Putting aside the frankly childish nonsense in the headline money is pouring into UK tech at a rate that will certainly help growth in the future. I just hope some of this investment is outside London.
Liverpool is becoming the secondary city of choice. Close to a big transatlantic airport, very cheap office space, lower wage structure, big universities nearby. There's also an aspect of people now wanting to move there because it's extremely cheap for housing compared to London, a £50-60k mid level developer salary will buy a pretty big house vs renting a small flat in London.
You've obviously not flown from Manchester recently.... a big transatlantic airport (hmm) I would say that is a bit optimistic
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
But then you have to explain why large parts of the American military-political Establishment has decided to take this very seriously, from ex-presidents (Obama) to various senators, intel bigwigs, NASA, airforce generals, top journalists, the New York Times and Washington Post, Congress, and so on
Is it some ginormous psyops to freak the Chinese? Does that make sense? Not really, So if it is not that, then what?
Just a wild stab in the dark but if you were trying to promote extremely expensive hi-tech research in the US and Russia and China are no longer getting the chequest written, might you have an interest in promoting the idea tha there is some much higher tech potential opponent out there?
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
Not as well as without the Irish Sea border the UK government wants to remove
Main objection is that too many of the stamps are too boring.
More variety of stamps please, and colours.
I’ve had some brilliant stamps in my time. One of my favourites was the stamp you get when you go into Mount Athos, the semi-autonomous ecclesiastical republic in north east Greece, which has no women or female chickens
It’s a huge flamboyant stamp with a picture of the Holy Mountain and something like “Welcome to Byzantium” written in medieval Greek
However a photographer friend of mine has an even better one: a stamp he got going into the “free narco-state of Colombia” during the FARC drug wars there
Putting aside the frankly childish nonsense in the headline money is pouring into UK tech at a rate that will certainly help growth in the future. I just hope some of this investment is outside London.
Liverpool is becoming the secondary city of choice. Close to a big transatlantic airport, very cheap office space, lower wage structure, big universities nearby. There's also an aspect of people now wanting to move there because it's extremely cheap for housing compared to London, a £50-60k mid level developer salary will buy a pretty big house vs renting a small flat in London.
You've obviously not flown from Manchester recently.... a big transatlantic airport (hmm) I would say that is a bit optimistic
In theory anyway, and it won't be a forever situation.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
But then you have to explain why large parts of the American military-political Establishment has decided to take this very seriously, from ex-presidents (Obama) to various senators, intel bigwigs, NASA, airforce generals, top journalists, the New York Times and Washington Post, Congress, and so on
Is it some ginormous psyops to freak the Chinese? Does that make sense? Not really, So if it is not that, then what?
Just a wild stab in the dark but if you were trying to promote extremely expensive hi-tech research in the US and Russia and China are no longer getting the chequest written, might you have an interest in promoting the idea tha there is some much higher tech potential opponent out there?
That’s the obvious answer. But again it raises more questions than it answers. How could you hoodwink presidents and senators and CIA chiefs and generals and the NYT and CNN and Washington Post? Are they all “in on it”? impossible. So what’s going on?
And many of the admissions have been deeply embarrassing for the US military. Swarmed by probes/drones they cannot explain nor deter? Meanwhile dozens of US pilots seem to be have psychotic breakdowns or they are being fooled by seagulls, also quite embarrassing, Etc etc etc
Nope, that explanation doesn’t carry water, either
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Spot on; apart from the category mistake in the last line. UFOs and Bigfoot are (non) thing concepts, like unicorns. If God were empirically spottable it would not be God but just a thing among other things, so falling outside (most) theists definition.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
They’re so dumb. NI is in an incredible sweet spot. In the UK Single Market AND in the EU Single Market. Ulsterfolk get to have UK passports and EU passports. They are privileged. A United Ireland would take most of that away
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Of course you can't rule out Shaggy being right one day (about a ghost). But until then it's more likely to turn out to be the janitor under a sheet.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
They’re so dumb. NI is in an incredible sweet spot. In the UK Single Market AND in the EU Single Market. Ulsterfolk get to have UK passports and EU passports. They are privileged. A United Ireland would take most of that away
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
A unique position and location that the Bozo and the DUP are trying their hardest to destroy because the DUP are a bunch of economic illiterate...
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
They’re so dumb. NI is in an incredible sweet spot. In the UK Single Market AND in the EU Single Market. Ulsterfolk get to have UK passports and EU passports. They are privileged. A United Ireland would take most of that away
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
Identity trumps economics. It's like having a kid or something.
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Bill Nelson, the former space shuttle astronaut and US senator, said he had personally talked to two Navy pilots who saw numerous flying objects in 2004, and had turned over the investigation to Nasa’s top scientist.
“We're taking this very seriously,” he told a briefing of science journalists.
“I've talked to the Navy pilots that know that they saw something back in 2004. They tracked it on their radar off the Southern California coast, over the Pacific.
“Since then hundreds of objects have been spotted and a couple of them were explained, they may be balloons, but most of them are unexplained.
“So I’ve asked Nasa, and it will be announced within a few days, to approach this subject from a scientific standpoint, since we are a scientific research organisation. In about eight months, they’re going to report.”
Asked whether he thought the sightings could be enemy aircraft, the Nasa administrator added: “Do I think it's an enemy? I hope it isn't, because the Navy pilots would describe it as: 'It's here and then it's over there. With no time in between.'
“And so my simple answer is I don't know. And that's why I've asked our scientists to see if they've got any explanation.”
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
They seemingly don’t exist, and even some of the desperately feeble videos we do have - the pyramids (bokeh) - have now been debunked
And yet, something is up in US military and political circles, which has to be explained. For the moment I stand by my belief that it is post-plague, China-exacerbated paranoia being used by others, with perhaps a core of true believers. That’s the best I can do; it is not satisfactory but no explanation is
On the other hand it does feel like several storylines are coming together at once. The revelation that DNA can arise spontaneously with great ease, the fact we are approaching AI, it all points to life in the universe being much more abundant than we thought, and if it is abundant then planets would be sending out AI probes and one or more of them will find, or have found, us. So I don;t rule out UFOs either
Good morning from a warm, stormy Yerevan
"The revelation that DNA can arise spontaneously with great ease," - missed that one? Where was that from? A revamped Miller-Urey type experiment?
Cheers for the links. I'd suggest its not quite as dramatic as it sounds - the paper describes how nucleotide triphosphates can polymerise on volcanic glass. Which is really cool, but you still need to make the nucleotide triphosphates in the first place.
So cool science, but I'd argue this is not the spontaneous generation of DNA, just an explanation of one of the possible steps in the process.
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Spot on; apart from the category mistake in the last line. UFOs and Bigfoot are (non) thing concepts, like unicorns. If God were empirically spottable it would not be God but just a thing among other things, so falling outside (most) theists definition.
What the fuck are you on about? It is perfectly plausible that alien civilisations have sent probes out into the universe, and that some have noticed us, and perhaps lingered to observe
After all we have done the same ourselves - human made probes are now beyond the solar system
And we did it before in the early years of Exploration. We sent ships over the horizon, possibly on a one way mission, to see what was Out There. How was Polynesia settled? Exactly like this
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
I've been saying this for months.
UFOs raising their game, bigfoot never a starter, I don't think anyone expects God to be caught on cctv.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
Well tbf that is sort of their job. A bit like the rail unions. What is the dUp about if not the U.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
How sour are those grapes you're eating?
The Americans have already turned around and said that this won't affect the US/UK trade negotiations, considering how popular the "Irish vote" is in America if any third parties were going to react it would have been them, and I'd have discounted that as pandering to the vote, but even they're not doing so. I definitely can't imagine it affecting Pacific nations negotiations with us for CPTPP accession either.
The A16 process isn't being invoked, but they have legal advice saying its not necessary. IANAL so will take them at their word. That process is just a method to get from where we are to the end point though, it is the end point that matters.
The proposed solution in the bill, the "impose a one-sided settlement" is precisely what I've suggested all along. The UK holds all the cards, we can impose a settlement because the EU is bluffing. It is true now, it was true years ago, it was true five years ago. Good on Liz Truss for calling the EU's bluff.
I read the Bill last night, I approve of it. It is the solution I've advocated for years, there's no Irish land border, no Irish sea border, no alignment, and dual regulations. Precisely what should have always been the end game here. You were crying havoc for years that it needed to be alignment that would end this, I'm sorry you're not getting your way.
Schrodingers NI where NI is both in the EU Single Market, and in the post-Brexit UK, simultaneously, is entirely within the principles of the Belfast Agreement. About time we have some common sense here.
You forget that (a) I voted leave and (b) I am an importer of goods from the EU with a business interest in making onward exports to the island of Ireland work. SO no sour grapes here - the thing needs to be made to work.
1) The Americans have already turned around and said that this won't affect the US/UK trade negotiations - of course they have. Because they have already said there will be no trade negotiations. So it can't impact something not happening.
2) they have legal advice saying its not necessary - which they will not publish, or even say who provided it, having bypassed the legal advice process which would have obtained such a thing. Braverman saying "this is legal" has about as much weights as Burgon saying something is legal.
3) The UK holds all the cards, we can impose a settlement because the EU is bluffing. - 6 years on and deluded people still post this demonstrable fantasy claim. Says more about you than it does about me that you post this.
4) You were crying havoc for years that it needed to be alignment that would end this - and we are 100% aligned and will de facto remain so having given up the ability to set and police new standards. A green channel where stuff comes in unchecked is a 2-way gate. And ask the food industry, manufacturing, engineering et al if they are going to faff about creating dual standard stuff in the event that the Uk tries to deviate? We won't check it, so why bother?
Its a fantasy. Thrown as red meat. To the small of thinking. Which you have just wolfed down.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
They’re so dumb. NI is in an incredible sweet spot. In the UK Single Market AND in the EU Single Market. Ulsterfolk get to have UK passports and EU passports. They are privileged. A United Ireland would take most of that away
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
A unique position and location that the Bozo and the DUP are trying their hardest to destroy because the DUP are a bunch of economic illiterate...
The DUP just want no border in the Irish Sea, they don't want a hard border in Ireland
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Spot on; apart from the category mistake in the last line. UFOs and Bigfoot are (non) thing concepts, like unicorns. If God were empirically spottable it would not be God but just a thing among other things, so falling outside (most) theists definition.
What the fuck are you on about? It is perfectly plausible that alien civilisations have sent probes out into the universe, and that some have noticed us, and perhaps lingered to observe
After all we have done the same ourselves - human made probes are now beyond the solar system
And we did it before in the early years of Exploration. We sent ships over the horizon, possibly on a one way mission, to see what was Out There. How was Polynesia settled? Exactly like this
Yes, of course that's true as far as it goes. I think that's pretty common ground about what may be the case.
