Tag Archives: Northern Ireland

Can Brexiteer Steve Baker be trusted on Rishi Sunak’s new Northern Ireland deal?

Northern Ireland: what will Rishi Sunak’s replacement for the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol of Brexit achieve?

Arch-Brexiteer Steve Baker seems very happy about whatever deal Rishi Sunak has secured with the European Union over the movement of goods into and through Northern Ireland:

But can his word be trusted?

He’s got a particular viewpoint, very strongly asserted over the last eight years, more or less.

The Democratic Unionist Party, which is refusing to take its place in the Northern Irish Assembly at Stormont until a deal is struck that it supports, may feel differently. It is currently the second-largest party in that assembly and may wish to continue finding fault because the longer it stays out, the less time Sinn Fein – the largest party – will have as nominal leaders (NI is ruled under a power-sharing agreement but appearances seem to mean a lot to the DUP).

And Boris Johnson is lurking in the background in Westminster. He’s likely to be stirring up dissent against anything Rishi Sunak does because he wants to be prime minister again. And there are a lot of Tory MPs who reckon they owe him a debt for getting them into their Parliamentary seats.

Finally, there’s a question of democracy. The deal is likely to be debated in Parliament, but will there be a vote on it? If not, then can it really be heralded as the panacea Baker claims it is?

Why shouldn’t there be a vote? Is Sunak’s deal really that shaky?

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Can Rishi Sunak keep faith with Northern Ireland AND the EU over Brexit?

Prime Minister’s Questions was dominated by the question of whether Rishi Sunak has been able to negotiate a deal – to replace the controversial Northern Ireland Protocol of the Brexit agreement – that will be acceptable to everyone.

I think we all know the answer to that already!

The current situation creates an artificial trade border in the Irish Sea, meaning that goods going into and out of Northern Ireland are treated as though they are still going into and out of the European Union; this is to ensure that the border between NI and the Irish Republic remains open in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement.

The problem is that the Democratic Unionist Party says this is an insult to United Kingdom sovereignty and Northern Ireland should enjoy exactly the same privileges (and disadvantages) as the rest of the UK.

It is the second-largest party in the Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont, and should therefore be part of the power-sharing government there – but its members won’t take their seats until the situation is resolved, so NI does not currently have a working devolved Assembly.

The DUP’s case has been taken up by hard Brexiters in Rishi Sunak’s Conservative Party at Westminster, and it has been suggested that some Cabinet members may resign if any deal allows the European Union continued power over trade in Ulster.

To complicate matters further, Labour’s Keir Starmer has offered to support a deal brought forward by Sunak, in order to make it possible for him to get it past any dissenters.

Sunak and other Tories have pointed out that this is giving him a “blank cheque”, and tantamount to supporting continued EU power in NI.

Sunak himself has been accused of weakness because he is perceived to be bullied by the hard-Brexiteers in his party.

What’s the solution? It’s hard to tell. But here’s the debate – both in Parliament and (twice) in the BBC’s Politics Live studio.

I was live-tweeting at the time and have inserted my comments into the discussion to provide extra information.

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Will the Union survive now Northern Ireland is more Catholic than Protestant?

It had to happen eventually. Latest census information shows there are more Catholics in Northern Ireland than Protestants – for the first time.

What does this mean for what was supposed to be a permanent Protestant state in the north of the island of Ireland?

Here’s the discussion:

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Liz Truss is forcing the EU to confrontation over the NI protocol. Or will it wait for a better UK government?

Another ‘grace period’ in which the Northern Ireland Protocol of the UK-EU Brexit agreement is not fully implemented has come to an end and the UK’s Tory government has again failed to respect the deadline.

This means the full effect of the protocol is still not being felt. In the video clip below, Phil Moorhouse argues that the EU has chosen not to formally object because its leaders are hoping the Tories are now in their twilight days and will be removed from power in the UK after the next general election, following which they can have an adult conversation with whoever succeeds them:

It seems that events have already overtaken the clip, in fact. Here‘s the BBC:

The UK has told the EU it will continue delaying customs checks on goods moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, despite legal action from Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol.

The EU is considering its next steps.

The EU has launched a series of lawsuits over what it sees as the UK’s failure to comply with checks on the movement of farm produce from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

It has also started legal action over legislation that would allow the UK to alter the protocol, introduced by Liz Truss when she was foreign secretary.

Phil’s opinion that the UK will never agree to end the ‘grace periods’ seems correct. He’s mistaken in believing the EU won’t launch legal action.

So now what?

It’s hard to tell because the EU’s response will be quiet during the period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II.

Considering the aims of the European Research Group (ERG) that appears to be controlling UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, it seems clear that a confrontation is coming that the UK will lose badly. Perhaps it’s better to wait for a more reasonable UK government.

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Dementia patient deported by Patel; Labour councillor wants ‘anti-migrant militia’ [Also in the news]

Border Force: while a Labour councillor calls for the creation of migrant vigilante groups, Priti Patel has deported a dementia patient.

Lots to get through tonight and no time for commentary:

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Comeuppance for Kate: Hoey’s Brexit balderdash get the brush-off – finally

Kate Hoey: either she did not understand what Brexit would mean to Northern Ireland or she didn’tt care. But the people her influence has harmed will not forget.

This has been a long time coming – and not just to Kate Hoey.

The Brexiteer and former Labour MP has been trying to defend her support for the UK leaving the European Union in the flame-light of the burning vehicles in Northern Ireland.

Her reception has been – well, see for yourself. Here’s her tweeted assertion:

“The Protocol” would be the Northern Ireland protocol of the Withdrawal Agreement between the UK and the EU.

