Shirley M +1
February 16, 2023
+1
February 16, 2023
Well we have “nearly” left the EU but it is very likely this is all about to be reversed (in effect if not actually in name) by the next Labour/SNP/Libdim government arriving in under two years. The Boris majority was wasted & Sunak & Hunt are hugely unpopular and rightly so. Plus they have entirely the wrong policies for the economy, for energy, for taxation and much else.
Has Sunak and the others even said sorry to Andrew Bridgen and restored the whip yet?
February 16, 2023
I now know directly of four people who have had heart issues & serious arrhythmias following Covid Vaccines two young two circa 20 and two circa 65. All needed significant medical attention & two needed operations one costing circa ÂŁ15,000.
This must be about 4% of the people I would know about. So just how extensive and appalling are these serious vaccine heart issues? Especially for the young (and people who had already had covid) who clearly never even needed these net harm vaccines? Let alone for them to be coerced into taking them.
February 16, 2023
What too are the longer term implications of this significant heart damage? Hearts need to last, for up to 100+ years for some. Will the damaged ones last as well? What about insurance cover issues.
What too about heart donations?
February 16, 2023
A French court ruled that an insurance company did not need to pay out a life insurance policy to a man who died of a heart attack after the jab, on the grounds that he knew it was experimental and that he therefore committed suicide.
So thatâs the insurance industry saved.
February 16, 2023
Itâs a disgrace that these excess deaths arenât being investigated and that Andrew Bridgen is pilloried for asking questions. We had the whitewashed investigation in Scotland into the increase in neonatal and stillborn deaths where the vaccine wasnât even allowed to be considered as a cause in case it put people off having it. We are being so badly let down by our politicians. I donât know anyone who is even considering another vaccine which is probably why our government is letting the WHO introduce a global vaccination passport. Traitors the lot of them.
February 16, 2023
+1
February 16, 2023
Lynn, Reuters has fact-checked your story and it is wrong from A to Z.
reuters.com 31/03/2022 âLife insurance not denied on grounds of Covid-19 vaccinationâ.
Also on the same topic, which.co.uk 01/06/2021 âDoes the Covid-19 vaccine invalidate life insurance?â
I know that Sir John has better things to do than fact-checking comments from contributors but Lynnâs French court story has been debunked one year ago. Does that mean that anybody can claim anything without putting any reference provided there is no direct comment on Sir John himself?
Reply I post many inaccurate contributions and many I disagree with. I block ones with allegations against named individuals and companies. I do not fact check.
February 16, 2023
The first time the Boris majority was tested – with the Internal Market Bill – it caved in to virtue signalling at the EU and the Davos Party. Even the Secretary of State betrayed us by saying at the Despatch Box that it broke international law when it didn’t. As for the Lords…
Parliament, the Civil Service, the Judiciary, and the Media don’t want to take back Northern Ireland any more than they want to stop illegal immigration.
February 16, 2023
I donât know how this got through but conspiracy theory and distinctly unsavoury.
February 16, 2023
FuS
Agree fully.
February 16, 2023
Well said.
February 16, 2023
F U S
very well said, totally agree
February 16, 2023
The filth that seeks to splinter this nation into pieces are now to be found in Brussels, Whitehall and at Westminster. John no doubt sits next to them on the backbenches and they care only for their own careers and incomes
Let them do their best and let them destroy the UK
February 16, 2023
That’s one tyrant gone. Now we need to see the obliteration of the Labour and Tory parties who pass self-serving, tyrannical speech laws and promote DIVISIVE race-gender ideology to control what can and cannot be debated
February 16, 2023
DOM.
They pass those laws to control by tyrannical means, the British people and tighten the control they have enjoyed for the past three years. They have no intention to hand back the freedoms we once enjoyed.