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
But then you have to explain why large parts of the American military-political Establishment has decided to take this very seriously, from ex-presidents (Obama) to various senators, intel bigwigs, NASA, airforce generals, top journalists, the New York Times and Washington Post, Congress, and so on
Is it some ginormous psyops to freak the Chinese? Does that make sense? Not really, So if it is not that, then what?
Just a wild stab in the dark but if you were trying to promote extremely expensive hi-tech research in the US and Russia and China are no longer getting the chequest written, might you have an interest in promoting the idea tha there is some much higher tech potential opponent out there?
That’s the obvious answer. But again it raises more questions than it answers. How could you hoodwink presidents and senators and CIA chiefs and generals and the NYT and CNN and Washington Post? Are they all “in on it”? impossible. So what’s going on?
And many of the admissions have been deeply embarrassing for the US military. Swarmed by probes/drones they cannot explain nor deter? Meanwhile dozens of US pilots seem to be have psychotic breakdowns or they are being fooled by seagulls, also quite embarrassing, Etc etc etc
Nope, that explanation doesn’t carry water, either
Have you got anything from Obama apart from this on the Late Late Show with James Corden?
All good news. Had a great first day. My ankle was the size of a balloon by the end of it, but I had walked miles and this morning it feels great. Glad I decided to bring a crutch. People very kind to people with a crutch which is nice to know, although all offers declined. I tell them I am a fraud really.
Local paper reports queues at passport control were up to 3 hours so in hindsight I consider myself lucky and thank you PB for keeping me entertained while I waited.
Sympathies
Do the local papers say why the queues were so bad? Simple lack of staff? Something else?
There are multiple reports of people jumping these queues now, across the world, by pretending to be wheelchair-bound. Perhaps you need to upgrade from your crutch
Thanks @Leon . No idea because when we got to the front they were putting people through the EU gates and the priority gates as well and every gate was manned and going through was swift.
I had previously said Portugal was using e-gates (because I read that). I lied. They aren't. Traditional stamping of passport being used. So don't believe anything I say in future.
No explanation from me I am afraid. Is it just normal in peak season and we have just been spoilt by EU gates? I traveled a lot during the pandemic and was obviously spoilt by the ease of travel then.
eGates only work if they work all the time OR you don't care about people overstaying their welcome.
So we use them in Britain because we don't particular care how long people stay - parts of Europe however really do care so you need actual stamps in your passport to provide a secondary audit for when the eGates fail to record your arrival or departure.
The EU really needs to get over its stamp fetish. It’s boring and retarded. Fucking stamps FFS. What is this, the 1930s?
Computerise the whole thing, put e-gates everywhere, problem solved
That works great until the eGate fails to send the data to the central system.
Remember we spend a lot of time talking about 99% and 99.999% systems. Stamps on a passport are a 99.999% solution to a problem, eGates and a centralised database isn't even a 99% solution.
Are stamps remotely a 99.999% solution?
Surely the reason they're not used here is because we know they aren't?
Stamps are makework nonsense because they don't solve the problem they're there to solve. If someone arrives in the EU/UK and then never leaves they've overstayed their welcome, but the stamp does absolutely nothing to reveal that since they never left, so never got the second stamp. The only people who are getting exit stamps are those who actually left in the first place. That is more than a 0.001% problem.
I would hazard a guess if someone did want to commit fraud over dates, then fraudulently getting fake stamps would be a lot easier to achieve than fraudulently getting fake entries into a database too.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
They’re so dumb. NI is in an incredible sweet spot. In the UK Single Market AND in the EU Single Market. Ulsterfolk get to have UK passports and EU passports. They are privileged. A United Ireland would take most of that away
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
A unique position and location that the Bozo and the DUP are trying their hardest to destroy because the DUP are a bunch of economic illiterate...
Can’t argue with that. They make boxes of rocks look cunning
And now I too must away. The sun has come out and the Armenians are smiling and I have a genocide museum that needs some attention!
shnorhakalut’yun
That is the actual word for thankyou in Armenian. No joke
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
Well the EU has said that their can be no renegotiation. I saw Sefcowic say just that on the TV last night. So what do we do? The EU has acknowledged that there are issues, otherwise why would they have made their proposals based on massively reducing checks?
At heart the idea of goods solely going from the rUK into NI and not for re-export needing extensive checking is ridiculous. If people start abusing a lack of such checks then they are breaking the law - go after them. But do not penalise traders within the country.
"We won't negotiate" is what you say before you start negotiating when you want to position the agreement goalposts as far on your side as possible.
They want us to follow the agreement. Which means invoking Article 16 and negotiating a workaround for the genuine problems. And I agree with you - an intra-UK border is absurd. And yet that this is what our government negotiated and agreed. Then said "it does what? Who knew?"
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
But then you have to explain why large parts of the American military-political Establishment has decided to take this very seriously, from ex-presidents (Obama) to various senators, intel bigwigs, NASA, airforce generals, top journalists, the New York Times and Washington Post, Congress, and so on
Is it some ginormous psyops to freak the Chinese? Does that make sense? Not really, So if it is not that, then what?
Perhaps simply an organised effort to explain anomalies, as they are fed up with everyone saying 'aliens are with us'.
All good news. Had a great first day. My ankle was the size of a balloon by the end of it, but I had walked miles and this morning it feels great. Glad I decided to bring a crutch. People very kind to people with a crutch which is nice to know, although all offers declined. I tell them I am a fraud really.
Local paper reports queues at passport control were up to 3 hours so in hindsight I consider myself lucky and thank you PB for keeping me entertained while I waited.
Sympathies
Do the local papers say why the queues were so bad? Simple lack of staff? Something else?
There are multiple reports of people jumping these queues now, across the world, by pretending to be wheelchair-bound. Perhaps you need to upgrade from your crutch
Thanks @Leon . No idea because when we got to the front they were putting people through the EU gates and the priority gates as well and every gate was manned and going through was swift.
I had previously said Portugal was using e-gates (because I read that). I lied. They aren't. Traditional stamping of passport being used. So don't believe anything I say in future.
No explanation from me I am afraid. Is it just normal in peak season and we have just been spoilt by EU gates? I traveled a lot during the pandemic and was obviously spoilt by the ease of travel then.
eGates only work if they work all the time OR you don't care about people overstaying their welcome.
So we use them in Britain because we don't particular care how long people stay - parts of Europe however really do care so you need actual stamps in your passport to provide a secondary audit for when the eGates fail to record your arrival or departure.
The EU really needs to get over its stamp fetish. It’s boring and retarded. Fucking stamps FFS. What is this, the 1930s?
Computerise the whole thing, put e-gates everywhere, problem solved
That works great until the eGate fails to send the data to the central system.
Remember we spend a lot of time talking about 99% and 99.999% systems. Stamps on a passport are a 99.999% solution to a problem, eGates and a centralised database isn't even a 99% solution.
Are stamps remotely a 99.999% solution?
Surely the reason they're not used here is because we know they aren't?
Stamps are makework nonsense because they don't solve the problem they're there to solve. If someone arrives in the EU/UK and then never leaves they've overstayed their welcome, but the stamp does absolutely nothing to reveal that since they never left, so never got the second stamp. The only people who are getting exit stamps are those who actually left in the first place. That is more than a 0.001% problem.
I would hazard a guess if someone did want to commit fraud over dates, then fraudulently getting fake stamps would be a lot easier to achieve than fraudulently getting fake entries into a database too.
The stamp can work as a second factor, for when the computer screws up and says you never left the country. That’s about all it’s useful for though, every country has computers as the primary system now.
Putting aside the frankly childish nonsense in the headline money is pouring into UK tech at a rate that will certainly help growth in the future. I just hope some of this investment is outside London.
Liverpool is becoming the secondary city of choice. Close to a big transatlantic airport, very cheap office space, lower wage structure, big universities nearby. There's also an aspect of people now wanting to move there because it's extremely cheap for housing compared to London, a £50-60k mid level developer salary will buy a pretty big house vs renting a small flat in London.
You've obviously not flown from Manchester recently.... a big transatlantic airport (hmm) I would say that is a bit optimistic
Manchester airport is as big as you get outside London, certainly bigger than Birmingham and Bristol
Putting aside the frankly childish nonsense in the headline money is pouring into UK tech at a rate that will certainly help growth in the future. I just hope some of this investment is outside London.
Liverpool is becoming the secondary city of choice. Close to a big transatlantic airport, very cheap office space, lower wage structure, big universities nearby. There's also an aspect of people now wanting to move there because it's extremely cheap for housing compared to London, a £50-60k mid level developer salary will buy a pretty big house vs renting a small flat in London.
You've obviously not flown from Manchester recently.... a big transatlantic airport (hmm) I would say that is a bit optimistic
Manchester airport is as big as you get outside London, certainly bigger than Birmingham and Bristol
I thought they had closed down the actual airport bit and just turned it into a non-lethal recreation of the Squid Game?
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
They’re so dumb. NI is in an incredible sweet spot. In the UK Single Market AND in the EU Single Market. Ulsterfolk get to have UK passports and EU passports. They are privileged. A United Ireland would take most of that away
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
Except at present they're not in the UK Single Market.
At present, when the Chancellor cuts VAT to zero on certain goods as he recently did, he can't cut it to zero in Northern Ireland as EU rules apply there. Although contrary to the repeated assertions of @RochdalePioneers we already are not aligned with EU rules, at present the lack of alignment is pretty minimal as we've only just started diverging, that divergence will only grow as we evolve in separate directions.
Liz Truss's very sane and rational solution to the NI Protocol's flaws is to allow people to choose EU regulations or UK regulations or both, whichever they prefer. Just as they can choose Irish citizenship, or British citizenship, or both. That is a rational solution that is perfectly in fitting with the Belfast Agreement and will put NI in the incredible sweet spot you think they're already in, but they aren't yet.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
Well the EU has said that their can be no renegotiation. I saw Sefcowic say just that on the TV last night. So what do we do? The EU has acknowledged that there are issues, otherwise why would they have made their proposals based on massively reducing checks?
At heart the idea of goods solely going from the rUK into NI and not for re-export needing extensive checking is ridiculous. If people start abusing a lack of such checks then they are breaking the law - go after them. But do not penalise traders within the country.
"We won't negotiate" is what you say before you start negotiating when you want to position the agreement goalposts as far on your side as possible.
They want us to follow the agreement. Which means invoking Article 16 and negotiating a workaround for the genuine problems. And I agree with you - an intra-UK border is absurd. And yet that this is what our government negotiated and agreed. Then said "it does what? Who knew?"
