My speech during the debate on Exiting the European Union (Value Added Tax), 3 February 2021

 

As the Minister has told us, these are two important statutory instruments for the facilitation of trade generally and for the facilitation of trade within Northern Ireland and between GB and Northern Ireland, and to the extent that they make things easier and allow zero rating of important services and goods, I welcome them wholeheartedly. But, of course, as others have said in this debate, we meet today against the background of clear difficulties and problems in the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol, where it appears that a number of important impediments to GB-Northern Ireland trade have been inserted, and it is crucial that the talks go well and we get rid of them as quickly as possible.

So when we look at the administration of VAT, which is an important part of the trade process, I would like an assurance from the Minister that these regulations, and all the other VAT and excise rules applying in Northern Ireland and throughout the United Kingdom, will be solely administered and enforced by United Kingdom authorities, because I have much more confidence in them.

Will he also assure me that the aim of these statutory instruments, and the wider VAT legislation that they add to and amend, is to ensure that the movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, or the other way, will be as smooth and easy as the movement from London to Surrey or from Manchester to north Wales, because that is what I thought we had agreed and signed up to—that Northern Ireland was a fully integrated part of the United Kingdom single market, under our single market and taxation rules? I would like the reassurance through these statutory instruments that we are intending for that to be true.

Will the Minister also confirm that there has for many years during our period in the European Union been an important VAT border between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, but that it has always worked very smoothly and was not enforced at the physical border, in accordance with the spirit of agreements and not wanting barriers at the land border?

It was an electronic border and adjustments were made by computer or by correspondence so that these things could be sorted out in a sensible and decent manner without having to have people queuing at borders to make complex calculations and submissions.

If that is the case, does the Minister agree that it is in that spirit that we need to find the answer to the current impositions and difficulties affecting our trade across those borders? It seems very odd that we cannot replicate that success of our past trading, where electronic manifests, trusted trader schemes and so forth, and proper electronic VAT registration worked very well. Surely the UK authorities, if we are the proper and sole enforcement authority in Northern Ireland, can work with trusted traders, VAT-registered hauliers and ferry companies and so forth, and we can accept their certification or word that the goods on their load are entirely GB-Northern Ireland or Northern Ireland-GB. We can then accept, therefore, that there are no other considerations and the loads can then move as smoothly as from London to Guildford or Manchester to north Wales. It would be very helpful to hear the Minister’s views on how that can be achieved and how quickly we can get to that point.

It is absolutely crucial to the people of Northern Ireland, as we have heard from their representatives, that they can trade smoothly with the rest of the United Kingdom. That was fundamental to the spirit of the agreements that the United Kingdom entered into with the European Union over the issue of trade with and between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. I hope the Minister will have good news for us and that these things can be sorted out quickly.

84 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    February 4, 2021

    Exactly right. Good piece in the Telegraph today by Allister Heath on this topic too.

    The EU’s Trumpian drift has now destroyed its last reason for existing.
    The incompetent bloc’s treatment of Northern Ireland explodes its claim to be a ‘progressive’ force.

    1. rose
      February 4, 2021

      Nothing Trumpian about it. Trump respects individual nation states. He’s not that keen on overbearing blocs who don’t keep to the rules.

      1. Ed M
        February 4, 2021

        ‘Trump respects individual nation states.’

        – Trump really doesn’t care one way or the other. He doesn’t have a political philosophy.

        1. John Hatfield
          February 5, 2021

          You watch too much BBC, Ed M.
          Trump is an anti-establishmentarian.

      2. Hope
        February 5, 2021

        +1 again, the Fake Tories wishing to get on the band wagon of smearing anything Trump like the former N.Ireland secretary using the same term.

        Steve Hilton- remember him, Cameron’s man- making a tribute to Trump’s achievements! Same for Douglas Murray and others. Cancel culture want to hide facts for return to Mr Global, Davos think and Big Tech rule.

        Second rate govt ministers need to look in the mirror and ask themselves are they really up to the job. On evidence to date they like to follow, like group think but are totally incapable of leading, starting with Johnson!

        Retired general leading hotel quarantine! All these czars, all these army personnel should be a wake up call that civil service are not can do people. No leadership, no zip or determination to get the job done. Wish washy lefty politically correct woke name callers.