February 16, 2023
Itâs not in their locus do decide whether to âhand back freedomsâ. They did not give them in the first place, we are freemen and our freedom cannot be taken. If you are gutless and ignorant, you can surrender them of course,
Iâm afraid the population is not what it once was. Most of those with get up and go have got up and gone.
February 16, 2023
+++ and more.
Mr Gordon Brown’s report which Starmer seems keen on is to carve England up into ‘regions’ which in itself was/is an EU wish – just coincidence?
Campaign for English Parliament Chairman report notes the ‘regions’ seem based on the EU model for England.
I expect to see England referred to more often now as ‘the regions’ using the tried and tested slow drip, drip, drip to further wipe out a nation.
That is my concern which I’ll be open and honest about, concerns me far more than N.Ireland.
Conservatives of course will be silent on the fate of England
February 16, 2023
Mark my words theyâll soon be calling us departments, provinces & arrondissements
February 16, 2023
Well that went well for Brown and the Labour Party when they carved up Scotland and lost power up there to the SNP. They think they can take the North West and North East permanently! Permanently fail on schooling, property investment, roads, they canât persuade the brightest to stay in the regions because they chase Employment away.
February 16, 2023
Whilst I have no love for Queen Nicola, she did a good job of getting as much money from we Sassenach’s. The only reason many voted for her and the SNP.
February 16, 2023
Mark B
She was also far, far better at communication with the voters than the Conservative or Labour party 1.
February 16, 2023
on what basis do you refer to Queen Nicola?
February 16, 2023
I agree DOM, take away ‘free speech’ then they’ll take away ‘free thought’ ….then they’ll take your soul
February 16, 2023
HMG needs to take action. It has the levers. Sunak, like Johnson, like May, is just showing weakness.
February 16, 2023
@Sea_Warrior +1, Not a single particle of Democracy shown by any of them. Vote for me and I will kick you in the teeth. Parliament is a disgrace in that the majority there are in fear of their party leaders and fail there main purpose, Democracy and their Constituents,
February 16, 2023
SW.
Should Sunak misjudge the necessary action required over the NIP he will enlarge the elephant trap he already resides in over illegal immigration. The Unionists in NI will not accept anything that in any way dilutes their status as a part of the United Kingdom, nor should they. The situation as it stands is a threat in itself to the GFA. There is no place whatever for any EU jurisdiction north of the border, their place is south of it. End of story.
February 16, 2023
P.S. Can we have some discussion on police numbers? I see that Labour wants an arms race for the next GE.
February 16, 2023
Cooper wants to suspend every police officer that has a complaint made against them, I wonder how many will be out of work from Day 1 of her taking over. Any vexatious ex-partner, spurned lover can wreck someoneâs career with a single allegation.
February 16, 2023
We know the malign intent of the EU, but what about the cowardice of our government to actually do the right thing and stand up for NI and the Union?
Walk away from the protocol.
February 16, 2023
@BOF +1 the cowardice of our government – says it all
February 16, 2023
Well said BOF, there is a lot of truth being said about the EU this morning. We now need brave political leaders to help destroy our enemy , brave politicians will to stand up and defend our country from the the EU.
Any influence must be completely destroyed.
February 16, 2023
The whole Brexit debate was based on Sovereignty: Who governs and where they got their authority to govern. That doesn’t just apply to Northern Ireland.
Establishment Remainers tried to make it all about the economy …. and they lost the argument and the Referendum.
The Establishment’s betrayal of Northern Ireland was deliberate and done so that the EU could retain control over the whole of the UK, with the Northern Irish people effectively held as hostage.
No patriot, let alone a governing party which calls itself Conservative and Unionist, would EVER hand over a large part of territory to a foreign “government’s rule unless it had been defeated in war. But that’s what the Not-a-Conservative-Party did.
We voted for a clean break from the EU and that is what we should have got.
I believe Gove, Mandelson and the other participants at the Ditchley Park meeting are stitching up a means by which we will become an “Associate Member”of the EU. As far as I’m concerned they’re traitors.
