If Brexit thought us anything, it is that people in Britain don't really care too much about what happens in Ireland, why would they have agreed to the protocol if they did.
The majority of people were happy with the deal and I have seen no demonstration that this situation has changed, but if it has, there is a democratic mechanism to strike the protocol down. The UK government's current gripes are nothing more than a continuation of the bad faith political game they have been playing with the EU for four years now. The biggest mistake EU negotiators have made was not walking away from the negotiation table and let the UK come back when they were willing to properly negotiate. It's never been the EU have agreed to things with the UK and then come back a week later after a whole heap of domestic political infighting to say that actually the deal that was agreed is no longer agreed. That's been the UK and it's always been the UK.
You said it would happen? So what? Everyone and their sister said that Brexit would be bad for Northern Ireland. Sinn Fein and yourself have been singing from the same hymn sheet here. Preach this to Brexit voters who have caused this mess.
Unionism: The protocol differentiates us from the rest of the UK, it is absolutely unacceptable!
Also unionism: A UK law being applied in NI? This is absolutely unacceptable!
You wouldn't be inferring that Unionism hasn't a bull's notion about what it's up to would you?
No, no, never!
You are just showing your lack of understanding about how the Uk works
Funny that, It was a Unionist complaining about 'A UK law being applied in NI? This is absolutely unacceptable!' that had to be told 'how the UK works' in his own parliament. 😁😁
Tell us all about abortion services in NI
This is the level of stuff being aimed at Unionists in the Newsletter. I don't think I've read as bad in the whole history of Brexit.
Johnson proposes the protocol and the Tories get a huge win from it, and it's framed as the EU disrupting another country's internal trade.
Do the people reading this stuff not realise how little respect the editors have for them?
Absolutely. It’s not just you and lumpkin that dot get how the union works. As you point out , you share that space with some fundamentalist dinosaurs in the dup.
This is the letters page. Do you guys not understand how a letters page works?
The editor approves the letters. It's a pretty big spread given to absolute tripe.
https://youtu.be/wIaHrPg8MPs. A wee bit from Arlene
downcow the 'union' would not have to work that way precisely for the reason stated - that unionism wants to have an a lá carte relationship with it and talk through it's arse.
Both the DUP and the UUP and the TUV block laws and rights that everyone else in the UK have.
What newspaper with a bit of pride in it's reputation publishes letters that are factually wrong and badly written?
The Newsletter has zero filter, nor do the Unionists retweeting it.
Ah stop DC. I've turned a corner with you after this post. I previously took your concerns about NI being legally distinct from the UK seriously. You can't have a problem with the protocol while simultaneously arguing that NI is legally distinct.
He engages with fantasy rather than the reality all the time.
'Unionism will always be right' that is the mantra here even in the case of the contradiction pointed out by lurleen lumpkin:
Unionism: The protocol differentiates us from the rest of the UK, it is absolutely unacceptable! Also unionism: A UK law being applied in NI? This is absolutely unacceptable!
The Newsletter again perpetuating and promoting Unionist arrogance and mythmaking.
The sooner the 'OUR wee country' or 'HIS department' nonsense stops the better.
It is everybody's 'wee' country and everyone's department. That a rump of Unionism (and the TUV is most definitely a rump) still couches things in those terms is pathetic. An a lá carte attitude to the GFA that they rejected vehemently and violently and now scream should be protecting them.
Unionism is all over the coherence shop and getting more desperate.
Jim Allister: It is wrong to say the protocol isn’t working, because it is – just as planned | Belfast News Letter
Tell us how it 'works'?
Tell us where Francie, Lurleen and others erred in their understanding?
A friend of mine is a scientist in Queen's University. He occasionally has to issue press releases on science issues and he has to tailor them to the general public. His bosses at Queen's tell him to write it so it can be understood by a 10 year old and/or Belfast Newsletter reader.
The editorial leadership at The Belfast Screwsletter is quite frankly stuck in a death spiral of their own making. The Letters section careers back and forth between the likes of the above and much shorter "GOD IS JUDGING THEE CORINTHIANS 2:12" missives on a daily basis.
When the editorial team agree with the bent of a particular letter writer they tend to accompany it or later expand on it with further polemic and also give the original writer some nice sprinkling of approval ("as the esteemed Dr Gudgin said", "as the respected Sir Jeffrey noted"). And then of course they bake in the standard fare - where Gammony Wilson or Gammony Allister can emit a vaccuous brain puff and the Newsletter will reprint it entirely without even a slight of counterpoint or questioning.
This is just them - they've chosen their strategy to be a very strong variation of "circle the wagons" and have committed fully to that, even if it comes at the cost of continually declining readership (as anyone who is not at the further end of the big U spectrum loses interest and looks elsewhere).
Whe we refer to OWC we mean everyone who lives in and loves NI. It is you blatant sectarianism and prejudice that leads you to assume we mean something different
I know you despise the fact that more and more people are buying into OWC.
That should enlighten you to the sectarian prejudice alive and well on this island
Their political editor sam Mcbride is head and shoulders above most other political editors on the island.
Mir is also the longest surviving English language newspaper in the world.
but sure you continue with your nonsense
Are you being serious? His work is dreadfully partisan IMO.
Shure you are downcow. 😁😁
You haven't explained why Jim thinks Unionism own the Ministry for Agriculture.
You also must think people are stupid....I think it's this arrogance that has you in a cul de sac tbh.
Edna Longley described "The News Letter is the ghost of a dead [unionist] establishment.''
When articles by Jim Allister take pride of place you'd have to agree.
Head and shoulders above most other political editors is just shorthand for, 'he tells me stuff I want to hear about how them Taigs are responsible for all the ills of the world'.
I wouldn't have minded if he chose to defend an actual solid journalist like Alex Kane, though I suspect Alex is a bit too reasonable and understanding of opinions he may not share himself for certain Newsletter regulars though.....whiff of Lundy about him.
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