        1. John Hatfield
          February 5, 2021

          +1

      3. Lifelogic
        February 7, 2021

        More the article that the Trump headline.

    2. rose
      February 4, 2021

      Presumably part of the reason for the bad behaviour is the usual EU protectionism: Big Pharma, as represented by France, Germany, and Switzerland, doesn’t like the Oxford vaccine going across the world at cost price. America won’t like it either.

      1. Richard1
        February 4, 2021

        Switzerland is not in the EU

        1. rose
          February 4, 2021

          Switzerland has banned the Oxford Vaccine. Switzerland is also in the SM and the Schengen Area.

          1. a-tracy
            February 5, 2021

            Switzerland In a statement, the body said following an “extraordinary” meeting on February 2, its Human Medicines Expert Committee (HMEC) confirmed their assessment”The data currently available do not point to a positive decision regarding benefits and risks.

            “To obtain a conclusive assessment, the applicant will among other things have to submit additional efficacy data from a Phase III trial under way in North and South America, and these will have to be analysed.

            “As soon as the results have been received, a temporary authorisation according to the rolling procedure could be issued at very short notice.”

    3. Billy Elliott
      February 4, 2021

      What the heck has some Allister Heath to do with the existing of EU?
      Is he oracle – or God?

  2. Nig l
    February 4, 2021

    The implication is that EU officials embedded in NI are causing the problem which we always knew they would. We also hear EU state subsidy rules have to be adhered to. So much for being an independent sovereign country.

    Brino as far as NI is concerned. The government is also in denial re the problems with trade to continental Europe with the Dept of Business advising companies to set up hubs on their mainland. Again more ‘lies’ about frictionless tariff free trade.

    We are being taken for mugs under cover of the hubris from the vaccination programme.

    1. Denis Cooper
      February 4, 2021

      The CBI and others insisted that we must seek a new, special, trade deal with the EU, rather than default to the existing WTO treaties, and obviously the EU would try to extract the maximum price for any such deal.

    2. MiC
      February 4, 2021

      NI voted strongly Remain.

      So insofar as it has a persona to be concerned, being in the CU and SM meets its approval.

      1. a-tracy
        February 4, 2021

        It seems the island of Ireland doesn’t trust its own people. If the mainland sends a product UK to to a client/company in NI and the bill terminates there then it shouldn’t need any customs paperwork or checks. The end.

        1. Ray Davey
          February 5, 2021

          But Boris’s oven ready deal says there must be paperwork and checks. The end.

          1. a-tracy
            February 5, 2021

            Ray, then Boris needs to amend it as the French seem to be able to do whenever they choose to. Yet we seem to take no “third country” retaliation at all. After all we can write our own rules now to match – ie no French shellfish imports until our ban is lifted.

      2. rose
        February 4, 2021

        The majority of Unionists voted for Brexit. Not just their representatives as people like you make out.

  3. Mike Durrans
    February 4, 2021

    Could I ask? Why are we still collecting VAT, It was and is an eu tax which should have stopped on the first of January.
    Certainly collect a British , call it purchase tax ( i know! Not very original) but it would mark a new start.

    1. Mark B
      February 5, 2021

      Yes. I too would like to know where this VAT money is going ?

      Are sending too the EU pe chance ??

  4. rose
    February 4, 2021

    “Gove had set out a series of demands, including that the EU remove the need for some checks and extend exemptions for large exporters such as supermarkets. In particular he called on the EU to remove restrictions on pet travel between Britain and Northern Ireland and waive rules that have in effect banned some goods, such as plants, from being sent to the province.” – The Times

    How can Gove carry on like this? Begging the EU to do unreasonable things slightly differently in our country to what they are already doing – after we have left? Has he no shame? Presumably it is he who leaks this sort of thing to the Times.

    There must be no more of this sort of begging. It is our country and we must decide how we do things in it. All that EU oversight and interference has got to go. The Government won’t survive otherwise.

    If the EU wants another customs border besides the one we already have between the North and South of Ireland, then let it be with the whole British Isles, in the Celtic Sea. The Southern Irish can then carry on pretending there is no border between them and the North – despite all that smuggling that goes on, and despite the Garda patrols. And we can get Northern Ireland back.