February 16, 2023
Donna ;
Agreed
February 16, 2023
I guess a last attempt to give our negotiators backbone. I donât hold out much hope. The pro EU civil service and allegedly pro Sinn Fein, NI office plus the centre of the Tory party have made almost certain that the EU will prevail.
Marin Howeâs article also in the DT about the ECJ being an imperial court should also be required reading for Sunakâs surrenderites. Again the timing is âinterestingâ
It is telling that Theresa May, the Tory Reform group and other âwetsâ pushed back against sanctioning Sturgeons Trans Bill because it would hasten the end of the Union. No such support for NI. What a disgrace and as events unfolded, an utter out of touch woke view as common sense prevailed.
I hope they get âsawn offâ in the coming election.
February 16, 2023
Well done!
I myself have sent this letter to Rishi Sunak, headed “Replace EU import controls with UK export controls”:
“Dear Prime Minister
Please pardon my presumption, but before you head off for your meeting in Munich I hope you may have time to scan through my outline scheme for UK export controls to protect the EU Single Market from unsuitable items finding their way into the stream of goods crossing the open land border into the Irish Republic. As this was first circulated last August it will need some updating, but nonetheless in essence it is still correct.
Happily Northern Ireland is not a barren wasteland, on the contrary it is a productive part of our United Kingdom, and that is why something like half of the goods crossing the border are locally produced and will not be subject to checks at any point of entry into the province. Therefore whatever tinkering may be done with the EU’s import controls cannot possibly provide a substitute for UK export controls on the outgoing goods.
In the absence of UK export controls to filter out unsuitable goods from the flow across the border it would remain necessary for all goods production in Northern Ireland to be conducted under EU Single Market laws, with the undemocratic dynamic alignment that you yourself have ruled out for Great Britain*, and overseen by the EU Commission and under the jurisdiction of the EU court, clearly unacceptable to any unionist.
I hope you will accept this argument and convey to your EU interlocutors that this undemocratic and unconstitutional protocol cannot be allowed to stand and they must agree to amend it.
Yours sincerely
Dr D R Cooper
* https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2022-11-22/sunak-uk-won-t-align-with-eu-laws-in-post-brexit-ties ”
Followed by the outline scheme as proposed in August.
February 16, 2023
Keep going Denis.
February 16, 2023
Good morning.
Is this still dragging on ? Would the U.S.A, China, Russia or any other country suffer such ? Why do we appear so weak and subservient to the EU ?
Another clear sign of our nations demise.
February 16, 2023
Mark. Its pathetic for a once great country.
February 16, 2023
But it is not what the citizens want – it is totally down to the views of the people Central Office or similar have been recruiting for years. The whole basis of Westminster has to be called into question. I find myself having some shared opinion with Sturgeon et al.
February 16, 2023
I fear all the eu needs to do on this issue is hang on for a Labour govt which will undoubtedly cave in on this and any other area of dispute. Iâd suggest the govt carry on getting the NI bill through Parliament but hold off getting Royal assent, that way the threat of bringing it in at a moments notice can be held over negotiations. (It could also be a good âwedgeâ issue at the next election.)
Off topic, I understand there is a potential benefit of Brexit which has not yet been picked up in the media: the EUâs AI Act will in effect ban Chat GPT and any similar AI technologies in the EU due to infeasible regulatory technical requirements (like âbias free trainingâ). You may as well make such a stipulation for the use of mathematics and statistics. Amongst thin pickings from Brexit, this could be one to focus on, as it illustrates the potential value of independent regulation.
February 16, 2023
“Checks needed on GB to NI trade can as now take place at the premises of the company despatching the goods from GB or at the premises of the buyer in NI. ”
Surely you meant UK to EU trade? Or have you fallen for the fallacy that checks need to be made on intra-UK movements? I still can’t see why the EU can’t set up its own controls wherever it wishes in the EU, just like any other third country protecting its market. If they wished and thought it would help, they could stop all movements of goods from NI to RoI, so no checks of any sort.
