Reminder that only 4% of Northern Ireland trade is with the Republic of Ireland. 4% with the rest of the EU. 6% with the rest of the world. 86% is within NI & GB.... Yet we have a protocol hindering trade between GB & NI.
Here is the Prime Minister a few months ago saying the backstop threatens the Union & no British PM would ever sign up to it....she cannot be trusted. Paragraph 50 guaranteeing the Northern Ireland Assembly a role also removed
#Brexit
Former First Minister
@ArleneFosterUK
believes that
@RishiSunak
tried to stop previous UK Brexit negotiator
@DavidGHFrost
triggering Article 16 of the Protocol to suspend parts of it. | Belfast News Letter
"Export a new car for sale by a Northern Ireland dealer, and it must be made to EU standards, not UK ones. This doesn’t seem like “no Irish Sea border”. "
Northern Ireland protocol
Reminder that Spanish & Republic of Ireland fishermen can land fish at Northern Ireland ports without customs forms but Northern Ireland fishermen have to complete EU forms to land fish in their own ports as they are deemed to be from a "third country".
Police in the Republic of Ireland to start conducting border checks on vehicles crossing from Northern Ireland. For some reason I do not hear the cacophony of Remainers screeching that such checks contravene the Good Friday Agreement?
The end of the Good Friday Agreement | Ben Habib
"People are sick of the broken promises and betrayal by Westminster. They want Brexit properly delivered. They want Northern Ireland back in the UK."
Northern Ireland Protocol: TUV leader Jim Allister says new report confirms threat of a hard border was 'a bogus one designed to punish the UK' for Brexit | Belfast News Letter
Belfast Court rules that Brexit does not break the Good Friday Agreement. As I have said, not even a no deal Brexit. The Good Friday Agreement makes no stipulations a about the border other than "security normalisation" & cross border "cooperation".
BREAKING: The High Court in Belfast has dismissed a legal challenge that the Government's Brexit strategy will damage the Northern Ireland peace process.
Northern Ireland protocol
UVF’s chilling warning over new ‘betrayal’
“Loyalists are now being mobilised, and rather than the 25th anniversary of the Belfast Agreement being a celebration, the streets will be in flames.
@RishiSunak
@JamesCleverly
Belfast Appeals Court says a sovereign UK parliament knew what they were doing with the withdrawal agreement and therefore the Ni Protocol takes precedent over the Act of Union
Kate Hoey on a United Ireland:
"I’ve never quite felt that was how I would like to live. I’m never considered myself Irish. I’m from Northern Ireland so I’m British.”
| Belfast News Letter
Northern Ireland protocol
DUP:
We’ve already identified a whole range of things that the Government has claimed will happen, which we now know won’t happen because we’ve looked at the EU’s explanation of it."
First thing
@BorisJohnson
needs 5 to do is trigger Article 16 alongside the Northern Ireland protocol Bill to save the Union. And then cut VAT on energy across the whole UK. Cut the tax on petrol too.
If I was cynical I might be inclined to think now would be a good time for the Prime Minister to "save the Union", trigger Article 16 & unilaterally suspend parts of the NI Protocol causing a trade war with the EU...
Arlene Foster: Northern Ireland should never have been given its own parliament and would today be better off had it simply remained a normal part of the UK without devolved government in 1922.
"I can’t speak for every Leave voter, obviously, but this was the issue that made me a Brexiteer. The supremacy of EU law was what turned an association of states into a federation-in-the-making." - Dan Hannan
Retweet far & wide >>Here is the Prime Minister a few months ago saying the backstop threatens the Union & no British PM would ever sign up to it....she cannot be trusted. Paragraph 50 guaranteeing the Northern Ireland Assembly a role also removed
#Brexit
Former Brexit Party MEP
@benhabib6
says you know the Windsor Framework is wretched when people like Tony Blair, John Major, Michael Hesseltine, the Labour Party & SNP support it.
#TUV2023
#TUV23
Group of 80 Conservative MPs say "We also believe invoking Article 16 of the Protocol is a step towards securing the peace and preserving the integrity of our Union."