    1. Mockbeggar
      February 4, 2021

      For as long as I can remember there has been smuggling between Northern Ireland and the Republic; most notably during the troubles. But the police in both countries now have pretty good intelligence on the organised smugglers. You’ll never stop individuals from either side taking advantage of differences in some prices and crossing the border for them in private vehicles. I used to sell fuel to petrol stations and other companies on both sides during the troubles and know a bit about it. Good luck to ‘private smugglers’. The amount of trade is tiny compared with legitimate business and minute compared with UK trade with the EU.

    2. Mark B
      February 5, 2021

      The very fact that we have to ask what is in effect a foreign government to do something on UK soil is the most damning thing there is.

      Shameful !

    3. Mike Durrans
      February 5, 2021

      +1 totally agree

  5. No Longer Anonymous
    February 4, 2021

    Borders, borders everywhere …

    “It seems that the Home Secretary Priti Patel wanted the borders closed. But she was overruled by her Cabinet colleagues.

    I reckon Priti was right then – and right now. The Prime Minister says it is “not practical” to close our borders.

    Why not, when it’s “practical” to close all schools and ban us from visiting relatives? It all makes very little sense.

    And the irony of it! We left the European Union precisely so we might have control over our own borders once again.

    But having won that right, we decided not to use it.”

    Rod Liddle – The Sun today.

    Boris Johnson is doing so many things he was NOT voted to do. We understand the pandemic issues but why the other issues ? We don’t want a Great Reset. We want our lives back.

    1. rose
      February 4, 2021

      The Home Secretary lost the original argument against the Foreign Secretary because at that time we had about 4 million nationals and dual nationals abroad, wanting to come back.

      The scientists at that time advised there would be “stigma” if there was border control on health. They had been the same when AIDS came in, and don’t seem overly bothered about TB or anything else. The previous generation was very careful about health and the borders, but then came the new doctrine that foreigners must not be discriminated against in any way, not even called foreigners.

      Funnily enough, this has all been thrown overboard by no borders extremists all over the world, and they are the most uncompromising in now wanting their borders shut.

      As far as the PM’s remarks are concerned, it is indeed not practical to shut the borders when 40% and more of our food alone has to come in. We should not have got ourselves into this position, with overpopulation and no self sufficiency, but on the latter we can now make amends. Then there are business people who have to come in.

      A lot of the people who demand the borders be completely shut, don’t worry about where our bread and butter is coming from, or our money. Peace and prosperity is just automatic for them and they have no gratitude for it either.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        February 4, 2021

        “A lot of the people who demand the borders be completely shut, don’t worry about where our bread and butter is coming from, or our money. Peace and prosperity is just automatic for them and they have no gratitude for it either.”

        You do realise how many jobs have been destroyed, don’t you ?

        1. rose
          February 4, 2021

          I realized before the first shutdown was imposed. And not only jobs either.

      2. a-tracy
        February 5, 2021

        Rose 10,000 people per day flying into the UK are businessmen? really? No one was talking about closing down trucks and food supplies their drivers are covid checked anyway or should be because British drivers have this requirement.

        As for not worrying about our bread and butter, of course, we do but how do commercial air travellers coming through Heathrow affect our food?

    2. a-tracy
      February 4, 2021

      “The Prime Minister says it is “not practical” to close our borders.” The PM needs to explain precisely why? No-one is suggesting stopping goods by air or sea, drivers have to be tested to go into the EU so why aren’t they tested to come into the UK.

      The government is happy to close many, many businesses and they remain closed because we are importing virus from people travelling around the world and just coming in here and getting lost. One would presume Anglesey transmission is because of the sea routes and workers of the island working at the port.

      The people need to insist on limited people movement to stop the lockdown. IOM no longer have to lockdown, NZ no longer have to lockdown, Australia – they can all quarantine – we must.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        February 5, 2021

        My point exactly.

    3. Ed M
      February 4, 2021

      ‘Why not, when it’s “practical” to close all schools and ban us from visiting relatives?’ – two wrongs don’t make a right.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        February 5, 2021

        Either both are right or both are wrong.

  6. ian@Barkham
    February 4, 2021

    We have been taught many things by the EU Government, the main one being that their rules , laws and dictates only affect others and never themselves, they are above them.

    The Belfast Agreement was signed by the Irish Republic as it was then(now a EU State), the UK and the US. Logic dictates an alternative third party – the EU Government should respect that agreement and accept it without applying their third party strong arm tactics.

