Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,896
Yer tis:-
When I reached agreement with the EU on our free trade deal, this time last year, I hoped that 2021 could be about making the UK’s new relationship with the EU work. Away from the noise, much is indeed working well. But one issue remains difficult and I have spent most of the year managing it — the Northern Ireland protocol.
Indeed, no one could have predicted a year ago how 2021 would develop. We saw the EU’s attempt in January to put in place a vaccines export ban across the land border in Ireland; their insistence upon interpreting the protocol as if it provided for a normal external EU border through the middle of the UK; the invocation of infraction proceedings against us that could by now have been before the European Court of Justice; and political turbulence including the departure of the longstanding first minister of Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster.
Economically, supply chains started to change and trade started to be diverted. Despite the £500m we committed to make the protocol work, we saw reductions in the supply of goods, discontinuation of medicines, and increased prices for consumers.
By the summer, the practical and political difficulties generated by the protocol were obvious to all. Fortunately, we managed to stabilise the situation by presenting, in our July command paper, a full and comprehensive solution to the problems.
We also decided then that the best way through, if we could achieve it, was to get a negotiated outcome rather than use the safeguards contained in Article 16 of the protocol. Since then we have been engaged in detailed talks with the EU about the way forward, including on the EU’s own limited proposals put forward in October.
Unfortunately we have not managed to make as much progress as I would have wished. With the exception of medicines, where we will look carefully and positively at the EU’s proposals now we have them, what Brussels has put on the table does not do enough to ease the burdens or cover the full range of problems faced by people in Northern Ireland.
The burdensome customs arrangements for goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland need to be changed drastically, given the overwhelming importance to the Northern Ireland economy of links with the rest of the UK, far outweighing its links with Ireland.
The simplest solution is to put in place substantively different arrangements for goods that all sides agree will stay in the UK and those that will not, and to manage any risks arising in a collaborative way. The EU’s proposals do not do this and our expert analysis does not support the ambitious public claims made for them when they were published.
Similarly, Northern Ireland’s state aid rules need to reflect the reality that, since the protocol was signed, we have agreed entirely new subsidy control rules in our free trade agreement, and put in place a new and rigorous domestic regime. The rules in Northern Ireland should evolve to reflect this.
And a solution must be found on governance — the undemocratic ways in which EU laws are applied in Northern Ireland, and the role of the ECJ. I know sometimes people dismiss this as an ideological demand. But no solution can work if the European Commission can get the ECJ to sit in judgment upon any of our actions, as happened in March. That kind of hair-trigger response is not the right way to achieve sustainable solutions in Northern Ireland and it is anyway obviously unfair and unreasonable for disputes between us to be settled by the court of one of the parties.
We would prefer to find a comprehensive solution to these and the full range of other difficulties. But, given the urgency, we have been ready to consider an interim agreement covering the most acute problems — trade frictions, subsidy control, and the ECJ. We have proposed various possible ways forward, but so far we have not found consensus — even on the content of an interim agreement.
The situation remains highly problematic. A protocol that was meant to support the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement is now undermining it. The Northern Ireland institutions are clearly at serious risk.
The most recent polling last week showed that 78 per cent of people in Northern Ireland want at least some change to the current arrangements.
As long as there is no agreed solution, Article 16 safeguards remain on the table. They may turn out to be the only way of dealing with the problems. But it is still better to find a negotiated way through if we can. Time is short. So the talks need to resume with renewed urgency in the new year if we are to reach an outcome that delivers for everyone in Northern Ireland. The UK will work for that.
"Shall we go, you and I, while we can? Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds"
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,845
Boris is a liability to his party now
So Should see the 1922 committee step in
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,009
Quick, duck - flying toy alert! This from Steve Baker, Conservative MP, Brexiteer and all-round democrat:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-59719162. And there was me thinking that Conservatives all shared a convivial fraternal spirit.
(Not my real name.)
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,295
Here we go again folks.
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,009
The person I feel sorry for (apart from myself obviously, as I was unaccountably left off all guest lists) is Allegra Stratton; with so many parties going on, how could she be expected to remember the details of a specific one?
(Not my real name.)
