The NI/ROI Protocol

Ashtree

Member
The deal and all it’s outcomes are the net result of the Brexit negotiators red lines.
A myriad of possible levels of deal were on the table, but “sovereignty” ruled them all out.
Now the very thinnest, weakest, tepid, watery deal which UK signed up to in the end, clearly isn’t very satisfactory or functional. As for “sovereignty”, .... Parliament has to get not ascent, but rather “consent”, from the old unelected dame in Windsor Castle!
Farage, the ERG and DUP, ...... one way transportation to the Isle of Wight, would seem appropriate. Few bags of swedes every other month, to keep them in the luxury which they deserve, would be too high a price to pay. Let them graze!
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
Can someone tell me, this hold up of lorries to & fro Northern Ireland do we suddenly have German Guards at the ports holding things up or is it more likely that it's yet again our own idiotic Government doing the damage?
 
Can someone tell me, this hold up of lorries to & fro Northern Ireland do we suddenly have German Guards at the ports holding things up or is it more likely that it's yet again our own idiotic Government doing the damage?
Yes. Why are we spending millions on customs stations at Larne etc. If the eu want checks then they can come and check it themselves. Boris should have told them to go and jump at the start. Either that or where the seamless invisible border which magically appears when it suits ROI 😜
 

Ashtree

Member
I reckon you two are paid actors. You couldn't possibly be real!

So you didn’t take notice of the guy with the beanie. Really upset at the outcome of Brexit. I just burst out laughing when he said, “we should have been told what we were voting for”😂.
He WAS told what he was voting for. He was told by the Brexiteers (DUP), it was for milk and honey and the sunny uplands. He was told by remainers that it was for a poorer outlook.
He gambled on the sunny uplands, he got the boggy field. He gave power of attorney to the DUP establishment and the ERG aristocrats, and now wonders how he, a working class Joe Bloggs has come out with the shitty end of the stick?? Honestly!!!
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
So you didn’t take notice of the guy with the beanie. Really upset at the outcome of Brexit. I just burst out laughing when he said, “we should have been told what we were voting for”😂.
He WAS told what he was voting for. He was told by the Brexiteers (DUP), it was for milk and honey and the sunny uplands. He was told by remainers that it was for a poorer outlook.
He gambled on the sunny uplands, he got the boggy field. He gave power of attorney to the DUP establishment and the ERG aristocrats, and now wonders how he, a working class Joe Bloggs has come out with the shitty end of the stick?? Honestly!!!
Not sure you can blame the ERG more like the prat in number 10 is the problem!
 

nivilla1982

Member
Livestock Farmer
The Government’s war of words with the European Union over the Northern Ireland Protocol shows no sign of abating. Indeed, if anything it looks set to get more serious.
According to the FT, the bloc has fired a ‘warning shot’ over ‘shortcomings’ in the UK’s enforcement of the new border regime. It has also apparently rejected demands for ‘flexibility’ in enforcing some of the provisions, which has seen diggers refused entry to the Province with British soil on their tracks.

As Michael Gove prepares to meet his Brussels counterpart, Maros Sefcovic, today to discuss the problem, the Guardian reports that the latter’s stance is that London must enforce the Protocol in full before any requests for leniency will be considered.

This comes as unionist and loyalist anger at the new arrangements continues to mount. Although checks at Ulster’s ports have resumed following threats of violence, political pressure on the major unionist parties continues to mount after a surge in support for the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), a hardline party led by Jim Allister, a former Democratic Unionist MLA.

Meanwhile a petition against the Protocol set up by the DUP has passed the 100,000 signatures needed to trigger consideration in Parliament, and the Orange Order has called for it to be scrapped.

