This is no way to legislate for Northern Ireland. It is not right to annex part of our country to the European Union. At the time of the Windsor Framework, I and some colleagues in the Commons opposed it and pointed out that there were much easier ways of organising the trade and border arrangements between Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Government should go back to that work and understand that we do not have here a system of handling Northern Ireland’s law and trade which meets the requirements of the loyalist community, and maybe others in Northern Ireland as well.
The Government should be ashamed of how undemocratic this process is. As the noble Lord, Lord Dodds, has rightly identified, there is no point in consulting all the people who are to be affected by regulations in these areas in Northern Ireland because the Government cannot change them—and the Government cannot be bothered to work out the impact costs, or even the impact benefits, of the regulations because they rightly understand that they are a spectator. They are not in charge of any of these things.
Then we are told in the documents that there is going to be no review of how this works out. All the other examples that come to the Commons and the Lords from government for consideration go through a proper process. There is consultation with the people they are going to affect. Both Houses expect a proper assessment of costs and benefits. We expect a proper debate and if the Government have got it wrong, we expect them to go away and change or amend it. We certainly expect there to be a review after the process, so that we can see whether it has worked out in the way that the Government wanted.
The fact that none of these things can happen on any of these SIs means that we are going to spend a lot of time, on SI after SI, complaining about the process, so I have this suggestion for the Government. They have embarked on negotiations for something they call the EU reset. So far, all I have seen is a list of things that the EU wants, with the Government indicating that they would like to give those away in order to purchase some greater friendship or influence. It is always very odd that they think you get influence by giving in to what the other party wants. That is not the way most people negotiate.
Would it not be a good idea for the Government to put to the EU that this is doing damage to relations between communities in Northern Ireland and to the way in which they are governed; that it is undemocratic; and that we surely need a new settlement over how Northern Ireland legislation and trade are conducted? I very much recommend the mutual enforcement model, where we say that we will not send anything that is non-compliant from Northern Ireland to the EU and that we do not want to impose any new barriers on the Republic of Ireland/Northern Ireland border—indeed, that we would dismantle all barriers between GB and Northern Ireland.
September 9, 2026
All I can say is for gods sake make sure Ed Miliband as no say in any matter regarding Northern Ireland the guy was a idiot on Net Zero now off his trolley about the Middle East crisis, unless your a Palestinian the Liebour party are not interested because of the vote share they will need at the next general election which cannot come soon enough before this country is fully crippled by taxes and invading young men
September 9, 2026
+1
September 9, 2026
I was expecting a blog re Palestine/ Israel
I hope Ed realises that repercussions will not be confined to that area only even though international law is on the side of Palestine.
We can condemn without imposing sanctions.
September 9, 2026
Indeed we can condemn all you like, but Israel takes no notice.
We know of Palestinians whose homes have been stolen by israei nationalists, is that fair ?
Remember not all Palestinians are terrorists,
How would you feel if your home was simply taken from you, to leave you homeless ?
Perhaps sanctions are not the best Idea, but Israel’s response shows they believe and support the theft of property , and they have done nothing to prevent it for decades !
No I am certainly not a Palestinian or terrorist supporter in any way, but israel seems to allow and condone this theft of properties, which certainly does not help any hope of long term peace
September 9, 2026
The Windsor Agreement was the biggest act of treachery imposed by the last government
Going into every negotiation as a supplicant when we have a massive trade deficit with them.
Of course the majority in parliament agree because it keeps us tied to the rotting corpse of the EU.
As for the clowns Milibrains actio s on Israel I’m speechless. Well done Israel for closing the Consulate as this harms the Palestinians.
We really can’t afford 3 more years of this nonesense. Has anyone mentioned the impact on trading with states like Florida which will ban imports because of his stupidity.
September 9, 2026
Good morning.
The only solution to the problem is to just ignore the agreement and tell the EU that, if it wants to create a border between North and South it can. Personally I do not see a problem with this since Ireland is separate from the rest of the EU and so if the EU is concerned about the integratory of their Market they can make the necessary checks when goods arrive from their. Oddly enough, and this is never mentioned, most goods coming from RoI into the rest of the EU come via the UK.
September 9, 2026
Would seem to be far more sensible than the present arrangements
September 9, 2026
The biggest problem we will have to face in the coming years is Ireland. Overwhelmingly, Ulster voted Remain in the Brexit referendum. The fact that the rest of the UK narrowly voted leave has caused all sorts of difficulties, leaving NI still under EU rules and though there is no hard land border, there is a sea border.
Dissident Republicans in the Londonderry/Derry area have banded together under a “New IRA” banner and have carried out armed attacks against PSNI officers. They shot the journalist Lyra McKee dead in 2019 during a riot instigated when Biden was visiting Eire. Once again, they claim they are fighting for a united Ireland
The New IRA numbers less than 150 activists and compared to the Provisional IRA – which fought the British Army to a standstill during the latter part of the Troubles – remains a fringe organisation. However, the Eire Guarda recently intercepted a viable car bomb just before it crossed into Ulster.
They have formed a pro-Brexit far-left political group (Saoradh) The PSNI describe the party as the “political voice” of the New IRA and indicate that there is much membership overlap between the two groups.
Sinn Fein, now a mainstream political party, has achieved a measure of electoral success on both sides of the divide since the Good Friday Agreement. The British Government should be very careful over changing the current border arrangements
September 9, 2026
Indeed the Windsor Accord was appalling, but alas we had dire lefty, net zero fan & globalist Sunak as PM. He was cheered on by most Tory MPs.
He even abandoned ship six months early to gift a huge majority to Starmer.
So what do with think of Ed Miliband’s statement yesterday? He seems to be determined to inflict even more damage to the UK as Foreign Sec. than he has as Energy Sec.
Reply I have not spoken about the Middle East policy. The UK under this government has practically no influence over either side in the conflicts there. Nothing I could say would make any difference.
September 9, 2026
This year Ukrainian forces have made significant gains on the battlefield in winter and spring 2026.They launched the Oleksandrivka counteroffensive in spring/summer 2026 that liberated 26 settlements and over 745 square km in Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhia oblasts.
Russian forces, on the other hand, continue struggling to reach, let alone seize, Slovyansk, Kramatorsk, and Druzhkivka — in Ukraine’s heavily defended Fortress Belt
The war criminal Putin’s understanding of the military situation is severely distorted by the Russian military’s systematic lying, which is emboldening Putin to insist on his maximalist demands. Putin regularly makes absurd and aggrandizing claims of Russian advances on the battlefield to support his narrative of continuous and inevitable Russian military success. However, Russian and OSINT sources have increased reporting about ongoing Ukrainian counterattacks near Lyman in recent days
Reuters, well known as the source of much Russian dezinformatsiya, is reporting on yet another Trump one hour “very good” telecon where Putin, the liar, put him straight about what he, Trump, needs to do to rapidly bring the war to a close. Apparently all American and European military and financial support needs to be stopped, particularly the provision of anti-ballistic missile technology and more pressure should be applied to Zelenskyy to force him to capitulate.
Trump is reported as replying that he wants “improved relations with Russia, particularly on the economic front” Words fail me.