I 'think' the government is making this move as their version of 'we won't negotiate' to be honest. To prompt more concessions/ideas from the EU. Personally I find the EU stance to be ridiculous - why shouldn't a treaty be renegotiated if after implementation it is found to have flaws. (Its absolutely fine if you want to point out that the flaws were obvious before it was signed. I suspect, as I think you do, it was signed in haste to get Brexit over the line, with the expectation of later changes, at least on the UK side).
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Bill Nelson, the former space shuttle astronaut and US senator, said he had personally talked to two Navy pilots who saw numerous flying objects in 2004, and had turned over the investigation to Nasa’s top scientist.
“We're taking this very seriously,” he told a briefing of science journalists.
“I've talked to the Navy pilots that know that they saw something back in 2004. They tracked it on their radar off the Southern California coast, over the Pacific.
“Since then hundreds of objects have been spotted and a couple of them were explained, they may be balloons, but most of them are unexplained.
“So I’ve asked Nasa, and it will be announced within a few days, to approach this subject from a scientific standpoint, since we are a scientific research organisation. In about eight months, they’re going to report.”
Asked whether he thought the sightings could be enemy aircraft, the Nasa administrator added: “Do I think it's an enemy? I hope it isn't, because the Navy pilots would describe it as: 'It's here and then it's over there. With no time in between.'
“And so my simple answer is I don't know. And that's why I've asked our scientists to see if they've got any explanation.”
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
They seemingly don’t exist, and even some of the desperately feeble videos we do have - the pyramids (bokeh) - have now been debunked
And yet, something is up in US military and political circles, which has to be explained. For the moment I stand by my belief that it is post-plague, China-exacerbated paranoia being used by others, with perhaps a core of true believers. That’s the best I can do; it is not satisfactory but no explanation is
On the other hand it does feel like several storylines are coming together at once. The revelation that DNA can arise spontaneously with great ease, the fact we are approaching AI, it all points to life in the universe being much more abundant than we thought, and if it is abundant then planets would be sending out AI probes and one or more of them will find, or have found, us. So I don;t rule out UFOs either
Good morning from a warm, stormy Yerevan
"The revelation that DNA can arise spontaneously with great ease," - missed that one? Where was that from? A revamped Miller-Urey type experiment?
Cheers for the links. I'd suggest its not quite as dramatic as it sounds - the paper describes how nucleotide triphosphates can polymerise on volcanic glass. Which is really cool, but you still need to make the nucleotide triphosphates in the first place.
So cool science, but I'd argue this is not the spontaneous generation of DNA, just an explanation of one of the possible steps in the process.
There are also semi plausible routes for the spontaneous prebiotic production of NTPs. And of course the paper was about short lengths of RNA, of somewhat mixed quality, not DNA.
None of that goes any way to explain FTL interstellar travel, either.
My guess is that Johnson will not be made an Order of the Garter
And as a Scot shouldn't Blair have been invested as a Knight of the Thistle?
Scottish my arse
He was born in Edinburgh. Is that not in Scotland anymore?
When I inferred something similar to what you just asserted I was called a racist for several threads. Not holding my breath that you’ll receive the same treatment.
But your assertion does bring to mind the famous Wellington quote: “To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.“
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
They’re so dumb. NI is in an incredible sweet spot. In the UK Single Market AND in the EU Single Market. Ulsterfolk get to have UK passports and EU passports. They are privileged. A United Ireland would take most of that away
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
Except at present they're not in the UK Single Market.
At present, when the Chancellor cuts VAT to zero on certain goods as he recently did, he can't cut it to zero in Northern Ireland as EU rules apply there. Although contrary to the repeated assertions of @RochdalePioneers we already are not aligned with EU rules, at present the lack of alignment is pretty minimal as we've only just started diverging, that divergence will only grow as we evolve in separate directions.
Liz Truss's very sane and rational solution to the NI Protocol's flaws is to allow people to choose EU regulations or UK regulations or both, whichever they prefer. Just as they can choose Irish citizenship, or British citizenship, or both. That is a rational solution that is perfectly in fitting with the Belfast Agreement and will put NI in the incredible sweet spot you think they're already in, but they aren't yet.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I think he did it in order to get an agreement, in order to get Brexit done, because the Remain Parliament wouldn't let us leave without one and we were mired in the Article 50 quicksand.
I think that's no longer the case, we now have a post-Brexit Trade Agreement with the EU and as per the EU's own originally preferred sequencing, it is now time to revisit the Protocol and make it work properly or replace it for the future. The reason he did it 3 years ago no longer applies. We're no longer in Article 50, we're no longer EU members, we're no longer facing a cliff edge No Deal Brexit and the idea planes will stop flying, medicines will stop flowing and all the other hysterical bullshit that critics kept complaining about.
If there's no border anywhere, then how will that wreck the NI economy. It will put the NI economy in a best of both worlds situation, allowed to cherrypick which set of regulations etc they wish to follow, best of both worlds.
Putting aside the frankly childish nonsense in the headline money is pouring into UK tech at a rate that will certainly help growth in the future. I just hope some of this investment is outside London.
Liverpool is becoming the secondary city of choice. Close to a big transatlantic airport, very cheap office space, lower wage structure, big universities nearby. There's also an aspect of people now wanting to move there because it's extremely cheap for housing compared to London, a £50-60k mid level developer salary will buy a pretty big house vs renting a small flat in London.
You've obviously not flown from Manchester recently.... a big transatlantic airport (hmm) I would say that is a bit optimistic
Manchester airport is as big as you get outside London, certainly bigger than Birmingham and Bristol
I thought they had closed down the actual airport bit and just turned it into a non-lethal recreation of the Squid Game?
I have heard there are serious problems at the moment - not used it for years. I will be travelling from Bristol again next week, and I will be stunned again that the airport is miles South of Bristol, and not overly connected - poor single lane A road, and no rail connection. At least Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Luton and the like have good connections. It's almost as bad as Leeds Bradford.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
Putting aside the frankly childish nonsense in the headline money is pouring into UK tech at a rate that will certainly help growth in the future. I just hope some of this investment is outside London.
Liverpool is becoming the secondary city of choice. Close to a big transatlantic airport, very cheap office space, lower wage structure, big universities nearby. There's also an aspect of people now wanting to move there because it's extremely cheap for housing compared to London, a £50-60k mid level developer salary will buy a pretty big house vs renting a small flat in London.
You've obviously not flown from Manchester recently.... a big transatlantic airport (hmm) I would say that is a bit optimistic
Manchester airport is as big as you get outside London, certainly bigger than Birmingham and Bristol
I thought they had closed down the actual airport bit and just turned it into a non-lethal recreation of the Squid Game?
I have heard there are serious problems at the moment - not used it for years. I will be travelling from Bristol again next week, and I will be stunned again that the airport is miles South of Bristol, and not overly connected - poor single lane A road, and no rail connection. At least Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Luton and the like have good connections. It's almost as bad as Leeds Bradford.
Bristol airport is awful to get to and I live south of Bristol. Southampton is much better connected.
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
Putting aside the frankly childish nonsense in the headline money is pouring into UK tech at a rate that will certainly help growth in the future. I just hope some of this investment is outside London.
Liverpool is becoming the secondary city of choice. Close to a big transatlantic airport, very cheap office space, lower wage structure, big universities nearby. There's also an aspect of people now wanting to move there because it's extremely cheap for housing compared to London, a £50-60k mid level developer salary will buy a pretty big house vs renting a small flat in London.
You've obviously not flown from Manchester recently.... a big transatlantic airport (hmm) I would say that is a bit optimistic
Manchester airport is as big as you get outside London, certainly bigger than Birmingham and Bristol
I thought they had closed down the actual airport bit and just turned it into a non-lethal recreation of the Squid Game?
I have heard there are serious problems at the moment - not used it for years. I will be travelling from Bristol again next week, and I will be stunned again that the airport is miles South of Bristol, and not overly connected - poor single lane A road, and no rail connection. At least Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Luton and the like have good connections. It's almost as bad as Leeds Bradford.
Manchester Airport was always horrible if you had to go from Terminal 3 so I'm not totally surprised.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
Not as well as without the Irish Sea border the UK government wants to remove
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
This is nonsense. They are a cross-community party. That is just as true now with NI a part of the UK as it would be with NI part of new Ireland.
My guess is that Johnson will not be made an Order of the Garter
And as a Scot shouldn't Blair have been invested as a Knight of the Thistle?
Scottish my arse
He was born in Edinburgh. Is that not in Scotland anymore?
When I inferred something similar to what you just asserted I was called a racist for several threads. Not holding my breath that you’ll receive the same treatment.
But your assertion does bring to mind the famous Wellington quote: “To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.“
I'm fairly laissez faire on nationality. If you want to say you are Irish or Scottish because your grandparents were born there that is fine by me. I cannot do that myself - possibly Welsh way way back but I'd rather think we are all human beings and it doesnt hurt anyone.
Anyway, talking about Border Polls, keep an eye out for the SNP / SGP announcement of their start of their push for a new independence referendum. How they envisage an independent Scotland functioning with regards to a currency, alignment with the EU etc will be instructive. I expect "we can decide after independence" which is a nonsense.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
'Staying neutral' and 'having a border poll' are not mutually contradictory positions.
Except at present they're not in the UK Single Market.
At present, when the Chancellor cuts VAT to zero on certain goods as he recently did, he can't cut it to zero in Northern Ireland as EU rules apply there. Although contrary to the repeated assertions of @RochdalePioneers we already are not aligned with EU rules, at present the lack of alignment is pretty minimal as we've only just started diverging, that divergence will only grow as we evolve in separate directions.
Liz Truss's very sane and rational solution to the NI Protocol's flaws is to allow people to choose EU regulations or UK regulations or both, whichever they prefer. Just as they can choose Irish citizenship, or British citizenship, or both. That is a rational solution that is perfectly in fitting with the Belfast Agreement and will put NI in the incredible sweet spot you think they're already in, but they aren't yet.
It's not quite that straightforward, though, as exporters in either direction will need to show that they are complying with the conditions of that market, which will have a business cost.
It's an option, though, I agree, and one that Britain could have tried to get through in the negotiations. But as we agreed to something else, the question is whether we can unilaterally change our minds without greater damage to our reputation than is justified by worrying about NI border hassles. We can all think of things about which we wouldn't be happy to see Ministers deciding to change at whim. And while you might, perhaps surprisingly, think that all current Ministers are entirely reasonable people whose judgment you trust, are you willing to extend that principle to all future Ministers too?