February 16, 2023
You have hit the nail square on the head, it must be driven home. Sir !
February 16, 2023
Some borders appear to matter whist othersâŠ
Just donât!
Ditto some important agreements and not others!
Total hypocritesâŠor rather they have an agenda for which they are ploughing up our lives.
( I suppose on a brighter note they might just expose some long-buried sentiments?).
February 16, 2023
@Cuibono +1
February 16, 2023
To coin a phase
ââAll borders are equal, its just that some borders are more equalââ
February 16, 2023
The Commission argues that it needs its regulations to prevent unfair competition from outside its borders and safe approved produce only to enter. Yet it allows Eire to set low Corporation Tax while the UK agreed to the setting of high tax agreed by Biden and the EU, resulting in the loss of an important pharma industry. They know that UK standards are at least as high or better than that across the EU. They know that Tesco would not sell non compliant goods in its Irish stores.
This is all about punishment. We need to restrict fishing licences and insist on landing catches in our ports. Charge for overlying our airspace. End military cooperation. Hire a lorry ferry to Spain in case the French start blockading our imports. Stop gas exports to the continent. End the wind racket owned by EU production and generation. End the grip of EDF on the UK nuclear and retail market. Just say No for a change. But instead we form a committee with the likes of Manleson and the quisling found to be plotting with the other side during the Brexit negotiations participating.
February 17, 2023
Stred, our government is weakâSunak and Hunt on their knees. The alternative even worse.
February 16, 2023
Why is it that political parties that vigorously defend the Act of Union between England and Scotland on the one hand, treat the British of NI on the other as if their citizenship was negotiable?
I must say I admire the Unionists of NI for not taking direct action against the custom posts set up contrary to their rights.
February 16, 2023
From where the EU have always sat the NIP is a device, at worst as a first step to a united Ireland against the wishes of the NI Protestant Community. At best a device to maximise the disruption of Brexit for the UK. All the devices for correction of both are in black and white in the NIP. It is only the anti Brexit sentiments within Parliament, the civil service, the BBC, and some of our media, collectively called the establishmenf, that have allowed a problem that could be resolved by any sixth form to drag on year after year. Lance the boil whether the EU and Biden like it or not, and revert to NI being part of a re-United Kingdom.
February 16, 2023
The people who championed brexit including Sir Jeffrey Donaldson DUP and the other Unionist heads should have thought about all of this before they advised their followers and followed through with the vote but they didn’t and the law of unintended consequences has taken over. Not even that great negotiator Lord Frost or Boris himself could see ahead to where there were going or to difficulties when they approved the protocol – so mucn then for ‘think-tanks’ and so now what? well the government is under severe pressure to agree a way out that will settle the problem just so that normal relations with the EU and US can resume to something akin to normal – or am I missing something?
Incidentally I do not ever remember ever the same outpouring of concern in times past by any member of the Tory party or Unionists for the nationalist people of NI during the first fifty years or so of Unionist misrule – how times have changed? – and never forgetting the law of unintended consequences
February 16, 2023
Patrick, the border is not mentioned in the Belfast Agreement.
In 2016, after the referendum result, the border was not considered a problem by Enda Kenny, David Cameron, both sets of customs officers, and the EU Commissioner at the time. It was not considered a problem because it was not a problem, as Sir John demonstrates. They were looking ahead and they were thinking about it.
Then along came Leo Varadkar and Mrs May, with Ollie Robbins in tow, and it all became a huge problem which could only be solved by overriding the result of the referendum, by keeping us in the EU without a say, and without an exit clause. That is why Mrs May got through three Brexit Secretaries of State and four Brexit Ministers of State. She was doing all that behind their backs and behind the back of her Foreign Secretary whom she also lost. The most duplicitous PM we have ever had.