Many have pointed out what this means about Hoey’s comment:

Yes indeed – Hoey stated in a Telegraph article that Northern Ireland had much to gain from Brexit, despite the province having voted against leaving the EU (because people there knew it would jeopardise the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process):

Her article is still available to read:

Now people have simply connected her words then with her words now, and found that they are not persuasive:

But Hoey should not feel that she is the only one feeling the force of Northern Ireland’s (and indeed the rest of the UK’s)… ire:

What’s the best phrase to describe this lot?

Ah, yes: They’re all in it together.

And we should remember that…

… when we seek compensation for what has happened.

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Coronavirus: the Tories are trying to blackmail other UK countries into lifting lockdown early

Rishi Sunak: he seems to be denying the facts of the coronavirus crisis, in order to force an early end to the lockdown.

Never underestimate a Tory minister who apparently has mass murder in mind:

It seems Rishi Sunak is upset that the Scottish Parliament is more concerned with saving people’s lives than getting the economy back up and running for the benefit of a cadre of lazy billionaires, and has threatened to withdraw funding for the “furlough” scheme that pays for workers to stay at home if Holyrood extends the lockdown longer than Westminster.

The UK-wide furlough scheme has been extended until October, but when Scottish ministers called for clarity about the future, they received a discouraging response:

Scottish economy ministers Kate Forbes and Fiona Hyslop … appealed to the Treausry for assurances that workers will continue to access support even if Scottish firms are not reopened at the same time as English ones.

In a letter to the Chancellor, they wrote: “We understand that the support will need to be scaled back over time, but it is imperative that is done in a carefully considered way, and reflects the economic priorities of each of the four nations and the different sectors of our economies.

“The ability to stagger the closure of the scheme may be beneficial in considering how we safely exit the restrictions currently in place.”

But [a] Downing Street source said that furlough payments are now likely to be distributed by the Treasury on a “sector-by-sector” rather than geographical basis.

The Conservative government has made it clear that it intends to lift the lockdown as soon as it considers this to be possible – but has given no reassurances at all that it will carry out any tests to prove that it is safe to do so.

Indeed, the plan to force schools to reopen at the beginning of June has become a raging controversy, with fears that teachers, parents and friends could fall victim to Covid-19, and children themselves (who seem likely to suffer only light symptoms of that disease) may succumb to a follow-on infection that bears similarities to Kawasaki disease.

Conservatives have shown no concern about these issues at all.

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Johnson is pressing ahead with money-wasting Scotland-Ireland bridge plan

Remember the Garden Bridge: Boris Johnson spaffed nearly £60 million on this while he was Mayor of London – and not a single minute’s work was spent trying to build it. The NI-Scotland bridge is just his latest pie-in-the-sky project.This is arrogant lunacy and it will cost a fortune.

I’m not even talking about the price of building a bridge from Northern Ireland to Scotland; the consultants will bleed the public purse brutally before it can ever get that far.

In fact, we already know it can’t be done – at least, not for any acceptable price.

But then, Mr Johnson’s plans aren’t about cost-effectiveness. They’re about keeping public funds away from those members of the public who need them.

And, judging from Twitter, we all know it:

No; I don’t think there will.

But a lot of money will be spent before then – cash that could go on much better things but won’t.

No new money earmarked for NI in UK’s first post-Brexit budget

Stormont: The Tories allocated an extra £400 million to NI last September – but will they honour their promise to stump up the £290 million from Theresa May’s ‘confidence and supply’ agreement with the DUP?

Is this a good enough reason to quit the UK?

It will, at the very least, be something to talk about after the devolved government of Northern Ireland returns to duty this weekend.

Sajid Javid – and Boris Johnson – may have reason to regret promising the Earth in September and leaving themselves with nothing to offer after the December election.

Or will they say the Northern Irish should be glad they haven’t reneged on their September promises?

And £290 million remains unspent out of the ‘bribe’ that Theresa May promised Northern Ireland in her ‘confidence and supply’ agreement that launched us into two and a half years of dither and delay on Brexit.

Will Javid and Johnson honour that agreement, or will they claw that cash back?

Britain’s chancellor of the exchequer, Sajid Javid, has not yet earmarked any “new” money for Northern Ireland at the beginning of the UK’s budget process to prepare for its first post-Brexit budget on March 11th.

The chancellor has claimed that his budget will “start a new chapter” for the UK economy and enable it to seize “the opportunities that come from getting Brexit done”.

“Since 2015 we have cut taxes for 760,000 people in Northern Ireland. Next year we will increase the Executive’s budget by £400 million [€471 million] and by 2020 we will save the average car driver £1,000 by freezing fuel duty,” Mr Javid stated.

However, the £400 million increase that the chancellor has promised is on the way to Northern Ireland next year is money that he had already previously allocated to the North back in September 2019.

A spokesman for the UK Treasury confirmed that the £400 million Mr Javid has referenced was “not new money”.

Source: No new money earmarked for North in UK’s first post-Brexit budget

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New power-sharing deal restores NI devolution – in order to quit Johnson’s UK?

Devolution: The Tories will be quick to celebrate the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland. Has it not occurred to any of them that the Northern Irish hate Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal and now want to quit the UK altogether?

At long last – three years since the ‘Cash for Ash’ scandal that ended the last Northern Ireland power-sharing deal, it seems MLAs are returning to Stormont.

The new power-sharing deal means devolved government in Northern Ireland will resume.

According to Boris Johnson:

Do you think he hasn’t realised that they’re all getting back together in order to take NI out of the UK?

What would be really damning is if they decided they won’t even reunify with the Republic.

Source: Stormont talks: Main NI parties agree power-sharing deal – BBC News

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