All good news. Had a great first day. My ankle was the size of a balloon by the end of it, but I had walked miles and this morning it feels great. Glad I decided to bring a crutch. People very kind to people with a crutch which is nice to know, although all offers declined. I tell them I am a fraud really.
Local paper reports queues at passport control were up to 3 hours so in hindsight I consider myself lucky and thank you PB for keeping me entertained while I waited.
Sympathies
Do the local papers say why the queues were so bad? Simple lack of staff? Something else?
There are multiple reports of people jumping these queues now, across the world, by pretending to be wheelchair-bound. Perhaps you need to upgrade from your crutch
Thanks @Leon . No idea because when we got to the front they were putting people through the EU gates and the priority gates as well and every gate was manned and going through was swift.
I had previously said Portugal was using e-gates (because I read that). I lied. They aren't. Traditional stamping of passport being used. So don't believe anything I say in future.
No explanation from me I am afraid. Is it just normal in peak season and we have just been spoilt by EU gates? I traveled a lot during the pandemic and was obviously spoilt by the ease of travel then.
eGates only work if they work all the time OR you don't care about people overstaying their welcome.
So we use them in Britain because we don't particular care how long people stay - parts of Europe however really do care so you need actual stamps in your passport to provide a secondary audit for when the eGates fail to record your arrival or departure.
The EU really needs to get over its stamp fetish. It’s boring and retarded. Fucking stamps FFS. What is this, the 1930s?
Computerise the whole thing, put e-gates everywhere, problem solved
That works great until the eGate fails to send the data to the central system.
Remember we spend a lot of time talking about 99% and 99.999% systems. Stamps on a passport are a 99.999% solution to a problem, eGates and a centralised database isn't even a 99% solution.
You could say that about almost any automation ever. “Some dude doing it by himself by hand will be near perfect and better than letting a machine do it”
Also, it’s bollocks. I’ve been through a lot of borders recently - EU and otherwise - and there is intense pressure on the passport-stampers to hurry up (because of these queues). No one wants to lose tourist business, no one wants an Arrivals hall full of 1000 angry people.
My passport has many stamps, randomly distributed. I watch the passport stampers as they flick through, trying to check them all, until they inevitably sigh and tut and stamp me anyway, because they haven’t got time nor inclination to check every page as they should - esp if they want a “99.999% solution”.
Last summer going into Switzerland a bored (no queue) passport stamper said, as she handed my passport back to me, after checking my passport thoroughly, “Oh by the way you have a problem, you were stamped in to Spain last month but not stamped out, could be an issue with the EU. Get it fixed”
On my way out of Switzerland a week later I had time, again, to ask the new passport stamper about my problem. He looked at my passport even more carefully and said “there is no problem, you were stamped out of Spain here, look, page 13, the other woman just missed it”
99.999% solution. Lol
Back in 1989 I was arrested trying to leave Tunisia and held on a charge of spying for 3 days in Tunis central jail. The issue was that I had entered Tunisia via Sfax after a colleague had broken his leg offshore and I had not had the proper stamps (basically a white piece of stamped paper) put into my passport to allow me to work in the country.
This in itself would not have been disastrous if, when trying to leave 6 weeks later and being challenged, I hadn't been hung out to dry by my employer - a French company - who, when contacted, denied all knowledge of me as they didn't want the hassle. Off I went to jail and all sorts of difficult questions before I was finally able to get hold of my Country Manager based in Sfax and he drove up to Tunis to bail me out and vouch for me.
The French company did the same thing to other employees, notably a very good French friend of mine in Nigeria who ended up spending 3 months in a Nigerian jail and was a broken man when he came out.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
I believe in theory you are correct, but politically you are assuming too much.
You make the assumption that sectarianism trumps all else in the province. I do not believe that to be the case. To quote Bill Clinton "It's the economy stupid".
If the North Channel border was allowing NI businesses to thrive in the EU, and the removal of the protocol stops that dead in its tracks, and it might, it will be noted, and minds will change.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
'Staying neutral' and 'having a border poll' are not mutually contradictory positions.
They are if they vote for a border poll and then take sides in one.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
This is nonsense. They are a cross-community party. That is just as true now with NI a part of the UK as it would be with NI part of new Ireland.
No, if they take sides in a border poll they would be a Unionist or Nationalist party. No longer cross-community.
Not that Unionists would accept ever being part of a united Ireland anyway, Antrim and East Londonderry etc would declare UDI first
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
I disagree re article 16 - yes in principle it is meant to be invoked, but in practice it is politically charged - just see the fuss when the EU, yes the EU, invoked it over vaccines.
Except at present they're not in the UK Single Market.
At present, when the Chancellor cuts VAT to zero on certain goods as he recently did, he can't cut it to zero in Northern Ireland as EU rules apply there. Although contrary to the repeated assertions of @RochdalePioneers we already are not aligned with EU rules, at present the lack of alignment is pretty minimal as we've only just started diverging, that divergence will only grow as we evolve in separate directions.
Liz Truss's very sane and rational solution to the NI Protocol's flaws is to allow people to choose EU regulations or UK regulations or both, whichever they prefer. Just as they can choose Irish citizenship, or British citizenship, or both. That is a rational solution that is perfectly in fitting with the Belfast Agreement and will put NI in the incredible sweet spot you think they're already in, but they aren't yet.
It's not quite that straightforward, though, as exporters in either direction will need to show that they are complying with the conditions of that market, which will have a business cost.
It's an option, though, I agree, and one that Britain could have tried to get through in the negotiations. But as we agreed to something else, the question is whether we can unilaterally change our minds without greater damage to our reputation than is justified by worrying about NI border hassles. We can all think of things about which we wouldn't be happy to see Ministers deciding to change at whim. And while you might, perhaps surprisingly, think that all current Ministers are entirely reasonable people whose judgment you trust, are you willing to extend that principle to all future Ministers too?
Exporters in any direction need to comply with the conditions of wherever they're exporting to. That is a choice people make when they choose to export. NI residents and businesses though will have the right to choose which system they prefer.
As for whether I'm prepared to extend that principle for future Ministers, of course I am, every Minister past, present or future is entitled to change their minds and try to convince Parliament to change the law. No Parliament can bind its successors, including itself. If any Parliament, past, present or future passes an Act of Parliament to change the law, then the law is changed.
The one thing we absolutely do not need right now is another Scottish independence referendum. Jesus Christ no.
Let them have it. If they want to go, let the go. But use the history of the Brexit vote to shape the parameters. No lofty ideals - hard facts. What currency? What about existing debt? Who owns the oil fields? Nuclear sub bases? What if the borders vote NO by a majority, can they stay with rUK? Free movement after? etc etc etc
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
This is nonsense. They are a cross-community party. That is just as true now with NI a part of the UK as it would be with NI part of new Ireland.
No, if they take sides in a border poll they would be a Unionist or Nationalist party. No longer cross-community.
Not that Unionists would accept ever being part of a united Ireland anyway, Antrim and East Londonderry etc would declare UDI first
OK, this is now stupid nonsense. Not everyone in NI puts themselves and every issue into a binary "Unionist" or "Nationalist" box. You say that them taking sides makes them partisan. Not if the cross-community electorate they represent believes they would be better in a New Ireland.
As for the bowler hat twatters declaring UDI, that tells me everything we need to know about your respect for democracy.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
I believe in theory you are correct, but politically you are assuming too much.
You make the assumption that sectarianism trumps all else in the province. I do not believe that to be the case. To quote Bill Clinton "It's the economy stupid".
If the North Channel border was allowing NI businesses to thrive in the EU, and the removal of the protocol stops that dead in its tracks, and it might, it will be noted, and minds will change.
How will the removal of the North Channel border stop that?
The introduction of an Irish land border might stop it, but the removal of the Channel border is a different question, not the same one. You make it sound as if the Channel border is a positive to be desired in its own right, as opposed to the lack of an Irish land border being a positive to be desired.
The proposed legislation explicitly states no new regulations or checks can be done on the Irish land border. That means that the Good Friday Agreement is protected.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
As long as there is no hard border in Ireland the NI economy will be fine.
There is no way the UK government is going to do that
The NI economy is doing very well at the moment, it's only the DUP and other unionists who are in a strop because they see the present situation as the thin end of the wedge toward reunification anyway.
Well tbf that is sort of their job. A bit like the rail unions. What is the dUp about if not the U.
That's very true I suppose, but the DUP have a unique position for a MINORITY party in totally banjaxing a majority (in seats and votes) for a functioning Assembly.
All good news. Had a great first day. My ankle was the size of a balloon by the end of it, but I had walked miles and this morning it feels great. Glad I decided to bring a crutch. People very kind to people with a crutch which is nice to know, although all offers declined. I tell them I am a fraud really.
Local paper reports queues at passport control were up to 3 hours so in hindsight I consider myself lucky and thank you PB for keeping me entertained while I waited.
Sympathies
Do the local papers say why the queues were so bad? Simple lack of staff? Something else?
There are multiple reports of people jumping these queues now, across the world, by pretending to be wheelchair-bound. Perhaps you need to upgrade from your crutch
Thanks @Leon . No idea because when we got to the front they were putting people through the EU gates and the priority gates as well and every gate was manned and going through was swift.
I had previously said Portugal was using e-gates (because I read that). I lied. They aren't. Traditional stamping of passport being used. So don't believe anything I say in future.
No explanation from me I am afraid. Is it just normal in peak season and we have just been spoilt by EU gates? I traveled a lot during the pandemic and was obviously spoilt by the ease of travel then.
eGates only work if they work all the time OR you don't care about people overstaying their welcome.
So we use them in Britain because we don't particular care how long people stay - parts of Europe however really do care so you need actual stamps in your passport to provide a secondary audit for when the eGates fail to record your arrival or departure.
The EU really needs to get over its stamp fetish. It’s boring and retarded. Fucking stamps FFS. What is this, the 1930s?
Computerise the whole thing, put e-gates everywhere, problem solved
That works great until the eGate fails to send the data to the central system.
Remember we spend a lot of time talking about 99% and 99.999% systems. Stamps on a passport are a 99.999% solution to a problem, eGates and a centralised database isn't even a 99% solution.
You could say that about almost any automation ever. “Some dude doing it by himself by hand will be near perfect and better than letting a machine do it”
Also, it’s bollocks. I’ve been through a lot of borders recently - EU and otherwise - and there is intense pressure on the passport-stampers to hurry up (because of these queues). No one wants to lose tourist business, no one wants an Arrivals hall full of 1000 angry people.
My passport has many stamps, randomly distributed. I watch the passport stampers as they flick through, trying to check them all, until they inevitably sigh and tut and stamp me anyway, because they haven’t got time nor inclination to check every page as they should - esp if they want a “99.999% solution”.
