Brexit Impact on Northern Ireland

salonfire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121196009#Comment_121196009

If you can't afford to pay for the doctor on vastly superior wages in the Republic, what would prevent you from applying for a Medical or GP card?

If that's the only drawback you can think of of life in the South, you are badly out of ideas.

downcow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121201237#Comment_121201237

It seems it’s you that’s losing the argument, not me. Your task is first to convince those from traditional catholic background of the merits of a UI post brexit, and then move on to others like me.

https://twitter.com/simoncatriley/status/1710278360234856572?s=46&t=8lu91sB-VJZ7tWtdI6t_dA

FrancieBrady

Any day now the reality will hit Unionists and they will realise that nothing was ever going to be the same because of Brexit. This is a direct outworking of Brexit. The Brexit they wanted and did everything to achieve.

https://twitter.com/Kilsally/status/1710355707072020902

blanch152

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204132#Comment_121204132

Interesting bit at the end where he says he would advise unionists to do exactly what they are doing - stay out of any discussion of a united Ireland.

breatheme

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121204132#Comment_121204132

Meanwhile, hardline Unionists are in a similar situation: they have to convince the rest of NI that the protocol is indeed something that needs to be torn apart.

Both sides are at a bit of a stalemate.

FrancieBrady

Bryson getting owned in HoC is a thing of beauty.

https://twitter.com/Shellmccabe/status/1714246705296625814

salonfire

Is the UK about to take liberties once again with the EU and EU trade? What will the EU response be this time, give even more consessions to the UK?

Seems like the green lane is going to disappear to appease the DUP and get them back to Stormont.

How long will the red lane be enforced realistically? Eventually the UK will get its wish, dump their crap into an uncontrollable EU market.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121261597#Comment_121261597

If you could link to a source for this, that would be good.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121261597#Comment_121261597

Since, 2016, Brexit supporters have consistently predicted that the EU is about to cave and give the UK what it wants. As predictions go, it's up there with the German carmakers in terms of the frequency with which it is made and the reliability with which it is falsified by events.

salonfire

Not published yet online it seems. Broken by Nolan show here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001r8vb

Reading between the lines, it's the only option. Another broken agreement.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121261638#Comment_121261638

Was watching Question Time last night and sign are there is a deal coming. The choreography is in progress. I'm sure there will be some tinkering around the edges but the fundamental movement the DUP insisted on will not happen.

salonfire

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121261638#Comment_121261638

Can you give examples of such a soft border between the EU and a non EU entity prior to Brexit? Compare the UK border, via NI, with the Swiss one. How is that not a massive breach of the EU long standing principle?

And it's not concluded yet.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121261662#Comment_121261662

The EU has made significant concessions to the UK on the border issue - in pursuit of the EU's objective, which is avoiding a hard border in Ireland. That objective has been achieved. The Brexiter mistake has been to assume that the UK got its concessions by being tough/being special/being entitled/holding all the cards; they completely overlook the EU's reasons for making concessions, and hence are invariably wrong in the predictions they make about future concessions.

The EU doesn't need to make any further concessions to secure an open border in Ireland; they've already got that on terms they find satisfactory. The concessions you say they are about to make would jeopardise what the EU has already achieved. You don't say why the EU would want that.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121261662#Comment_121261662

There is no Swiss situation! We (Switzerland) are not part of the single market nor the customs union and consequently full customs checks are carried out on the Swiss borders on commercial traffic which is diverted away from the normal traffic flow as it approaches the border. Swiss customs operate office hours and drivers of commercial vehicles are paid "days waiting fee" by their employers for the time they are held up waiting at the Swiss border. The same happens on the EU side for commercial traffic entering the EU from Switzerland. Through traffic for the EU is bonded and required to travel by train through the Swiss Alps, such traffic is not checked since it will not be unloaded in Switzerland. The only real difference between the UK situation and Switzerland is that unlike the UK government, the Swiss government have heavily invested in making that process as seamless as possible. Yes we have specific agreements on things such as the recognition of medicines, social security, professional qualifications, FMOP and EU inspectors handle most of Switzerlands checks of food exported to Switzerland, but we are in not part of the EU customs union.

People expecting the EU will fold etc... on this only demonstrate how little they know about trade negotiations - it is not a bilateral decision for the EU. For example their trade deals with Canada and Japan, plus the upcoming deals they are working on with Australia and New Zealand all include a clause that requires both parties to agree to either party granting better conditions to any other nation including the UK. Likewise the EU and it's members are members of the WTO and must comply with the agreements they signed up to there including the most favoured nation requirements. At this point there is very little wriggling room left for the EU. Yes there is a review not a renegotiation of the UK trade deal scheduled for 2025, but there is very little chance of any significant changes coming out of that.

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121261646#Comment_121261646

Source there says there will be some easement of the Green Lane but it will remain. No restoration of the Acts Of Union as the DUP wants.