    Also given the EU is always inclined to break agreements without discussion and have recently demonstrated that big time. Should not in the light of that, the UK just change protocols as to ensure the People of the UK universally receive equal status and benefits. As the EU Government has illustrated to change doesn’t need discussion. Bearing in mind the only ones trying to change the Belfast(Good Friday) Agreement is the Government of the EU, its not even on the radar of the UK Government.

  7. glen cullen
    February 4, 2021

    Would it not just be simpler to scrape the ‘robinhood’ VAT taxation system altogether and adopt a sales tax throughout the UK – or are we forced to keep VAT to maintain a close financial level playing system with the EU

    1. Nig l
      February 4, 2021

      Agree. Mmm VAT (and Corporation Tax) methinks a can of worms and something I wouldn’t be surprised to find that we have agreed ‘secretly’ to keep alignment.

  8. Denis Cooper
    February 4, 2021

    I started off thinking “these things could be sorted out in a sensible and decent manner”, and I still think that in principle, but now five years later I seriously wonder whether our current crop of senior politicians are capable of doing it in practice. Note that I blame our politicians far more than I blame the EU or the Irish politicians, who have been encouraged in their nonsense rather than squashed as they deserved.

    Here is a sensible and decent proposal from the Ulster Unionist Party:

    https://uup.org/assets/images/UUP%20NI%20Protocol%20solutions%20paper.pdf

    “NI Protocol – UUP practical solutions paper”

    which could be extended to cover other matters such as VAT and excise duties.

    1. rose
      February 4, 2021

      “In an act of good faith to the EU, acknowledging their right to protect
      their Single Market, the United Kingdom could create a new offence to
      prohibit the use of our territory for the export of goods to the EU that are
      not compliant with EU regulations and standards, as required to maintain
      the integrity of the single market. The United Kingdom could further
      agree to indemnify the EU if it was found that UK territory had been used
      to export non-compliant goods to the EU via the land border on the
      island of Ireland.”

      Why, oh why, this Mayite approach to the EU’s single market? The UUP appear to have the same Stockholm Syndrome as she. The EU’s border and the EU’s Single Market are not our responsibility. Can you imagine them issuing a directive to protect our Single Market? Au contraire, they are doing their damnedest to destroy it.

      We need to stop making ever more complicated and expensive suggestions like this and face up to the fact that a fast one has been pulled by the EU and its minions, and now is our chance to unpull it.

      1. Denis Cooper
        February 6, 2021

        It is because those alternative solutions were rejected that we now have the present mess.

  9. Iago
    February 4, 2021

    Waste of time and spirit (not your fault), the government is on the side of the enemy, indeed is the enemy. How else does one explain the various subjugation agreements they have entered into with the EU (including defence and defence procurement) or the policy of unlimited immigration?

  10. Peter
    February 4, 2021

    I miss the link to the BrexitFacts 4EU site that used to appear on the right hand of this diary.

    It is still publishing. Today it asks :-
    “Is it time for the UK to stop being so nice to the Brussels regime?”
    A deal rammed through the Commons in 4Âœ hours, yet EU MPs are still debating it today’

    It then points out the EU side are still debating it – in a host of committees.

    Sadly, I believe Johnson’s government will not actually pursue a better deal with the EU. What it will seek is a damage limitation exercise and the appearance of addressing issues until they can be quietly kicked into the long grass.

  11. Newmania
    February 4, 2021

    It seems very odd that we cannot replicate that success of our past trading, where electronic manifests, trusted trader schemes and so forth

    Oh yes I am astonished , given that no-one else has ever done so .A lot of angry people up and down the country are counting the confident predictions that are now revealed as snake oil . Perhaps this is why opposition to Brexit remains as as high as ever despite the success of despised experts and abused NHS staff in getting the vaccine out .
    When this is over we need a Spring clean

    1. Richard1
      February 4, 2021

      You were surely one of those heaping derision on the govt. for not joining the EU fiasco vaccine scheme. A good thing we didn’t listen to you.

  12. Tabulazero
    February 4, 2021

    An invisible electronic VAT border is greatly facilitated by both sides being in a custom union.
    The UK has left and should therefore not be surprised if trading becomes more difficult.