Last summer going into Switzerland a bored (no queue) passport stamper said, as she handed my passport back to me, after checking my passport thoroughly, “Oh by the way you have a problem, you were stamped in to Spain last month but not stamped out, could be an issue with the EU. Get it fixed”
On my way out of Switzerland a week later I had time, again, to ask the new passport stamper about my problem. He looked at my passport even more carefully and said “there is no problem, you were stamped out of Spain here, look, page 13, the other woman just missed it”
99.999% solution. Lol
Back in 1989 I was arrested trying to leave Tunisia and held on a charge of spying for 3 days in Tunis central jail. The issue was that I had entered Tunisia via Sfax after a colleague had broken his leg offshore and I had not had the proper stamps (basically a white piece of stamped paper) put into my passport to allow me to work in the country.
This in itself would not have been disastrous if, when trying to leave 6 weeks later and being challenged, I hadn't been hung out to dry by my employer - a French company - who, when contacted, denied all knowledge of me as they didn't want the hassle. Off I went to jail and all sorts of difficult questions before I was finally able to get hold of my Country Manager based in Sfax and he drove up to Tunis to bail me out and vouch for me.
The French company did the same thing to other employees, notably a very good French friend of mine in Nigeria who ended up spending 3 months in a Nigerian jail and was a broken man when he came out.
Ouch!
In my part of the world, decent international companies usually employ a local native, whose job it is to deal with various local public-sector entities. Known as a Public Relations Officer, or PRO, they sort out visas, licences, and yes, occasionally bailing someone out of jail.
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
I disagree re article 16 - yes in principle it is meant to be invoked, but in practice it is politically charged - just see the fuss when the EU, yes the EU, invoked it over vaccines.
The thing I find very amusing is that when I was suggesting Article 16, suggesting that is what it is there for etc so many people were complaining it was unlawful, unacceptable etc
Now those same people have done a 180 and are complaining that Article 16 should have been invoked, that is what it is there for, etc
Perhaps if the notion of invoking Article 16 had been met with less toxicity, it could have been invoked and acting differently now wouldn't be necessary?
Except at present they're not in the UK Single Market.
At present, when the Chancellor cuts VAT to zero on certain goods as he recently did, he can't cut it to zero in Northern Ireland as EU rules apply there. Although contrary to the repeated assertions of @RochdalePioneers we already are not aligned with EU rules, at present the lack of alignment is pretty minimal as we've only just started diverging, that divergence will only grow as we evolve in separate directions.
Liz Truss's very sane and rational solution to the NI Protocol's flaws is to allow people to choose EU regulations or UK regulations or both, whichever they prefer. Just as they can choose Irish citizenship, or British citizenship, or both. That is a rational solution that is perfectly in fitting with the Belfast Agreement and will put NI in the incredible sweet spot you think they're already in, but they aren't yet.
It's not quite that straightforward, though, as exporters in either direction will need to show that they are complying with the conditions of that market, which will have a business cost.
It's an option, though, I agree, and one that Britain could have tried to get through in the negotiations. But as we agreed to something else, the question is whether we can unilaterally change our minds without greater damage to our reputation than is justified by worrying about NI border hassles. We can all think of things about which we wouldn't be happy to see Ministers deciding to change at whim. And while you might, perhaps surprisingly, think that all current Ministers are entirely reasonable people whose judgment you trust, are you willing to extend that principle to all future Ministers too?
Exporters in any direction need to comply with the conditions of wherever they're exporting to. That is a choice people make when they choose to export. NI residents and businesses though will have the right to choose which system they prefer.
As for whether I'm prepared to extend that principle for future Ministers, of course I am, every Minister past, present or future is entitled to change their minds and try to convince Parliament to change the law. No Parliament can bind its successors, including itself. If any Parliament, past, present or future passes an Act of Parliament to change the law, then the law is changed.
This is the key sentence and explains why any foreign entity sees little point in negotiating with us. Whatever gets agreed can then be overthrown and reversed by the very people who negotiated it. Its a pretty unique position we find ourselves in - normally you would have a successor government trying to fix problems left by a previous government, not a government trying to fix its own problems whilst saying it isn't a problem because We're Brilliant.
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
I disagree re article 16 - yes in principle it is meant to be invoked, but in practice it is politically charged - just see the fuss when the EU, yes the EU, invoked it over vaccines.
Less politically charged than the UK Government's proposals?
If the plans are sensible (and people whose judgement I trust on this stuff say that some of it's pretty reasonable), this is exactly the wrong place to start in getting them to happen. And the "Ministers can do whatever they want" clauses ought to scare everyone.
If, however, the aim is to generate the kind of wartime paranoia that keeps a government in power...
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
This is nonsense. They are a cross-community party. That is just as true now with NI a part of the UK as it would be with NI part of new Ireland.
No, if they take sides in a border poll they would be a Unionist or Nationalist party. No longer cross-community.
Not that Unionists would accept ever being part of a united Ireland anyway, Antrim and East Londonderry etc would declare UDI first
OK, this is now stupid nonsense. Not everyone in NI puts themselves and every issue into a binary "Unionist" or "Nationalist" box. You say that them taking sides makes them partisan. Not if the cross-community electorate they represent believes they would be better in a New Ireland.
As for the bowler hat twatters declaring UDI, that tells me everything we need to know about your respect for democracy.
The vast majority of Northern Ireland do actually put themselves in the Unionist or Nationalist box. Alliance voters may be more middle class soft Nationalist or soft Unionist but at the end of the day most are still in one camp or the other.
You are a typical naive GB mainland left liberal who has not a clue about the culture and traditions of Protestant Ulster which wants to stay in the UK and will never, ever accept being forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I think he did it in order to get an agreement, in order to get Brexit done, because the Remain Parliament wouldn't let us leave without one and we were mired in the Article 50 quicksand.
I think that's no longer the case, we now have a post-Brexit Trade Agreement with the EU and as per the EU's own originally preferred sequencing, it is now time to revisit the Protocol and make it work properly or replace it for the future. The reason he did it 3 years ago no longer applies. We're no longer in Article 50, we're no longer EU members, we're no longer facing a cliff edge No Deal Brexit and the idea planes will stop flying, medicines will stop flowing and all the other hysterical bullshit that critics kept complaining about.
If there's no border anywhere, then how will that wreck the NI economy. It will put the NI economy in a best of both worlds situation, allowed to cherrypick which set of regulations etc they wish to follow, best of both worlds.
I thought you thought that the 'Stormont Optout' was one of the greatest pieces of statecraft ever exhibited and bang... everything was hunky dory for ever.
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
It all comes back to the same basic principle in the end. As a country we should not break treaties we have signed with other countries in good faith. The fact that so many in Government seem to be unable to grasp this fact is just one reason amongst many why they are unfit for high office.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
This is nonsense. They are a cross-community party. That is just as true now with NI a part of the UK as it would be with NI part of new Ireland.
No, if they take sides in a border poll they would be a Unionist or Nationalist party. No longer cross-community.
Not that Unionists would accept ever being part of a united Ireland anyway, Antrim and East Londonderry etc would declare UDI first
OK, this is now stupid nonsense. Not everyone in NI puts themselves and every issue into a binary "Unionist" or "Nationalist" box. You say that them taking sides makes them partisan. Not if the cross-community electorate they represent believes they would be better in a New Ireland.
As for the bowler hat twatters declaring UDI, that tells me everything we need to know about your respect for democracy.
The vast majority of Northern Ireland do actually put themselves in the Unionist or Nationalist box. You are a typical naive GB mainland left liberal who has not a clue about the culture and traditions of Protestant Ulster which wants to stay in the UK and will never, ever accept being forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will.
You? Lecturing someone else about having "not a clue about the culture and traditions" of somewhere else?
I am well aware that there is a No Never element in the unionist community. A former well-respected boss of mine was one of the "bowler hatted twatters" I refer to. But even he accepted that there is a democratic mandate that any political position has to respect.
Also worth your pe-brain noting is that nobody is proposing a scenario where NI would be "forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will". Because the SF scenario is that the RoI would also end, and a New Ireland created. Which sounds like it would give my former boss and his friends as much self-identity as they want.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
'Staying neutral' and 'having a border poll' are not mutually contradictory positions.
They are if they vote for a border poll and then take sides in one.
Agreed, but I was suggesting that they would take it in stages. As sensible adults Alliance would take the Harold Wilson/EEC position; in favour of a referendum but would accept either result.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
How sour are those grapes you're eating?
The Americans have already turned around and said that this won't affect the US/UK trade negotiations, considering how popular the "Irish vote" is in America if any third parties were going to react it would have been them, and I'd have discounted that as pandering to the vote, but even they're not doing so. I definitely can't imagine it affecting Pacific nations negotiations with us for CPTPP accession either.
The A16 process isn't being invoked, but they have legal advice saying its not necessary. IANAL so will take them at their word. That process is just a method to get from where we are to the end point though, it is the end point that matters.
The proposed solution in the bill, the "impose a one-sided settlement" is precisely what I've suggested all along. The UK holds all the cards, we can impose a settlement because the EU is bluffing. It is true now, it was true years ago, it was true five years ago. Good on Liz Truss for calling the EU's bluff.
I read the Bill last night, I approve of it. It is the solution I've advocated for years, there's no Irish land border, no Irish sea border, no alignment, and dual regulations. Precisely what should have always been the end game here. You were crying havoc for years that it needed to be alignment that would end this, I'm sorry you're not getting your way.
Schrodingers NI where NI is both in the EU Single Market, and in the post-Brexit UK, simultaneously, is entirely within the principles of the Belfast Agreement. About time we have some common sense here.
You forget that (a) I voted leave and (b) I am an importer of goods from the EU with a business interest in making onward exports to the island of Ireland work. SO no sour grapes here - the thing needs to be made to work.
1) The Americans have already turned around and said that this won't affect the US/UK trade negotiations - of course they have. Because they have already said there will be no trade negotiations. So it can't impact something not happening.
2) they have legal advice saying its not necessary - which they will not publish, or even say who provided it, having bypassed the legal advice process which would have obtained such a thing. Braverman saying "this is legal" has about as much weights as Burgon saying something is legal.
3) The UK holds all the cards, we can impose a settlement because the EU is bluffing. - 6 years on and deluded people still post this demonstrable fantasy claim. Says more about you than it does about me that you post this.
4) You were crying havoc for years that it needed to be alignment that would end this - and we are 100% aligned and will de facto remain so having given up the ability to set and police new standards. A green channel where stuff comes in unchecked is a 2-way gate. And ask the food industry, manufacturing, engineering et al if they are going to faff about creating dual standard stuff in the event that the Uk tries to deviate? We won't check it, so why bother?
