Brexit: PM to unveil plans to scrap parts of NI Protocol agreed with EU

Controversial: Politics & Govt Brexit
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Boris Johnson will later publish plans to scrap parts of the post-Brexit deal he struck with the EU in 2020. The PM wants to change the Protocol section of the deal to make it easier for some goods to move between Britain and Northern Ireland. But the EU is against the move, saying it would break international law.

The UK insists its proposals - to be set out in a parliamentary bill - are legal and will secure the future of the United Kingdom.

The two sides agreed the Protocol as they strived to maintain peace in Ireland - including the open Irish border - following Brexit.

The Republic of Ireland is still part of the EU’s single market for goods and services, which the UK has left.

Rather than impose a hard border - involving checks on goods and people moving between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic - the protocol introduces checks on some goods travelling from from Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) to Northern Ireland.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which won the second-most seats in the recent Northern Ireland Assembly elections, argues this creates a divide that could lead to the break-up of the UK.

It is refusing to set up a new ruling Northern Ireland executive with Sinn FĂ©in - which won most seats in the elections - until changes are made to the protocol.

The UK government, despite signing up to the agreement in January 2020, has also raised concerns, prompting the publication of its bill later on Monday.

Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said he was confident it would be lawful for the UK to make changes to the protocol without the EU being involved, and that he expected the DUP to form an executive with Sinn FĂ©in after the bill was published.

Presumably there’s a problem but I’ll leave the explanation/interpretation to Brexit experts.

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I’m not going to claim I understand it all, but if the EU are refusing to having a green lane and a red lane as Liz Truss has proposed I can only assume that the EU are being deliberately difficult.

There was a clause in the protocol that stated that if it caused difficulties to either side then it could be changed.

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Hi

The protocol was negotiated by Boris and signed by him. He described it as being better than the one May had negotiated and solving all the problems.

Nothing has changed since then so the EU are going to be upset.

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Sod the EC and sod Eire. Ulster is an integral part of Great Britain. Power sharing should NEVER been introduced by traitor Blair.

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And within that agreement they both signed a get out clause.

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Exactly. It shows clearly he didn’t negotiate in good faith or intend to keep his word

He just agreed any old thing, counting on being able to change it in his favour later

We’re back to the old “have our cake and eat it” boasting and bravado.

No wonder the EU don’t want to let him get away with it, I wouldn’t either

If he didn’t think the protocol would work he should never have agreed it in the first place.

That was dishonest of him, just to be able to claim kudos for “getting Brexit done”

And if he didn’t resolve the Northern Ireland situation, he didn’t “get Brexit done” at all, did he?

He’s just a con man and a snake oil salesman, I hope the EU refuse point blank

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When push comes to shove there is SFA the EC can do about it.

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True of a lot of crimes and con jobs but it doesn’t make it right.

Or get you any future co-operation or trust from the people you’ve conned

Or encourage other nations to see you as trustworthy

Stupid to make enemies of the countries closest to us for trade purposes

And if we get up their noses enough, they’re bound to find something to get back at us

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What matters is that the UK government do what is best for the UK and to hell with how other countries see us. At best allegiances are temporary and of necessity must change. In the case of Ulster it is imperative that this part of the UK should not be given away to a foreign country and every progression towards that must be removed.

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Hi

The majority in Northern Ireland voted at the last election for parties supportive of the protocol.

Times are changing

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The Irish protocol is in place, not because of Johnson but because of how Theresa May and Olly Robbins tried to shaft the Brexit vote by deliberately putting the Irish backstop into place so that the UK remained in the EU (albeit as a vassal state) in perpetuity. It was revealed in the Chequers meeting and as a result Boris Johnson and David Davis resigned their cabinet positions. The renegotiated Irish Protocol was negotiated by Lord Frost and Boris Johnson which, although has dragged on for years enables us to change it.