When Boris took over from her, she had reduced the majority Cameron left her with to minus 21. He was not able to negotiate properly with the EU because the Traitors’ Parliament of 2017-19 passed the illegitimate Surrender Bill. Starmer played a very large part in that. So we were stuck with the NIP and at the first opportunity the PM tried to neutralise it with the IMB. The new Parliament still would not co-operate. As others have pointed out, they want to hang on to Scotland but not N Ireland.
February 16, 2023
Rose, sheâs getting her rewards for her deceit too and her constituency re-elected her!
February 16, 2023
The EUâs actions are always disingenuous and in the UK it becomes punishment without democratic over-site. It is a reminder that he WA set out to keep the UK a EU Colony. WA has nothing to do with mutual trade, it is just the EU ensuring it has UK access while denying any reciprocity
The UKâs main problem is that Parliament is complicit, they refuse to be the legislature of the Country, i.e. they refuse to up-hold one of the first principles of democracy. In that they are refusing to do the job the were elected and paid to do. It is Parliament that is refusing the UK its Democracy.
If the UK is a Democracy EU Laws can never apply in the UK, they were not created by the Legislature in the UK. NI is still the UK, surrendering the fine people of NI to a dictatorship says a lot about the people we now have in Parliament.
February 16, 2023
Do you really think that the EU thinks…it simply spouts out its own power and expects all to fall in. It is collective arrogance.
February 16, 2023
It is also the EU Commission saying to the people of Ireland we donât âtrust youâ, you lie, you cheat, and donât have the honesty to be trusted.
February 16, 2023
Good words SirJ but Sunaks actions will be a further sell out of NI and capitulation to the EU âŠ.we all know the direction of travel with this government âŠ.anyway the decision was probably already made at the secret cross party talks last week
Anybody seen any minutes yet ?
February 16, 2023
it was very likely decided at last summer meeting of the Bilderburg conference in Washington when both M.Gove and D.Lammy attended.
February 16, 2023
Unfortunately, the Conservative party has been sacrificed in order to keep us aligned with the EU and the WEF. We have constant propaganda trying to make us believe that Brexit was a bad idea. I donât know anyone who wants closer ties with the EU. They just want a government that stands up to them and puts the British people first. Itâs appalling that NI is being betrayed in this way and losing its democracy. Sunak and Hunt should be ashamed of themselves. Why is OFCOM in partnership with the WEF? Why do they hound GBNews yet say nothing about the BBC giving a platform to an ISIS bride who promoted terrorist activities? Our institutions have been infiltrated and used to suppress free speech.
February 16, 2023
Not only have the U.K. Government to deal with the intransigence of the E.U. in trying to resolve this matter, they also have to contend with the intrusion of a so-called Irish American Catholic President who thinks the Western World should dance to his tune. Sunak needs to strengthen his diplomacy with both these factions if he wants to succeed for the benefit of all the people of Northern Ireland.
February 16, 2023
RC Northern Irishman Conor Burns seemed to be getting on quite well doing that and then was mysteriously denounced and sacked. When he was eventually declared innocent he was not brought back.
February 16, 2023
Of course the EU should not have any legal control over the affairs in N. Ireland . There is no need for border controls ; the situation between Switzerland and France should be used as the way to overcome the present problem . We have been too compliant to date in our relationship with the EU and is time to demonstrate that times have changed .
February 17, 2023
Bert, one wonders why we are being so compliant, we are willing to spend a fortune helping the Ukraine and won’t sort out a similar problem of infiltration on our own land.
February 16, 2023
We can now add duplicitous Sunak to the calamity Theresa and bounder Boris list, they conspired with the EU against a fundamental principle of self determination for N.I.
If the EU refuses to yield on the principle, we must cancel the protocol at all and any cost.
February 16, 2023
I believe people respond to a strong leader. At first I thought May was going to be Thatcher Mk.2 – that hope lasted about a month.