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,295
This feels like a case too far, even for Johnson to survive. The question is simply whether we, as a country, care about a rules based system? or do we accept that there really is one rule for them and one for us.
My best guess is that the party will hope that Sue Gray does drop him in it, and use that as an excuse to get rid of him.
ray hutstone likes this
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,790
I think we all know how politicians like to bend the truth so it fits their agenda but to assume the public are complete idiots is a step to far.
The big question for me is who will succeed this truth bender, surely his days as PM must be rapidly coming to an end.
ray hutstone likes this
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Some responsibility must lie with the party surely? I can't imagine that no-one foresaw events such as these given what was widely known about this sad individual's character way before he climbed the greasy pole. Sacked from 2 jobs for lying, known to have acquiesced to assisting a friend get a journalist beaten up, a string of affairs (even whilst he wife being treated for cancer), unacknowledged offspring.....
And yet 60,000 party members though it was a good idea to foist this self-serving, lying, incompetent charlatan onto the world stage in order to 'get Brexit done'. Now we all face the consequences of their wilful blindness.
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,017
Have I missed something here.The General public vote for the MPs usually party allegiance but it’s the MPS who vote for the person to be Prime Minster.Personally there were others who I would have thought would have been better,
Ray read your post again .
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,845
Indeed the conservatives have big issues going on and I'm surprized the 1922 committee hasnt removed Boris.
I'm sure Labour hopes Boris stays
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Sue Nicholas wrote:Have I missed something here.The General public vote for the MPs usually party allegiance but it’s the MPS who vote for the person to be Prime Minster.Personally there were others who I would have thought would have been better,
Ray read your post again .
Who voted for their party leader? The choice was between Hunt and Laughing Boy. Party members made their choice. Is this untrue?
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,017
Well I did not get a vote .
victor matcham- Registered: 5 Oct 2021
- Posts: 1,016
Please give it a rest it all happen over a year ago anyway,it has nothing to do w
ith us.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
never mind there is allways the piss up at the palace to look forward to. lol
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,790
victor matcham wrote:Please give it a rest it all happen over a year ago anyway,it has nothing to do w
ith us.
It most certainly has to do with all of us as this truth bender is still running the country, what else have we not been told that is possibly about a dubious illegal act by the PM and his office.
ray hutstone likes this
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Sue Nicholas wrote:Well I did not get a vote .
I had you down as a card carrying party member, Sue. If you aren't then you obviously cannot be responsible for foisting this hideous man upon us.
I do remember bumping into a local Tory politican whom I'm sure you will know. He's a very affable chap and I have no problems with him personally. We were both in a local hostelry (now sadly closed due to Covid) which we used to visit off and on at lunchtimes.
It was 2019 and the state of things politically meant that it would be the first time that Tory party members would have been able directly to elect the new PM. You say you didn't vote but I'm sure you must remember it. 11 original candidates had been boiled to do 2. People with some semblance of reality about them (e.g Rory Stewart) were long gone by then.
I asked our mutual acquiantance whom he was going to support. Perfectly honestly, he replied Boris was his preference. He simply wouldn't accept it when I postulated that here was a man of dubious character whose record spoke for itself. He just went on about needing a leader who could get Brexit done.
I hope he's pleased with the outcome of his vote. I must ask him next time I fancy a lunchtime pint.
Sue Nicholas- Location: river
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 6,017
You are correct I’m no longer. Party member .If I had have been no way a vote for Boris
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,896
I wonder if Boris has third party insurance?
Button likes this
"Shall we go, you and I, while we can? Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds"
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,295
I'm in two minds whether anyone will call for him to go! Labour are riding high in the polls and, put simply, Johnson is done. It's all over. Why get rid and face Sunak so far ahead of an election? Johnson will be the gift that keeps on giving in the meantime.
From the Tory party point of view, a fatally wounded PM is rife for concessions, so why put the letters in? Expect U turns on VAT on fuel, and potentially the delay in tax rises (which we can't afford).
In short. Buckle up.
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Wonder what the spineless Johnsonian sycophant Natalie makes of it all? Does she regret trotting out central office press releases in support of Cummings or rushing to Hancock's defence?
