Mr Poots has ordered his customs officers to cease
applying protocol checks to goods entering the
union from twelve o’clock tonight !!
Well that should put the cat among the pigeons!
This should cause more ripples than Putin ??
Donkeyman! 
Good good !!!
@Bread ,. My feelings exactly !
This should wake Downing street up and with luck could cause
a proper BREXIT
But l don’t think it will bother the EU much as this is what the
protocol was designed for !
Donkeyman! 
The EU will hate it. A small country like Northern Ireland sticking two fingers up at mighty Brussels ?
Just watch Sinn Fein throw their toys out of their pram because as long as that NI Protocol is in place, the republic has a purpose and value to the EU. Without it, the Republic are a financial burden and nothing more.
This should have happened months ago when it became evident the present so called scheme was not working. As far as the EU are concerned, they can shove the whole concept right up where the sun don’t shine then copulate amongst themselves (that’s my polite version). It should never have been agreed in the first instance as its unfair to the whole of Ireland.
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I don’t think NI has triggered Article 16, it has decided this unilaterally. National laws supersede international laws so this is perfectly legitimate for NI to do this - thats my view anyway.
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@Bread , The way l see it, NI has not actually triggered article
16, but is hoping to force UK to trigger it ?
I don’t think NI has the power to trigger it as the UK is supposed to
be acting for NI in the negotiations with the EU !
But you may be right that they have broken no laws by taking things into their own hands,so now it is a matter between UK and
Northern Ireland and things could get even more complicated from here on in??
This could even cause the reunion of Northern Ireland and the
republic or conversely ,even restart north south hostilities ??
Cool heads are needed to get things sorted quickly as obviously
the north have lost patience with the lack of progress!
A major problem the north face though is that there is not what
can be called a united government in Stormont that has the
people’s mandate to make decisions ??
Donkeyman! 
@LongDriver , But, Boris actually signed the agreement didn’t he?
So now the EU says it is now an international treaty and can’t be
changed?
IMO Boris signed without reading what he signed and now the
EU is just being bloody minded in insisting it can’t be changed!
Boris is to blame for this though by being obsessed with getting
‘A GOOD real’ !!
Donkeyman!
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I don’t think Article 16 enters into this at the moment, NI have done this unilaterally and the UK government won’t stand in their way.
News Breaking …
Hi
A complicated situation and in this instance the tail is wagging the dog.
Boris signed the deal and told us it was a good one.
The DUP have now scuppered it.
Good for them.
They should have done it a year ago. Poots has done what right thing, force the issue of the government triggering A16 which it has been threatening to do for ages but not doing anything about.
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Hi
Boris has enough problems without starting a Trade War with the EU.
When it comes to a trade war with the EU we are in a much better position than they are. They buy more form us (actually more than China, second to the USA) than we do from them.
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Hi
Yes, they do sell a lot to us.
How ever what they sell to us is a much smaller % of their total Exports than our Exports to them.
They are well aware of that.
EU Countries own much of our manufacturing and services.
The EU has done it’s sums and is confident of victory.
The USA is already penalising the UK over metal exports, which includes car parts.
The French are also aided by the Chinese, they could just both pull out of building our new Nuclear Power Stations.
The French can also just shut off their Electricity Supply to the UK, such is the demand they can sell it to others immediately.
The reality of the situation is not good.
The EU total exports and the % of exports to us is irrelevant to the UK, we still buy more German cars than just about anyone else in the world, same goes for French cheese and Italian Prosecco.
If the EU put tariffs on the UK, we would do the same in return - we have other markets which are rapidly catching up with our imports from the EU. I think the past 2 years we have imported more from outside the EU than we ever have from within it.
The EU has never won anything with the UK. What NI is doing is perfectly within their rights and they have done just that in the best interest of the NI people.
The reality of the situation is a storm in a teacup. If the Chinese pulled out of our nuclear power stations I would jump for joy swimmy and if the French cut off their electricity supplies to us, we would reciprocate.
I don’t know why as a Brexiteer you still support the EU over and above the rights of your own countrymen in Northern Ireland …
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Yes, I agree! This is definitely the right thing and SOD the EU🤬
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@Bread , l don’t think swimmy is supporting the EU Bread ??
He only states what he sees as facts of the situation ?
Some of which l agree with him on and some of which l agree
with you, for instance, l think we should have done much more
to find other suppliers to replace the EU?
We don’t seem to have made the effort??
We don’t need to have a single overarching grand trade deal?
Far better to have several smaller deals to ensure the supplies
are sufficient?
There are plenty of African countries that would be only too glad
to make such deals with a reliable customer of 65 million in
pretty short order , South Africa for one, but there are several
more that are even closer to us!!
Donkeyman!
Er, I think a certain pandemic got in the way of that to more than a certain extent.
Isn’t that what Liz Truss was doing before she was given the Foreign Sec job?
We were reliant on the EU because that is what the EU forced us to do via the single market. Its been doing the same with NI by keeping it in the single market as well. Poots jut put a stop to it, so now its trigger A50 or the first minister and deputy first minister quits.
@Percy_Vere , With what results Percy??
Apart from the Australian one which we still need to see bear
fruit??( Pun intended!)
We don’t need deals with manufacturing countries so much as
we need food supplies after all we need more cars like we
need
a hole in the head ? Far better to attempt to regenerate a smaller
more effecient manufacturing sector to cater for our own needs!
I doubt if we can make our own saucepans anymore ??
Donkeyman!