    1. a-tracy
      February 4, 2021

      Are you going to be surprised if trading with the UK ‘becomes more difficult’?

    2. Ray Davey
      February 4, 2021

      A customs union and a single market are brilliant inventions which get rid of barriers to free trade. Sadly no one who voted Leave had any clue what they are. So now they are amazed to found out what they have lost. And they are angry and feel guilty. Very sad

      1. Sir Joe Soap
        February 5, 2021

        They were explained ad nauseam in 2015 and 2016. People understood and rejected because it meant loss of control. How about if all EU countries controlled us like Switzerland, so not at all, we’d still be in a Free Trade arrangement and probably wouldn’t have voted to Leave that arrangement. We all know who the big bad bully is.

    3. Roy Grainger
      February 4, 2021

      You made that up, you obviously don’t understand what a customs union is.

    4. Richard1
      February 4, 2021

      Norway is not in the EU customs union but has an electronic VAT border.

      1. Ray Davey
        February 5, 2021

        It also has a hard border for product checks, eg on products of animal origin. There’s more to borders than VAT and customs. That is why the Irish Sea is now a border, and a big expensive one. Exactly as Boris agreed, exactly as the British peopkle voted for in December 2019

        1. Sir Joe Soap
          February 5, 2021

          December 2019, that choice between Libdem rejoin, Labour rejoin or Tory leave subject 90percent of disaster May, you mean? the only other option was BXP who had already ceded. Decidedly the will of the people was get this done and then kick back on 4 years of May caving in.

    5. jon livesey
      February 4, 2021

      And yet we somehow all survived perfect well without being in a VAT union or a Currency Union. You are basically making up imaginary properties for customs unions. Once trade is handled by computers, all the details are handled invisibly and seamlessly without a customs union. A customs union is what you needed in the days of quill pens and eye-shades.

  13. The Prangwizard
    February 4, 2021

    Strikes me that ‘Boris’ works only on pretence and bluster and I’m not of course the only one. He pretends we are ‘sovereign’ but he and thus our nation is clearly under threat and the control of others he was and is too weak to stand against. This is not just the EU thugs but others here and elsewhere in the world. He has not just sold us out to the EU.

    I would echo the views of some others here who ask why Sir John who differs from his party on so many issues cannot pluck up the courage to leave it.

    Reply I was constantly told by some on this site that if I did not leave the Conservative party and join UKIP we would never get a referendum/never win it/never leave the EU. I explained we would only leave the EU if the Conservative party offered a referendum, won an election on the promise and then helped win it. So it proved.
    In 2019 I stood as a Conservative. My electors expect me to usually support the Conservative government. They also expect me to disagree with it if it contradicts its Manifesto or proposes something which they find hurts their interests. They also expect me to press for improvements in a range of areas. That is what I do.

    1. a-tracy
      February 4, 2021

      On the contrary, I wish Richard Tice and Richard Kimbell were in the Conservative party.

    2. rose
      February 4, 2021

      Quite right. UKIP didn’t get the referendum and didn’t implement it. Mr Farage, in both his manifestations and no doubt his third, has been in favour of PR. But PR would have had us still in the EU, like all the other countries which practise it. Without the two party system, and without the imperfect Conservative Party, gingered along by its backbenchers like Sir John, we would not be anywhere near where we are now. The gingering along is continuing. Just have faith.

      1. forthurst
        February 4, 2021

        So because the LibLabCon was pro EU, therefore we got the Referendum? So because we don’t have PR, we didn’t have a major political party that was explicitly pro-Brexit which therefore meant that David Cameron decided to hold the Referendum because he thought he would lose it? We would never have joined the EU if we had had PR in the first place because we would have had a political system that represented the people, not special interests.
        Do the French have PR, by the way? They hate the EU as well as the English.

        1. rose
          February 5, 2021

          PR doesn’t represent the people. PR means stitched up deals in back rooms after an election, not before. PR means you can never get the so and sos out. There they are, the next morning, the same old faces, grinning at you under a different name. Our two big parties are already coalitions, and you can see what the coalition is before you vote for it.

          1. rose
            February 5, 2021

            PS the French have more of a monarchical system. We recognize the American system as a constitutional republic, the adapted remnant of our 18th century monarchy, but the French President is far more powerful. He knows his people want to vote out, but he isn’t going to let them. He told us so, frankly, when he visited. Bien sure.