Northern Ireland protocol
"Politically, Northern Ireland is not torn; it is part of the United Kingdom. And the main problem is not trade; it’s that under the pretext of trade, the European Union is laying claim to a territory that does not belong to it"
Liz Truss: I will not sign up to anything which sees the people of Northern Ireland unable to benefit from the same decisions on taxation and spending as the rest of the UK, or which still sees goods moving within our own country being subject to checks.”
Lord
@DavidGHFrost
in the Telegraph "A country with self-respect cannot have its laws set by others. We must therefore finish the business of re-establishing our sovereignty in Northern Ireland – step by step, if necessary, but with no doubt about the final goal."
Pro United Ireland parties dropping to 36% of the vote in the latest Belfast Telegraph poll.
55% of Nationalists want changes to the Protocol.
80% of people overall either want the protocol changed or scrapped.
Brandon Lewis says Liz Truss ‘faced internal as well as external pressure to buckle in the face of the EU’s unreasonable and unrealistic demands, to the detriment of our Union, but she stood firm.”
Oh look the Irish Republic / EU can record vaccine crossing the border into Northern Ireland without a hard border or any infrastructure. Can they please explain why this can't be done with other goods?
NORTHERN Ireland is being turned into a "colony" by the EU, former First Minister David Trimble - who helped negotiate the landmark Good Friday Agreement - has claimed.
ERG's star chamber gives verdict on Windsor Framework:
'EU law will still be supreme in Northern Ireland and Stormont brake is practically useless'
| Belfast News Letter
A reminder that Belfast High Court threw out assertions that a no deal Brexit contravenes the Good Friday Agreement. It also threw out assertions the GFA bans a hard border & requires EU membership/customs union
So Lord Justice Bernard McCloskey in Belfast yesterday dismissed Remainer claims that the Good Friday Agreement requires EU membership, the customs union or the single market/ regulatory alignment. Also dismissed claims that the Good Friday Agreement makes a hard border unlawful
“In the case of Saint Martin, US products flow freely into the EU Single Market without checks, risks or worries. It is clear the Northern Ireland protocol is being used for political purposes... as a means of ongoing control over the UK. "
Suella Braverman would also be hugely divisive, turbocharging Britain’s Brexit divide and our culture wars. She would be Boris Johnson on steroids, a brown, female version of Trump. | The Independent
Lord Frost says it is not obvious why the EU would want to be co-responsable for the destruction of the Belfast Agreement unless they are seeking leverage to keep the whole UK aligned to the EU.
The EU needs to publicly acknowledge that NI is an integral part of the United Kingdom and as such, they have no right to interfere in the internal decisions of an independent sovereign state. - Arlene Foster
For too long we’re waited to see what the EU proposed on Northern Ireland, while British businesses are being prevented from trading easily within our own country. There must be no backsliding on the Protocol bill going through parliament"
@suellabraverman
Mr Bolton claimed he has studied the issue “very intently” and said those who claim removing the protocol would harm Northern Ireland and the UK are engaging in “a lot of hype and hoopla”. -
Clearly, President Biden is not exactly keen on Northern Ireland remaining an integral part of the UK. And he is therefore no friend of the Union. - spiked
French PM Castex letter to Boris Johnson: We cannot accept British police or soldiers patrolling our coastline. It's a question of sovereignty and I know your government's sensitivity towards respecting the sovereignty of others.
Northern Ireland protocol
Richard Tice: we should give the EU three weeks' notice that we are triggering the Article unless they accept the proposed changes by Lord Frost. The current situation is totally unacceptable.
Liz Truss rules out a deal with the EU that falls short of what the Northern Ireland protocol bill delivers. Critical clarification from
@trussliz
at tyre Belfast hustings. Primacy of UK courts, taxes and UK internal market.
Former Brexit Party MEP
@benhabib6
tells the TUV conference that he, Ann Widdecombe,
@TiceRichard
&
@Nigel_Farage
are all in agreement that saving the Union is paramount & would welcome Unionist participation in England to challenge Conservative & Labour seats
#TUV2023
#TUV23
All of a sudden the EU, Nationalists & Remainers are calling for the Good Friday Agreement to be ignored..... Recent court cases have confirmed the NI Executive must approve significant & controversial decisions.