Then we got Bunter. Huge majority. Should make up for the lack of character. Huge majority wasted.
Now Sunak. He has been hopeless as chancellor and now as a placed PM. If he stood up to the EU, really stood up to them – draped himself in the Union Jack and told them to get lost over N. Ireland – half the country would rally behind him and all other sins would be forgiven. Itâs the only chance the Tories have of not being wiped out in 2024.
February 16, 2023
I know it doesn’t compare but I also have something published today, a letter in the Maidenhead Advertiser:
“Easy solution to border problem was ignored”
“Seven years ago, almost to the day, David Cameron announced that we would have a referendum on EU membership, saying “You will decide”, “The choice is in your hands”.
An unequivocal pledge that was repeated in the government’s official communication before the vote: “This is your decision. The Government will implement what you decide.”
So on Thursday June 23 2016 we voted, and the result was to Leave, and the next week some on the Remain side put in applications for judicial review to try to get it stopped.
And that is how it has been ever since; the vast majority of those who voted to stay in the EU accepted the result, but a small fanatical minority have been trying to frustrate it.
So on to the situation five years ago, almost to the day, when the Advertiser printed a letter headed “Easy solution to EU border conundrum”, copied direct to Theresa May.
In which I suggested that the best way to protect the EU Single Market from unsuitable goods exported across the Irish land border was by export controls, not import controls.
However Mrs May was determined to think differently, preferring to listen to the demands of business leaders such as Carolyn Fairbairn of the Confederation of British Industry.
Consequently we now have the running sore of the Northern Ireland protocol, which attempts to use EU import controls to manage UK exports across the open land border.
The years go by, I know where to put the blame for the perpetual tedium that Brexit has become, and which I too must endure, and I also know why they have done it.”
February 16, 2023
I see British Gas has made ÂŁ3.3bn profit from indirect government subsidy via the Energy Bill Relief Scheme
February 16, 2023
That was the parent company. British Gas profit went down. Presumably because it had to pay more to buy gas.
February 16, 2023
I don’t know why Sir John is bothered writing articles like this for the Telegraph – it must be a bit like preaching to the converted. Now if only he got the Guardian or the FT to print it – well then that would be something.
February 16, 2023
In the past the FT has printed articles about alternatives to the present protocol, but the UK government did not want to follow them up even if they were not rejected by the EU or the Irish government. See above:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/02/16/my-article-in-the-telegraph/#comment-1372873
for Theresa May ignoring an easy solution offered five years ago.
There was the “mutual enforcement” proposal which Sir Jonathan Faull pushed in an FT article mentioned here:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/07/25/state-borrowing/#comment-1247071
“As this would only be the UK half of the âdual autonomyâ or âmutual enforcementâ schemes, eg here from Sir Jonathan Faull last week, essentially repeated from two years ago:
https://www.ft.com/content/6923b4b7-6e4a-41f0-a22f-70459db3cd7f
it would not require the agreement of the EU or the Irish government, and so it would not be open to the instant rejection that they have always meted out to such proposals … ”
And there was the Lichtenstein solution, mentioned here:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/11/21/there-is-no-50-billion-bonus-from-cancelling-brexit/#comment-1072262
“The âLiechtensteinâ solution proposed to keep the Irish land border as open as now for the movement of goods, as well as people, was described in an article published in the Financial Times on May 10, 2018, still available on the internet, when it was specifically stated:
âOne senior Whitehall official described it as âa very interesting ideaâ, with relevance to the effort to avoid a hard Northern Ireland border.”
February 16, 2023
I read that Centrica made that money from their nuclear, gas and electricity supply business but only ÂŁ10 per domestic gas customer.