Its a fantasy. Thrown as red meat. To the small of thinking. Which you have just wolfed down.
1) Then what's the problem? If its not happening, so can't be impacted, why are you worried?
2) If an Act of Parliament is passed, then the law changes, and it is legal.
3) It was true six years ago, its still true today. It isn't fantasy, its simple fact, the EU won't build an Irish Land border, they can't impose an Irish Sea border, so they have nothing to do except hope we do their dirty work for them. If we refuse, then they're utterly impotent to do anything about it, as they've already confirmed they can't and won't build a Land border so the problem is gone. The "unicorn" exists the second we stop doing the Sea checks and we and they refuse to do Land checks.
Once the unicorn exists, how do you kill a unicorn? The Belfast Agreement will be protected, no checks will be happening anywhere, there'll be no threats to the Belfast Agreement, so what happens next?
4) We are not 100% aligned, that is simply false. You know it too, so why do you repeat this falsehood? Why bother, because we can have alternative standards legalising things that aren't legal there, or imposing different standards on Britain even if NI remains allowed to have things that don't meet British standards but do meet European ones.
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
It all comes back to the same basic principle in the end. As a country we should not break treaties we have signed with other countries in good faith. The fact that so many in Government seem to be unable to grasp this fact is just one reason amongst many why they are unfit for high office.
"Ah that's ok" they say. "As we didn't understand the deal we proposed and then agreed, and we didn't understand that a legally-binding treaty would be enacted in full by the counterparty, we weren't competent to agree anything in good faith"
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
This is nonsense. They are a cross-community party. That is just as true now with NI a part of the UK as it would be with NI part of new Ireland.
No, if they take sides in a border poll they would be a Unionist or Nationalist party. No longer cross-community.
Not that Unionists would accept ever being part of a united Ireland anyway, Antrim and East Londonderry etc would declare UDI first
OK, this is now stupid nonsense. Not everyone in NI puts themselves and every issue into a binary "Unionist" or "Nationalist" box. You say that them taking sides makes them partisan. Not if the cross-community electorate they represent believes they would be better in a New Ireland.
As for the bowler hat twatters declaring UDI, that tells me everything we need to know about your respect for democracy.
The vast majority of Northern Ireland do actually put themselves in the Unionist or Nationalist box. You are a typical naive GB mainland left liberal who has not a clue about the culture and traditions of Protestant Ulster which wants to stay in the UK and will never, ever accept being forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will.
You? Lecturing someone else about having "not a clue about the culture and traditions" of somewhere else?
I am well aware that there is a No Never element in the unionist community. A former well-respected boss of mine was one of the "bowler hatted twatters" I refer to. But even he accepted that there is a democratic mandate that any political position has to respect.
Also worth your pe-brain noting is that nobody is proposing a scenario where NI would be "forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will". Because the SF scenario is that the RoI would also end, and a New Ireland created. Which sounds like it would give my former boss and his friends as much self-identity as they want.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I think he did it in order to get an agreement, in order to get Brexit done, because the Remain Parliament wouldn't let us leave without one and we were mired in the Article 50 quicksand.
I think that's no longer the case, we now have a post-Brexit Trade Agreement with the EU and as per the EU's own originally preferred sequencing, it is now time to revisit the Protocol and make it work properly or replace it for the future. The reason he did it 3 years ago no longer applies. We're no longer in Article 50, we're no longer EU members, we're no longer facing a cliff edge No Deal Brexit and the idea planes will stop flying, medicines will stop flowing and all the other hysterical bullshit that critics kept complaining about.
If there's no border anywhere, then how will that wreck the NI economy. It will put the NI economy in a best of both worlds situation, allowed to cherrypick which set of regulations etc they wish to follow, best of both worlds.
I thought you thought that the 'Stormont Optout' was one of the greatest pieces of statecraft ever exhibited and bang... everything was hunky dory for ever.
It was a great piece of statecraft, but I never ever said everything was hunky dory forever.
In fact that completely misses the point of Brexit. What you seem too unwilling to comprehend is the entire point of Brexit was to "take back control" so we could make changes. If things remained locked in situ forever, then how would we have taken back control?
If changes are happening, because the UK is being nimble and able to make changes, without requiring agreement with 27 other nations that want to sclerotically stick to decisions made in the past even if they're inferior to the changes then that is the power of Brexit in action. It is showing why Brexit was a good thing, to allow us to make our own decisions.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
This is nonsense. They are a cross-community party. That is just as true now with NI a part of the UK as it would be with NI part of new Ireland.
No, if they take sides in a border poll they would be a Unionist or Nationalist party. No longer cross-community.
Not that Unionists would accept ever being part of a united Ireland anyway, Antrim and East Londonderry etc would declare UDI first
OK, this is now stupid nonsense. Not everyone in NI puts themselves and every issue into a binary "Unionist" or "Nationalist" box. You say that them taking sides makes them partisan. Not if the cross-community electorate they represent believes they would be better in a New Ireland.
As for the bowler hat twatters declaring UDI, that tells me everything we need to know about your respect for democracy.
The vast majority of Northern Ireland do actually put themselves in the Unionist or Nationalist box. You are a typical naive GB mainland left liberal who has not a clue about the culture and traditions of Protestant Ulster which wants to stay in the UK and will never, ever accept being forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will.
You? Lecturing someone else about having "not a clue about the culture and traditions" of somewhere else?
I am well aware that there is a No Never element in the unionist community. A former well-respected boss of mine was one of the "bowler hatted twatters" I refer to. But even he accepted that there is a democratic mandate that any political position has to respect.
Also worth your pe-brain noting is that nobody is proposing a scenario where NI would be "forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will". Because the SF scenario is that the RoI would also end, and a New Ireland created. Which sounds like it would give my former boss and his friends as much self-identity as they want.
It would still be the Republic of Ireland just an expanded one for the whole island of Ireland is effectively the SF position.
The Unionist majorities of say Antrim, East Londonderry and Lagan Valley would never accept that and declare UDI first. Loyalist paramilitaries are already creating trouble again over the Irish Sea border let alone being forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
The GFA has settled the future constitutional settlement for the Island of Ireland based on majority votes north and south. The agreement was endorsed by majority votes in favour in North and South. It does not require a vote at Stormont. That is in an international treaty guaranteed by the US which is why David Allen Greene describes it as one of the few written elements of our constitution.
You know all this as it has been explained before although you were previously suggesting UDI for North Antrim only although you are now adding bits of County Derry to the fantasy. Not an option.
The one thing we absolutely do not need right now is another Scottish independence referendum. Jesus Christ no.
Let them have it. If they want to go, let the go. But use the history of the Brexit vote to shape the parameters. No lofty ideals - hard facts. What currency? What about existing debt? Who owns the oil fields? Nuclear sub bases? What if the borders vote NO by a majority, can they stay with rUK? Free movement after? etc etc etc
We have no debt you cretinous oaf. UK has debt , borrowed and wasted all the cash as well as raping and pillaging all our oil money.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I think he did it in order to get an agreement, in order to get Brexit done, because the Remain Parliament wouldn't let us leave without one and we were mired in the Article 50 quicksand.
I think that's no longer the case, we now have a post-Brexit Trade Agreement with the EU and as per the EU's own originally preferred sequencing, it is now time to revisit the Protocol and make it work properly or replace it for the future. The reason he did it 3 years ago no longer applies. We're no longer in Article 50, we're no longer EU members, we're no longer facing a cliff edge No Deal Brexit and the idea planes will stop flying, medicines will stop flowing and all the other hysterical bullshit that critics kept complaining about.
If there's no border anywhere, then how will that wreck the NI economy. It will put the NI economy in a best of both worlds situation, allowed to cherrypick which set of regulations etc they wish to follow, best of both worlds.
I thought you thought that the 'Stormont Optout' was one of the greatest pieces of statecraft ever exhibited and bang... everything was hunky dory for ever.
It was a great piece of statecraft, but I never ever said everything was hunky dory forever.
In fact that completely misses the point of Brexit. What you seem too unwilling to comprehend is the entire point of Brexit was to "take back control" so we could make changes. If things remained locked in situ forever, then how would we have taken back control?
If changes are happening, because the UK is being nimble and able to make changes, without requiring agreement with 27 other nations that want to sclerotically stick to decisions made in the past even if they're inferior to the changes then that is the power of Brexit in action. It is showing why Brexit was a good thing, to allow us to make our own decisions.
My guess is that Johnson will not be made an Order of the Garter
And as a Scot shouldn't Blair have been invested as a Knight of the Thistle?
Scottish my arse
Blair was born and educated in Edinburgh, even if he did not live there very long. In any case the Thistle has no vacancies so sorry Gordon, Alex and Nicola.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
The GFA has settled the future constitutional settlement for the Island of Ireland based on majority votes north and south. The agreement was endorsed by majority votes in favour in North and South. It does not require a vote at Stormont. That is in an international treaty guaranteed by the US which is why David Allen Greene describes it as one of the few written elements of our constitution.
You know all this as it has been explained before although you were previously suggesting UDI for North Antrim only although you are now adding bits of County Derry to the fantasy. Not an option.
The GFA requires the UK NI Secretary and only the NI Secretary to approve a border poll for it to happen and there is no chance of any NI Secretary ever doing that unless a majority at Stormont vote for such a border poll.
The alternative to UDI is of course a return to the Troubles as loyalist paramilitaries would of course launch a terrorist campaign in the Republic of Ireland if the still Unionist majority parts of Ireland were forced into the Republic against their will just as the IRA fought a terrorist campaign when Nationalist parts of Northern Ireland faced direct rule from Dublin. Northern Ireland was only created in the first place because Protestant Ulster took up arms and were ready to fight a civil war if that did not happen
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
The GFA has settled the future constitutional settlement for the Island of Ireland based on majority votes north and south. The agreement was endorsed by majority votes in favour in North and South. It does not require a vote at Stormont. That is in an international treaty guaranteed by the US which is why David Allen Greene describes it as one of the few written elements of our constitution.
You know all this as it has been explained before although you were previously suggesting UDI for North Antrim only although you are now adding bits of County Derry to the fantasy. Not an option.
No no, not a fantasy. And apparently he will be on the side of the Loyalist Paramilitaries as they shoot British soldiers and civilians.
It seems that instead of arguing that Liz Truss's solution for the problems in NI are bad solutions, or a "unicorn" or impossible or bad - the only thing critics seem to have to say is "yes your solution may be good, but you agreed to something different in the past".
The EU's own sequencing always meant that the NI situation was supposed to be revisited once we had a trade deal, which we now have. The past belongs in the past, the problems in NI are real and if the solutions proposed are good (and they are, they're the ones I always proposed) then why shouldn't they be implemented?