If you think changing the Irish Protocol means we are breaking international law, sorry, but your completely wrong. The Irish Protocol states clearly that it can be altered unilaterally in that document. Below is the text…

Article 16 - Safeguards

1. If the application of this protocol leads to serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or diversion of trade, the Union or the United Kingdom may unilaterally take appropriate safeguard measures. Such safeguard measures shall be restricted with regard to their scope and duration to what is strictly necessary in order to remedy the situation. Priority shall be given to such measures as will least disturb the functioning of this Protocol.

(remember when the EU initiated Article 16 during the pandemic to prevent vaccines being distributed from the EU (Republic of Ireland) to the UK (Northern Ireland) - totally illegal in that context but some people seem to have forgotten about that).

Lord Frost put that clause in courtesy of (I’m pretty sure) Bill Cash and his brilliant thinking. Also, national laws always over-rule international laws. International “laws” are there to allow a status quo arrangement - this changes as situations change which impacts the status quo (as we see in Ireland thanks to the EU deliberately over regulating trade rules in Ireland). This idea that we are “breaking international law” is pure fiction invented by the remain media and the EU head bangers in Brussels.

Anyway …

To summarise, there will be a green lane for all NI based goods which require “minimal” paperwork. This still means there is a border in the Irish Sea and also means that the Good Friday Agreement and the Union Act of 1801 is still breached because we treat Northern Ireland differently to Wales, Scotland and England as far as trading arrangements are concerned.

But …

The cool bit is that Northern Ireland is governed completely by UK law (not EU law) even though the ECJ must still be consulted. This will reall upset Brussels when we remove all checks in the green lane - its coming.

As well as that, goods in Northen Ireland will have two standards - UK standards and EU standards. UK standards for goods from the UK into Northern Ireland and EU standards for goods from the EU going into Northern Ireland…

The best bit though is that Northern Ireland will follow UK tax levels.

Expect a lot of people in Brussels and the remain media to be up in arms over this, especially knowing that all checks in the green lane will most likely be binned in a few months time.

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@wendeey , Exactly that Wendee !
Funny nobody mentions that anymore ?
And it was an EU clause !!!
Donkeyman! :thinking::thinking::thinking:

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@Maree , You don’t mention the get out clause Wendee spoke about earlier
Maree ??
Why not ??
Donkeyman! :thinking::thinking:

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@Bread , Thanks for that info Bread, pity l didn’t see it earlier !
But tell me this please if you can, if this is in the Frost agreement and
the EU signed it, why are they ignoring it now ??
And why haven’t we pointed it out to them and used it when making
public announcements concerning the protocol ??
Donkeyman! :thinking::thinking:

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Probably because Johnson thought it wasn’t the priority because he was too busy with his green nonsense and then the pandemic hit.

Probably would still be ignoring the problem if it wasn’t for the fact that 140 of his MPs don’t want him, a fair few like Baker, Davis etc in the ERG.

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Because that was agreed on the assumption that both parties originally agreed to the protocol in good faith

But it’s clear Johnson didn’t and just agreed it to get Brexit through, and always planned to renege on it from the beginning

So I see no reason why the EU should let him get away with his manipulative dirty tricks

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The EC has neither right or power to influence the UK government as long as we hold our ground.

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They have every right to do exactly what they want to and what they think is best for their countries, just as we do

And if they think it’s best for EU countries to draw a line on Johnson’s perfidy and not go along with his changes, and maybe retaliate with a trade war, then that’s up to them

They EU exists to promote the interests of it’s members. The U.K. isn’t one of them so they owe us no favours or loyalty after our betrayal and are quite right to look after their own

The prospect of that may or may not influence our government but they have every right to use every means at their disposal to support the interests of their members

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@Maree , That don’t make sense, why have a clause in the first place ??
Donkeyman! :frowning::frowning:

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The protocol was only put in place as a temporary measure until something came along to solve the problem of the border. The EU have rejected everything suggested, so the only option the Government have is to do what they are doing.

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