Be careful here Salonfire, there will be those keen to sell any deal as a collapse of the EU's position.

It's just choreographing and face-saving, same as happened with the GFA, AIA etc.

reslfj

"We (Switzerland) are not part of the single market nor the customs union"

Switzerland is de facto a part of the SM and all four freedoms.

Switzerland is not member of the customs union which explains the customs controls at the Swiss-EU borders (at selected border crossings).

Switzerland has 120+ guillotine interlocked agreements with the EU implementing the SM. This arrangement will never again be accepted by the EU as it is much too expensive and slow to maintain. Even with Switzerland the EU wants to rewrite it into just ONE association treaty.

When the EU or any organisation grows larger it need to become more standardised and for its bureaucracy to work more efficiently.

Lars 😀

pixelburp

Sorcha Eastwood once more cutting to the quick and telling it like it is. It is a shame the clip doesn't include Donaldson's reply - though I scarcely think it would be a surprised moment of contrition in response to Eastwood's obvious impatience at the undemocratic, irresponsible hypocrisy of it all.

I can see why she pops up a lot cos in many respects she remains the modern perspective of Northern Ireland while dinosaurs and malcontents hold up the show.

https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1715094453906530648/mediaViewer?currentTweet=1715094453906530648&currentTweetUser=bbcquestiontime

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121266530#Comment_121266530

He just came back with the familiar, 'we have a mandate' etc etc.

pixelburp

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121266575#Comment_121266575

He looked miserable and chastened from the dressing down, I'm not surprised his response would be so canned. Eastwood is the Northern Irish that increasingly makes his own regressive variation of unionism irrelevant. Hopefully it's all a drip drip drip that continues.

FrancieBrady

While Bryson is triumphalising about the latest poll results

I am not seeing how it makes Donaldson's hand stronger.

I don't think the British government are going to be swayed by 2% of the Unionist vote moving to the DUP

Peregrinus

It's probably within the margin of error but, for what it's worth, on those figures the overall unionist vote is actually down by 1% and the non-aligned vote up by 1%. Half of the DUP's rise of 2% comes at the expense of the TUV who preach the same at-all-costs-avoid-our-own-responsibility-for-this-mess shîte as the DUP do. So the best that can be said is that the DUP is getting a slightly larger share of a slightly smaller unionist vote. Meanwhile the survey suggests that SF look very likely to be the largest party again; that will attract much more notice in Britain than the vicissitudes of intra-unionist squabbles.

political analyst

The deal between the British government and the EU is irreversible. Why won't Jeffrey Donaldson accept that?

retalivity

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121368647#Comment_121368647

Because he needs to play to the base who keep him in power, who are mostly thick.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121368714#Comment_121368714

If the DUP doesn't go back into government then the sensible thing would be for Westminster to change the system at Stormont so that SF, the SDLP, Alliance and the UUP could form a government, wouldn't it?

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121369136#Comment_121369136

That would involve Westminster unilaterally abrogating the Good Friday Agreement, which would be . . . problematic.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121369916#Comment_121369916

My hypothesis would still be consistent with the spirit of the GFA. After all, the St Andrew's Agreement meant some change to the GFA, didn't it?

FrancieBrady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121372486#Comment_121372486

St. Andrew's wasn't unilateral change.

serfboard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121369136#Comment_121369136

An alternative suggestion - direct rule to include Ministers from the Republic. And let's send them some of our worst - Danny Healy-Rae to be the new Minister for Justice in the North.

I reckon that'd make the DUP move fairly quick.

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121372486#Comment_121372486

The St Andrew's Agreement was agreed — there's a bit of a clue in the word "agreement". What you're suggesting is a unilateral abrogation of the GFA by Westminster, which is a very different matter.

pixelburp

Drip drip: Sammy Wilson yells at cloud, while the UK government ignores Northern Ireland in its "Levelling Up" fund;

“Despite being entitled to 3% of the £1 billion, Northern Ireland has not received a single penny from this round of allocations despite there being hundreds of suitable applications in the system,” he said.

“The Government’s rationale for this decision is as spurious as it is outrageous.

“An absence of an executive has no material effect on the allocations, indeed the principal objection in Scotland and Wales to the Levelling Up fund is that it is driven by Westminster rather than the devolved regions.

“The Government should be honest. The real reason for this allocation is to direct more money into the marginal seats in Great Britain where the Conservative Party is struggling.”

Ah, "entitled" is is Sammy? I mean, he's probably not entirely wrong here. It probably IS blackmail and may well be a stunt by the Tories - but you can also be damn sure it's a rod to remind the DUP that they're the ones holding up the show. Mind you, with the Tories in the state they're in ATM, solving the NI crisis might slip further and further down the priority list. This could yet stretch on as PM Starmer's problem.

https://www.thejournal.ie/dup-uk-government-economic-blackmail-funding-stormont-6228290-Nov2023/