My guess is that Johnson will not be made an Order of the Garter
And as a Scot shouldn't Blair have been invested as a Knight of the Thistle?
Scottish my arse
Blair was born and educated in Edinburgh, even if he did not live there very long. In any case the Thistle has no vacancies so sorry Gordon, Alex and Nicola.
The one thing we absolutely do not need right now is another Scottish independence referendum. Jesus Christ no.
Let them have it. If they want to go, let the go. But use the history of the Brexit vote to shape the parameters. No lofty ideals - hard facts. What currency? What about existing debt? Who owns the oil fields? Nuclear sub bases? What if the borders vote NO by a majority, can they stay with rUK? Free movement after? etc etc etc
We have no debt you cretinous oaf. UK has debt , borrowed and wasted all the cash as well as raping and pillaging all our oil money.
You cretinous oaf yourself - I did not say a future Scottish State had debt. Really thought you were better than that! The current union does have debt - what happens should we split? You clearly feel the new nation should not pay anything. Fine - let a commission decide BEFORE a vote.
Back onto cosplay Thatcher's "Fuck the Bill" Bill, I don't know why BR is saying "this is what I proposed" when he has endlessly demanded they invoke Article 16. This goes straight past the A16 provision in the law and seeks to impose a settlement without negotiation. Which is the precise opposite of what A16 was intended to do.
The reality is simple - this government has demonstrated it is incapable of negotiation. So it doesn't want to invoke the A16 negotiation process as it knows it will only negotiate another settlement it doesn't understand. So fuck the bill, just impose a one-sided settlement and then claim to be an honest broker with all the people who now don't want to negotiate a coffee order with us.
Not that it will get through the House of Lords anyway. I can see the "Enemies of the State" headlines now.
It also has serious questions for the UK's integrity. In a few weeks, assuming the current mess isn't resolved, and I don't think it will be with the horror film clowns in charge as at present, I'd like to see polling on the wish for a border poll, and how the Alliance's policy in particular changes on the need for a border poll.
As long as the UK government does not impose a hard border in Ireland when it is removing the border in the Irish Sea, there will be no change in the Alliance's opposition to a border poll
Oh yes, no border at all. Good luck with that. Why do you think Mr Johnson put the one in the Irish Sea, and was so proud of it?
More generally, the Alliance aren'tr opposed to a border poll - they just don't support it. Not the same thing. And if HMG continues to rule NI from the sole point of view of keeping the DUP happy, there will be other reasons for Alliance to change their mind. For instance, wrecking the NI economy.
I attended an event at Westminster a couple of weeks ago where Steven Farry - alliance MP for North Down said they will not decide which way to jump on a border poll until it is announced- but they are happy to take part in discussions around planning one to avoid a Brexit type vote where people are promised anything and everything. They are ore open to a UI than many think.
There cannot be a UI without a border poll which requires the NI Secretary to back one and most probably Stormont to vote for one too. So without the Alliance voting for one there is no majority in the NI Assembly for one. A border poll ironically destroys the Alliance as it is the only main NI party which has almost equal support from Unionists and Nationalists.
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
Their leader at Westminster says they will take a side but will not announce which until a poll is called.
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
The moment the Alliance take a side in a border poll they are destroyed as a political party. No longer neutral they would either be a Nationalist party like SF and the SDLP so their Unionist voters would go to the UUP most likely or a Unionist party like the DUP or UUP so their Nationalist voters would go to the SDLP most likely.
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
The GFA has settled the future constitutional settlement for the Island of Ireland based on majority votes north and south. The agreement was endorsed by majority votes in favour in North and South. It does not require a vote at Stormont. That is in an international treaty guaranteed by the US which is why David Allen Greene describes it as one of the few written elements of our constitution.
You know all this as it has been explained before although you were previously suggesting UDI for North Antrim only although you are now adding bits of County Derry to the fantasy. Not an option.
The GFA requires the UK NI Secretary and only the NI Secretary to approve a border poll for it to happen and there is no chance of any NI Secretary ever doing that unless a majority at Stormont vote for such a border poll.
The alternative to UDI is of course a return to the Troubles as loyalist paramilitaries would of course launch a terrorist campaign in the Republic of Ireland if the still Unionist majority parts of Ireland were forced into the Republic against their will just as the IRA fought a terrorist campaign when Nationalist parts of Northern Ireland faced direct rule from Dublin. Northern Ireland was only created in the first place because Protestant Ulster took up arms and were ready to fight a civil war if that did not happen
Saying 'so and so is right because I say so' does not make something true. Criticising a 'liberal' for alleged assumptions whilst doing so yourself is hilarious. The subsequent history lessons are the chefs kiss.
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
Leon - you are absolutely right. What did we have in the 50's? Blurry photos at the limit of detection. What do we have in the 2020's blurry photo's (and IR, and Radar etc.) at the limit of detection. Ergo, they don't exist. Given the increase in technology over those 70 years you'd think at least one of them would be caught in focus, but no. Unexplained anomalies, yes. Unexplainable anomalies, no.
Substitute 'Ghosts', 'God' or 'Bigfoot' for UFO's - same thing.
Bill Nelson, the former space shuttle astronaut and US senator, said he had personally talked to two Navy pilots who saw numerous flying objects in 2004, and had turned over the investigation to Nasa’s top scientist.
“We're taking this very seriously,” he told a briefing of science journalists.
“I've talked to the Navy pilots that know that they saw something back in 2004. They tracked it on their radar off the Southern California coast, over the Pacific.
“Since then hundreds of objects have been spotted and a couple of them were explained, they may be balloons, but most of them are unexplained.
“So I’ve asked Nasa, and it will be announced within a few days, to approach this subject from a scientific standpoint, since we are a scientific research organisation. In about eight months, they’re going to report.”
Asked whether he thought the sightings could be enemy aircraft, the Nasa administrator added: “Do I think it's an enemy? I hope it isn't, because the Navy pilots would describe it as: 'It's here and then it's over there. With no time in between.'
“And so my simple answer is I don't know. And that's why I've asked our scientists to see if they've got any explanation.”
But where are the convincing videos and photos? The irrefutable radar data, infra red signals, and the rest?
They seemingly don’t exist, and even some of the desperately feeble videos we do have - the pyramids (bokeh) - have now been debunked
And yet, something is up in US military and political circles, which has to be explained. For the moment I stand by my belief that it is post-plague, China-exacerbated paranoia being used by others, with perhaps a core of true believers. That’s the best I can do; it is not satisfactory but no explanation is
On the other hand it does feel like several storylines are coming together at once. The revelation that DNA can arise spontaneously with great ease, the fact we are approaching AI, it all points to life in the universe being much more abundant than we thought, and if it is abundant then planets would be sending out AI probes and one or more of them will find, or have found, us. So I don;t rule out UFOs either
Good morning from a warm, stormy Yerevan
"The revelation that DNA can arise spontaneously with great ease," - missed that one? Where was that from? A revamped Miller-Urey type experiment?
Cheers for the links. I'd suggest its not quite as dramatic as it sounds - the paper describes how nucleotide triphosphates can polymerise on volcanic glass. Which is really cool, but you still need to make the nucleotide triphosphates in the first place.
Biondi’s colleague Steven Benner says recent research shows how the same basaltic glasses could have promoted the formation and stabilization of the individual RNA letters.
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
It all comes back to the same basic principle in the end. As a country we should not break treaties we have signed with other countries in good faith. The fact that so many in Government seem to be unable to grasp this fact is just one reason amongst many why they are unfit for high office.
All countries, including the UK, the USA and the EU itself and its constituent nations, have always reserved the right to break treaties signed with other countries in good faith if they deem it necessary.
The law is whatever treaties have been incorporated into the law and that can be changed at any time by Parliament.
This is not the first time a Treaty might be breached, it won't be the last. All countries have done it and all countries always can.
The very purpose of the NI Protocol supposedly was to protect the Belfast Agreement. If the Belfast Agreement and the Protocol clash, then protecting the Belfast Agreement by changing the law is the appropriate and higher priority.
Comments
It’s a huge flamboyant stamp with a picture of the Holy Mountain and something like “Welcome to Byzantium” written in medieval Greek
However a photographer friend of mine has an even better one: a stamp he got going into the “free narco-state of Colombia” during the FARC drug wars there
Is this you Malcolm? (sorry to Dox)
Andrew Polson, who was the leader of East Dunbartonshire Council until May, has been released pending further inquiries.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-61789182
And many of the admissions have been deeply embarrassing for the US military. Swarmed by probes/drones they cannot explain nor deter? Meanwhile dozens of US pilots seem to be have psychotic breakdowns or they are being fooled by seagulls, also quite embarrassing, Etc etc etc
Nope, that explanation doesn’t carry water, either
If the Alliance took sides in a border poll it would become just another Nationalist or Unionist party
The Brexit deal actually guarantees that NI is more likely to stay in the UK, as its economy will boom due to its uniquely beneficial political location
So cool science, but I'd argue this is not the spontaneous generation of DNA, just an explanation of one of the possible steps in the process.
After all we have done the same ourselves - human made probes are now beyond the solar system
And we did it before in the early years of Exploration. We sent ships over the horizon, possibly on a one way mission, to see what was Out There. How was Polynesia settled? Exactly like this
1) The Americans have already turned around and said that this won't affect the US/UK trade negotiations - of course they have. Because they have already said there will be no trade negotiations. So it can't impact something not happening.
2) they have legal advice saying its not necessary - which they will not publish, or even say who provided it, having bypassed the legal advice process which would have obtained such a thing. Braverman saying "this is legal" has about as much weights as Burgon saying something is legal.
3) The UK holds all the cards, we can impose a settlement because the EU is bluffing. - 6 years on and deluded people still post this demonstrable fantasy claim. Says more about you than it does about me that you post this.
4) You were crying havoc for years that it needed to be alignment that would end this - and we are 100% aligned and will de facto remain so having given up the ability to set and police new standards. A green channel where stuff comes in unchecked is a 2-way gate. And ask the food industry, manufacturing, engineering et al if they are going to faff about creating dual standard stuff in the event that the Uk tries to deviate? We won't check it, so why bother?
Its a fantasy. Thrown as red meat. To the small of thinking. Which you have just wolfed down.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp6Ph5iTIgc
Is he really taking aliens "very seriously"? Bit of a stretch
Surely the reason they're not used here is because we know they aren't?
Stamps are makework nonsense because they don't solve the problem they're there to solve. If someone arrives in the EU/UK and then never leaves they've overstayed their welcome, but the stamp does absolutely nothing to reveal that since they never left, so never got the second stamp. The only people who are getting exit stamps are those who actually left in the first place. That is more than a 0.001% problem.