          2. Peter Parsons
            February 5, 2021

            With the best forms of PR you can always “get the so and sos out”. With STV (the system used in Northern Ireland elections and Scottish local government), you vote for individuals. You even get to pick which of a party’s candidates you prefer over the others (so giving you, the voter, more control and influence than you have now compared to FPTP where the parties don’t want to give you that choice). Open List PR gives the voters similar control.

    3. NickC
      February 6, 2021

      JR, Reply to reply: I agree with you on many things, and I an tolerant of your views where we differ. But on one issue – UKIP’s role in getting and winning the Referendum – you appear most unfair. All people who were eurosceptic (and then Leaves) were necessary in the win. Without Conservative Leaves (and indeed, Labour Leaves and Green Leaves), we would not have won. But without UKIP on the outside chivvying the Tory party elite, we would not have won either. For example in our area almost all the effort during the Referendum campaign was by UKIP members and supporters. And Green Leaves did more than the Tories did.

      Reply I have never attack or dismissed UKIP but I can assure you they did not help us get the referendum promise from Cameron. I was there.

  14. weary eye
    February 4, 2021

    While we are on the subject of taxation John I do hope you will fight these proposals tooth and nail.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9222559/Boris-Johnson-ponders-tax-drive-price-meat-cheese.html

    S

    1. rose
      February 4, 2021

      Someone has to get to the Mother of Wilfred and explain that grass fed beef and lamb, and dairy, is more environmental than beans and rice flown in from abroad. There is a whole science to the desirability of pasture from her point of view.

  15. ChrisS
    February 4, 2021

    Once again our host has the moral high ground, not having voted for the agreement on the grounds of potential difficulties over fish and NI.
    The difficulties you anticipated have arisen far sooner than any of us would have hoped.

    As you state, Sir John, an electronic answer to the border between North and South, based on the VAT model, would have been entirely possible. The problem was that the EU side, egged on by that idiot, Varadkar, was determined to make life difficult so the concept was rejected.
    Add the inevitable “Gold Plating” we have seen so often from British Civil Servants, and we are where we are. You could not have a more perfect example than the difficulties caused by the presence of a small amount of English soil remaining on an item of second-hand agricultural machinery that was destined to remain within NI.

    I am not over hopeful

    1. Fred.H
      February 6, 2021

      Abstaining is not the same as voting against. Sir John merely allowed his party to win the day, trying to keep his conscience clean!

      Reply Not so. There was no chance of winning the vote by voting against given the Opposition support.

  16. jon livesey
    February 4, 2021

    Of course, you are really asking for the EU to administer its own negotiated agreements in good faith, rather than manipulating them in order to obtain a blocking position inside the UK. So you are urging against every instinct the EU has.

  17. rose
    February 4, 2021

    “Trigger Article 16. We want unfettered GB-NI Trade.”

    This UK gov. petition is galloping if anyone is interested. I know they just waffle back at us, but it is the least we can do.

    1. Denis Cooper
      February 5, 2021

      https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/573209

      It’s now up to 86,000 signatures; as would be expected most of them are from Northern Ireland but I’m glad to see that there are 45 from Maidenhead … anybody who claims to be a unionist should promote it.

      1. rose
        February 5, 2021

        This is a unifying petition. Evenly spread across Sinner and Unionist seats in Ulster, between SNP, Liberal, Labour, and Conservative seats, on the Mainland, with Margaret Ferrier’s constituency coming top at the moment!

      2. Denis Cooper
        February 5, 2021

        Now 103,000, and as that is over 100,ooo MPs must consider whether it should be debated.

      3. Sir Joe Soap
        February 5, 2021

        Probably no surname May there though?
        Keeping schtum having teed up this ridiculous situation.

  18. steve
    February 4, 2021

    Time to rip up the agreements and trade with NI the way we did before joining the EEC.

  19. rose
    February 4, 2021

    I read that Greenland would rather have a relationship with us than the EU. I hope Liz Truss gives high priority to this. Just think of what is under all that ice!

    1. Sea_Warrior
      February 5, 2021

      Rare earth metals for one thing. Needless to say, China has already cast its covetous eyes at Greenand’s resources – in an effort to corner the world’s supply of the stuff.