Scottish seed potatoes cannot now be sold across the Irish Sea, nor can Christmas trees – both lucrative markets for Scottish farmers. This is a fundamental breach of the Acts of Union 1707 & 1801 that guarantees open & free trade within the United Kingdom
“The Protocol is bad for Northern Ireland, bad for trade with Northern Ireland, bad for Great Britain and bad for the union of the United Kingdom. It should never have been agreed. It should be ditched.” - former Brexit Party MEP
@benhabib6
NI Protocol: DUP leader
@J_Donaldson_MP
tells the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly that he will not be involved in implementing something they wound cause the demise of the Union. And that the Belfast Agreement is not between Washington & Dublin.
The Belfast Appeals Court just ripped out the heart of Unionist understanding of the Belfast /Good Friday Agreement. Rather then protecting the whole house, the house can be completely gutted and changed with consent only required to change the colour of the paint on the outside.
A senior member of the ERG said: “We do not like what we are hearing about the direction of travel. The prime minister should not sign a deal which leaves part of the UK under EU legal jurisdiction. No other country in the world would put up with that.”
Even if partly bluster, this is an extraordinary moment in European politics: the EU threatening the UK with trade sanctions if it does not stop fresh food shipments into Northern Ireland in three weeks.
The Protocol was designed for one of two purposes:
Force the UK to align with the EU and undermine Brexit or the price would be Northern Ireland.
@Keir_Starmer
wants to undermine Brexit. The EU is waiting for that.
@RishiSunak
Northern Ireland protocol
Former Brexit Party MEP
@benhabib6
at today's TUV conference at the Royal Hotel in Cookstown says the Windsor Framework is worse then the original Protocol
#TUV2023
#TUV23
Rubbish. Northern Ireland fuel is supplied from the Grangemouth Refinery in Scotland with major depots on Belfast & L'derry. Nothing to do with the protocol.
The protocol is protecting us from some of the scenes you can see in England
🍞 Empty shelves
⛽️ Fuel shortages
🚛 Delivery delays
Brexit is the problem. Political leaders need to work together and face the challenges - not threaten to bring down government again
@ColumEastwood
The concern is that Sunak’s government is trying to repeat what Theresa May’s did by dressing up a surrender deal as a ‘win for Britain’. - Briefings For Britain
Just throwing this out there. If the Conservative & UNIONIST Party go ahead with the Irish Sea border then the Union is dead, the Northern Ireland economy will reorientate towards the Republic & the EU. Scotland will also leave the UK.
Former Northern Ireland Attorney General John Larkin QC to spearhead legal proceedings against the Northern Ireland protocol/Irish Sea border being brought by forget Brexit Party MEP
@benhabib6
, Baroness
@catherinehoey
and TUV leader
@JimAllister
QC MLA.
I don't see how any Unionist can go back to the Belfast / Good Friday Agreement institutions while they are legally obliged to implement the current protocol.
The UK-EU deal needs to resolve that.
If the Conservatives extended article 50 & delayed/cancelled Brexit resulting in the UK holding elections to the European Parliament in May how would you vote (only 4 options allowed by Twitter)
“It is now clear that the ‘green lane’ is a complete misnomer due to its heavily fettered access,” the hauliers said. “At best, it’s a bureaucratic ‘express lane’; at worst, it’s something the Soviets would have dreamt up to control the supply chain.”
@CatharineHoey
The Irish government must now report any vaccine crossing the border into Northern Ireland to the EU. Miraculously they can do this without a hard border or any infrastructure. What had changed in the last few months and why can't it be applied to other goods?
Northern Ireland protocol
"I'm told they even admitted to NFU Scotland that there is no good reason for this other than to ‘punish’ the United Kingdom for leaving the EU."
"no self-respecting country should tolerate a situation in which internal trade barriers are maintained on its own soil by an overseas power, and in which a chunk of its population is partially subject to foreign rule."
Haulage boss: "Secondly despite the Prime Minister mischievously claiming the Windsor Framework ensures goods movements from Birmingham to Belfast are the same as London to the Isle of Wight, this is not the case. There should be no difference.”