I would hazard a guess if someone did want to commit fraud over dates, then fraudulently getting fake stamps would be a lot easier to achieve than fraudulently getting fake entries into a database too.
And now I too must away. The sun has come out and the Armenians are smiling and I have a genocide museum that needs some attention!
shnorhakalut’yun
That is the actual word for thankyou in Armenian. No joke
shnorhakalut’yun
WTF.
Obviously it is really spelled
շնորհակալություն
Which is a lot easier, and makes total sense
շնորհակալություն
The border poll requirement is set out in the GFA - deliberately vague but no Stormont vote required.
They want us to follow the agreement. Which means invoking Article 16 and negotiating a workaround for the genuine problems. And I agree with you - an intra-UK border is absurd. And yet that this is what our government negotiated and agreed. Then said "it does what? Who knew?"
At present, when the Chancellor cuts VAT to zero on certain goods as he recently did, he can't cut it to zero in Northern Ireland as EU rules apply there. Although contrary to the repeated assertions of @RochdalePioneers we already are not aligned with EU rules, at present the lack of alignment is pretty minimal as we've only just started diverging, that divergence will only grow as we evolve in separate directions.
Liz Truss's very sane and rational solution to the NI Protocol's flaws is to allow people to choose EU regulations or UK regulations or both, whichever they prefer. Just as they can choose Irish citizenship, or British citizenship, or both. That is a rational solution that is perfectly in fitting with the Belfast Agreement and will put NI in the incredible sweet spot you think they're already in, but they aren't yet.
And of course the paper was about short lengths of RNA, of somewhat mixed quality, not DNA.
None of that goes any way to explain FTL interstellar travel, either.
But your assertion does bring to mind the famous Wellington quote: “To be sure he was born in Ireland, but being born in a stable does not make a man a horse.“
There may therefore never be a border poll as it requires the NI Secretary to agree to one under the GFA and the NI Secretary won't and doesn't have to unless there is a clear majority at Stormont for one which there won't be as it is in the Alliance's interests to stay neutral and never have one
I think that's no longer the case, we now have a post-Brexit Trade Agreement with the EU and as per the EU's own originally preferred sequencing, it is now time to revisit the Protocol and make it work properly or replace it for the future. The reason he did it 3 years ago no longer applies. We're no longer in Article 50, we're no longer EU members, we're no longer facing a cliff edge No Deal Brexit and the idea planes will stop flying, medicines will stop flowing and all the other hysterical bullshit that critics kept complaining about.
If there's no border anywhere, then how will that wreck the NI economy. It will put the NI economy in a best of both worlds situation, allowed to cherrypick which set of regulations etc they wish to follow, best of both worlds.
Is Armenia the only country where you regularly see signs in four different ALPHABETS? Not just languages but alphabets
A common sign will have
Armenian
Georgian
Cyrillic - Russian
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Magnificently confusing
1. The government's claim that "necessity" requires them, as a matter of law, to do what they are doing with their proposed NI Bill is analysed here - https://davidallengreen.com/2022/06/the-bare-necessity-how-the-legal-position-of-the-united-kingdom-on-the-northern-irish-protocol-bill-makes-no-sense/.
Summary: the government's legal analysis is nonsense. If there are difficulties, the agreement already provides a mechanism in Article 16 for resolving those difficulties. If that is not invoked, then there can be no basis for tearing up the vast majority of the agreement.
2. The proposed Bill is a real Henry VIII bill which cuts Parliament out of the process and reserves pretty much everything to the executive. See here from the Hansard Society - https://twitter.com/hansardsociety/status/1536465886386741250?s=21&t=r7hoYtMuhYZuSZ9PEmB0MQ.
Regardless of the NI aspects it is a very bad Bill on this basis alone. The executive sought to bypass Parliament and scrutiny over the Covid laws. It has given itself similar powers in relation to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and and Courts Act and it is now doing the same here. This is very bad for democratic control and scrutiny and far worse than the unaccountable legislation which the Brexiteers, including many of those now in government, complained about incessantly.
There are only 2 aims behind this Bill: (1) to shore up Johnson's premiership; (2) if that does not work, to allow Liz Truss to win the ensuing Tory leadership campaign.
The interests of democracy, good governance, Britain's reputation as a country which honours its word and the law, NI and voters elsewhere matter not a jot.
Openreach CEO Appears to Blame Brexit for Pace of Broadband Build
"Project Gigabit" is also falling behind.
It's an option, though, I agree, and one that Britain could have tried to get through in the negotiations. But as we agreed to something else, the question is whether we can unilaterally change our minds without greater damage to our reputation than is justified by worrying about NI border hassles. We can all think of things about which we wouldn't be happy to see Ministers deciding to change at whim. And while you might, perhaps surprisingly, think that all current Ministers are entirely reasonable people whose judgment you trust, are you willing to extend that principle to all future Ministers too?
This in itself would not have been disastrous if, when trying to leave 6 weeks later and being challenged, I hadn't been hung out to dry by my employer - a French company - who, when contacted, denied all knowledge of me as they didn't want the hassle. Off I went to jail and all sorts of difficult questions before I was finally able to get hold of my Country Manager based in Sfax and he drove up to Tunis to bail me out and vouch for me.
The French company did the same thing to other employees, notably a very good French friend of mine in Nigeria who ended up spending 3 months in a Nigerian jail and was a broken man when he came out.
You make the assumption that sectarianism trumps all else in the province. I do not believe that to be the case. To quote Bill Clinton "It's the economy stupid".
If the North Channel border was allowing NI businesses to thrive in the EU, and the removal of the protocol stops that dead in its tracks, and it might, it will be noted, and minds will change.
Not that Unionists would accept ever being part of a united Ireland anyway, Antrim and East Londonderry etc would declare UDI first
As for whether I'm prepared to extend that principle for future Ministers, of course I am, every Minister past, present or future is entitled to change their minds and try to convince Parliament to change the law. No Parliament can bind its successors, including itself. If any Parliament, past, present or future passes an Act of Parliament to change the law, then the law is changed.
Their banknotes are insane. 15 languages.
As for the bowler hat twatters declaring UDI, that tells me everything we need to know about your respect for democracy.
The introduction of an Irish land border might stop it, but the removal of the Channel border is a different question, not the same one. You make it sound as if the Channel border is a positive to be desired in its own right, as opposed to the lack of an Irish land border being a positive to be desired.
The proposed legislation explicitly states no new regulations or checks can be done on the Irish land border. That means that the Good Friday Agreement is protected.
now.after 10 today...In my part of the world, decent international companies usually employ a local native, whose job it is to deal with various local public-sector entities. Known as a Public Relations Officer, or PRO, they sort out visas, licences, and yes, occasionally bailing someone out of jail.
Now those same people have done a 180 and are complaining that Article 16 should have been invoked, that is what it is there for, etc
Perhaps if the notion of invoking Article 16 had been met with less toxicity, it could have been invoked and acting differently now wouldn't be necessary?
If the plans are sensible (and people whose judgement I trust on this stuff say that some of it's pretty reasonable), this is exactly the wrong place to start in getting them to happen. And the "Ministers can do whatever they want" clauses ought to scare everyone.
If, however, the aim is to generate the kind of wartime paranoia that keeps a government in power...
You are a typical naive GB mainland left liberal who has not a clue about the culture and traditions of Protestant Ulster which wants to stay in the UK and will never, ever accept being forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will.
I am well aware that there is a No Never element in the unionist community. A former well-respected boss of mine was one of the "bowler hatted twatters" I refer to. But even he accepted that there is a democratic mandate that any political position has to respect.
Also worth your pe-brain noting is that nobody is proposing a scenario where NI would be "forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will". Because the SF scenario is that the RoI would also end, and a New Ireland created. Which sounds like it would give my former boss and his friends as much self-identity as they want.
2) If an Act of Parliament is passed, then the law changes, and it is legal.
3) It was true six years ago, its still true today. It isn't fantasy, its simple fact, the EU won't build an Irish Land border, they can't impose an Irish Sea border, so they have nothing to do except hope we do their dirty work for them. If we refuse, then they're utterly impotent to do anything about it, as they've already confirmed they can't and won't build a Land border so the problem is gone. The "unicorn" exists the second we stop doing the Sea checks and we and they refuse to do Land checks.
Once the unicorn exists, how do you kill a unicorn? The Belfast Agreement will be protected, no checks will be happening anywhere, there'll be no threats to the Belfast Agreement, so what happens next?
4) We are not 100% aligned, that is simply false. You know it too, so why do you repeat this falsehood? Why bother, because we can have alternative standards legalising things that aren't legal there, or imposing different standards on Britain even if NI remains allowed to have things that don't meet British standards but do meet European ones.
In fact that completely misses the point of Brexit. What you seem too unwilling to comprehend is the entire point of Brexit was to "take back control" so we could make changes. If things remained locked in situ forever, then how would we have taken back control?
If changes are happening, because the UK is being nimble and able to make changes, without requiring agreement with 27 other nations that want to sclerotically stick to decisions made in the past even if they're inferior to the changes then that is the power of Brexit in action. It is showing why Brexit was a good thing, to allow us to make our own decisions.
The Unionist majorities of say Antrim, East Londonderry and Lagan Valley would never accept that and declare UDI first. Loyalist paramilitaries are already creating trouble again over the Irish Sea border let alone being forced into the Republic of Ireland against their will
You know all this as it has been explained before although you were previously suggesting UDI for North Antrim only although you are now adding bits of County Derry to the fantasy. Not an option.
The alternative to UDI is of course a return to the Troubles as loyalist paramilitaries would of course launch a terrorist campaign in the Republic of Ireland if the still Unionist majority parts of Ireland were forced into the Republic against their will just as the IRA fought a terrorist campaign when Nationalist parts of Northern Ireland faced direct rule from Dublin. Northern Ireland was only created in the first place because Protestant Ulster took up arms and were ready to fight a civil war if that did not happen
The EU's own sequencing always meant that the NI situation was supposed to be revisited once we had a trade deal, which we now have. The past belongs in the past, the problems in NI are real and if the solutions proposed are good (and they are, they're the ones I always proposed) then why shouldn't they be implemented?
Even if they are "unicorns".
The law is whatever treaties have been incorporated into the law and that can be changed at any time by Parliament.
This is not the first time a Treaty might be breached, it won't be the last. All countries have done it and all countries always can.
The very purpose of the NI Protocol supposedly was to protect the Belfast Agreement. If the Belfast Agreement and the Protocol clash, then protecting the Belfast Agreement by changing the law is the appropriate and higher priority.
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