  20. Lindsay McDougall
    February 5, 2021

    It is clear to the layman that all that is needed is a document stating that a particular export from the UK mainland to Northern Ireland is intended for re-export to the Republic. Such containers and consignments will be rare and will usually involve assembly or some other process being carried out in Northern Ireland prior to re-export. Otherwise, why not send the goods directly to a republican port such as Dublin?
    This being the case, the Northern Ireland protocol should be scrapped, if necessary unilaterally by the UK.
    For a hundred years the Irish Republic has coveted our territory in the North and has used every opportunity to make mischief and sew division. When are we going to stop treating the Republic as a friendly power and stop its citizens voting in our elections?

    1. Denis Cooper
      February 5, 2021

      More generally, if you intend to take stuff across the border into the Republic then you need an export licence which makes it clear that everything taken across must conform to the relevant EU standards and warns the holder of the civil and criminal penalties which could ensue if they are found to be in breach of the terms on which their licence has been granted. With suitable de minimis exemptions, and with various kinds of licence ranging from a simple semi-permanent licence so a farmer can deliver his milk to the processing plant each day or move his livestock between fields, to a single use licence for an occasional haulier to take just one consignment across. It would need to be worked out in detail and refined and it would inevitably still be a bit fiddly but the great thing is that this rather fiddly system would only apply where it actually needed to apply, that is to the small volumes of goods destined to be taken across the land border in the EU rather to the much larger volumes being moved between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. I cannot fathom why Boris Johnson did not take up any of the alternative ideas that were around at the time he took over as Prime Minister and instead chose to create a new border in the Irish Sea.

    2. acorn
      February 5, 2021

      Unilateral declarations we have plenty of. “Northern Ireland Protocol – Command Paper
      Ref: CP 346” https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-northern-ireland-protocol

  21. Sir Joe Soap
    February 5, 2021

    I can’t believe the average Irishman or woman cares one way or the other.
    It’s the politicians which have teed this up and screwed it up for the population, from May to Johnson.
    May left UK 100 yards back by denying that the issue was for the EU.
    Johnson moved 5 metres forward but still left NI in the lurch. Having promised no checks, he then agreed to checks.
    Keep the guy to his promises and make him abandon those checks! Name and shame May for caving in in the first place!

    1. rose
      February 5, 2021

      It is Gove who has to be pinned down – if anyone has ever managed that.

    2. Polly Smith
      February 6, 2021

      May did NOT cave in. She refused point blank to treat Northern Ireland differently from Great Britain. Her deal meant NO border in the Irish Sea. It is Johnson who caved in, it is Johnson who handed NI to the EU

      1. Denis Cooper
        February 6, 2021

        To placate the CBI and other business lobby groups May caved in to unreasonable demands being made by the Irish government, after which Johnson went further and made it even worse.

      2. rose
        February 6, 2021

        It most certainly was she who cravenly caved in to:

        1 the EU demand that there be sequencing in the negotiations, entirely on their terms: Money first, naturally, then the border, then citizens. Nothing else to be discussed till she had complied on all of those. This was in defiance of the Lisbon Treaty’s Article 50. The Brexit ministers at that time were against this way of doing things.

        2 the IRA and EU’s intimidation, demanding she take responsibility for their border and their Single Market. Neither was our responsibility any more than it was their responsibility to protect our border and our Single Market, and in fact they have gone out of their way to try and damage both.

        Her WA would have left the entire country in the EU, in effect, but just without the free movement of people, which was the only thing she thought worth attending to on the question of national sovereignty. She never understood Brexit.

        Even after she had been got rid of, her appalling legacy remained. The Traitor’s Parliament prevented the PM from negotiating, by passing the illegitimate Surrender Directive, though he did manage to ameliorate the situation somewhat. It is only now he has a majority that he can sort things out. And they must be sorted out.

      3. NickC
        February 6, 2021

        Polly, Unfortunately Theresa May did cave in – she caved in over the entire UK remaining under UK control, rather than a part, Northern Ireland. Boris’s deal is bad, that is true, but it was bad for a reason – four years of Remain Parliaments attempting to overthrow our democratic decision to Leave.

        1. NickC
          February 6, 2021

          Unfortunately Theresa May did cave in – she caved in over the entire UK remaining under EU control . . . .

Comments are closed.