February 16, 2023
Home Office â15th February 2023
Illegal Immigrants – 69
Boats â 1
Pizzas anyone
February 16, 2023
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/northern-ireland-uk-government-rishi-sunak-government-european-court-of-justice-b1060948.html
“Stormont impasse will continue if EU laws remain in Northern Ireland, DUP warns”
“While it is understood the EU and UK are close to signing off a deal that would reduce protocol red tape on the movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, there is no expectation that Brussels is willing to agree to ending the application of EU law in the region.
The EU contends that a fundamental plank of the protocol â namely that Northern Ireland traders can sell freely into the European single market â is dependent on the operation of EU rules in region.”
Well, then, the answer is to introduce export controls, with export licences and penalties for infringements.
February 16, 2023
Rishi Sunak is going to Northern Ireland to rally the local politicians behind his idea, whatever it may be:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-64669279
And in that article, and others, when the BBC draws a diagram to explain how the protocol works they have an arrow for goods coming over from Great Britain, the “Goods dispatched” arrow, which are “checked at Northern Ireland ports”, and they have another arrow for those goods leaving the province after being checked, the “Goods can move across the border into the Republic of Ireland” arrow, but they do not have a third arrow for the goods that have been produced in Northern Ireland and are going across the border unchecked.
February 16, 2023
This is a very good clear essay on the subject, the best I have read. Let us hope it is widely learned from.
February 16, 2023
There is a lot about this I just fail to understand.
I can’t see why we should do anything to protect the E.U.’s single market and its border. That is their problem. If people want to bring goods into the E.U. to trade, collecting import duties and enforcing their regulations is their problem, not ours. So I can’t see why we should put any barrier up within Britain to suit the E.U.
Nor can I see why it is quasi-sacred not to have a physical border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It has long been abused for smuggling goods to take advantage of price differentials between the North and the South and more recently for E.U.subsidies. It was abused during The Troubles by Irish Republicans crossing the open border, committing atrocities in Northern Ireland and then escaping across the border. Britain should have closed that border with a wall (akin to Trump’s ‘beautiful wall’ or akin to the many walls built to separate and safeguard communities in Belfast) then. Nor will a physical border cause a new war, 25 years after the peace treaty, just as the absence of a physical border never prevented ‘The Troubles’.
Finally I don’t really see why the Northern Irish should make all this fuss as becoming the only area that can trade both in the U.K. and in the E.U. without tariffs is surely a great opportunity for Ulster business, mostly at the expense of the Republic, especially if Corporation Tax were equalised.
February 17, 2023
“Finally I donât really see why the Northern Irish should make all this fuss as becoming the only area that can trade both in the U.K. and in the E.U. without tariffs is surely a great opportunity for Ulster business, mostly at the expense of the Republic, especially if Corporation Tax were equalised.”
This is just Gove propaganda. It is not an advantage to Ulster to be cut off from Great Britain, its main market and the rest of its country. The propaganda is peddled to get people to accept the creeping annexation by the EU of Northern Ireland. The Alliance party want to be ruled by the EU and the Sinners in all their various guises want to be ruled by the South. Cutting off Ulster from GB makes their objectives more likely. This is not to do with sausages.
Your earlier questions answer themselves by the common sense points you make. There was no need for any fuss about the border until Varadkar and Mrs May came along and confected one. She should never have been intimidated into taking responsibility for the EU’s outer border in the North West. Even if it had been their much more dangerous and difficult outer border in the South East, it would still have been their responsibility, not the Croatians’.
February 16, 2023
Sir JR,
It is nice to see that you have moderated on the existing negotitions and not just tell us, we have to walk away from the negotiations as you have told us over many years.
We proposed the present Protocol (Johnson), so let us make the best of it.
I am pretty sure what you have outlined is so far from what the EU are able to accept , that your proposal will not be put forward. But that mess seems to be aligned with the rest of the current Brexit proposals from the Conservative Party. Bloody mess.
February 17, 2023
Bloody remainiac mess, Bill.
February 17, 2023
Agreed Sir John.
Any sell-out by Sunak will just utterly confirm that he was the wrong choice for PM …