But opposition isn’t confined to the traditional hardliners. David Trimble, the ex-Ulster Unionist leader and former First Minister who won the Nobel Prize as co-architect of the Belfast Agreement, has said that “the astonishing and disturbing fact is that the Withdrawal Agreement and, in particular, the Protocol clearly rips the Good Friday Agreement apart.” He fleshes out his case thus:

“Since, under the protocol, the laws governing 60 per cent of economic activity in Northern Ireland would no longer be made at Westminster or by the devolved Assembly, but by an outside law-making body, the EU, and those laws would be subject to interpretation by a non-UK court, clearly the constitutional position of Northern Ireland would be changed without the consent of the people of Northern Ireland as required by the Good Friday Agreement.”

This touches on a concern that both Lee Reynolds and myself have previously raised on this site, namely the unequal treatment of unionist versus nationalist entitlements under the Agreement. The latter are interpreted very broadly as an entitlement to the pre-Brexit status quo, whilst the former’s safeguards on Ulster’s constitutional status are defined as tightly as possible around top-level sovereignty.

Perhaps the breadth of this criticism explains the increasing stridency of the DUP response. Have initially seemed prepared to try and make the Protocol work, the party is now coming under heavy fire for refusing to take part in a meeting of the Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, according to the News Letter.

Such a strategy of non-engagement could have serious consequences, as the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland require the active participation of both sides to function. That’s why Sinn Fein was able to collapse Stormont the last time – and there is nothing to bar the DUP from doing the same.

Predictably, anger is focused on the of the issues raised by Unionist MPs when they tried to quiz Michael Gove on the arrangements in Parliament. At the time, we highlighted his evasive answer to the question of whether or not the ‘grace period’ for food products was meant to buy time to negotiate a deal to protect mainland supply lines to Northern Irish businesses, or to give those businesses time to find new EU suppliers. It seems to have been the latter.

All this puts the Government in a difficult position. Unionist anger at the Protocol – both its outcomes and its underlying assumptions – is justified, and has been building for years. But ultimately Boris Johnson did sign up to it, shamelessly abandoning his promises to Ulster in the process. Despite its self-inflicted wound over Article 16 (which does make it easier for London to activate it, although Gove seems disinclined to do so), the EU gets what it wants by doing nothing and has little incentive to compromise.

But peace in Northern Ireland – which the bloc has always claimed was its top priority – is a dance with two partners. Not only are mainstream unionists incensed, but loyalist paramilitaries have just spent several years watching people pray in aid of the threat of republican violence to justify ruling out checks on the land border. It would be very bad if London and Brussels allowed the impression to form that the prizes will go to those who make life the most difficult – or dangerous
 

BrianV

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Dartmoor
I can't see how you square the circle apart from the obvious answer which is to rejoin the Customs Union and Single Market.
The solution is for both parties to work together but with the EU & certain country's blind determination to make this as difficult as possible it seems there is no easy answer.
The only real solution is for Boris to wake up, grow a pair & play to the EU rules, stop ALL EU lorries & demand exactly the same paperwork or inspections as the French are demanding, the time has come to stand up to EU bullies!!
 

le bon paysan

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Limousin, France
The solution is for both parties to work together but with the EU & certain country's blind determination to make this as difficult as possible it seems there is no easy answer.
The only real solution is for Boris to wake up, grow a pair & play to the EU rules, stop ALL EU lorries & demand exactly the same paperwork or inspections as the French are demanding, the time has come to stand up to EU bullies!!
It's what you knew you voted for. You had options of Norway , Switzerland etc. YOU turned them down. It's about time the UK took responsibility for what you wanted.
You do realise that EU firms are quite ok with this as they deal with Third Country paperwork for Turkey etc.
 

Wellytrack

Member
I don't care one way or the other, as long as there is not a border between us and the mainland.

I can foresee stronger links with ROI before links to GB is returned to how it was.

I think the can will be kicked down the road another 2 years before everyone will be that disillusioned and fed up and be happy to accept a free trade arrangement of any substantial merit.
 

Muck Spreader

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Limousin
I don't care one way or the other, as long as there is not a border between us and the mainland.

The sea border isn't going anywhere according to some folk. Gove is planning on using like a tap to put pressure on the EU for concessions. Just screw it down a bit as necessary to threaten the GFA, then go to the EU warn them about the dire consequences.
 

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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