The guy’s voice is annoying af but this is well worth a listen.
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Bet Mays regretting not letting Boris have those water cannons now.
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Nick Robinson’s turn to talk all over an Irish politician this morning. The Today show is becoming one car crash after another as they try to justify the shambolic Brexit they’ve connived with the government in shaping.
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I can’t really understand why the clearly smart people they have working on there can’t see the issue with the Irish border. It’s genuinely perplexing.
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Which issue do you think they can’t see ? Their approach seems to be to point out that as long as no-one’s prepared to concede on their ‘principles’ then there is no soft solution to the border problem. So they push everyone who comes in front of them to say which principle they’re prepared to ease up on. Unsurprisingly, since the game is still in play, no-one is prepared to ease up on anything unilaterally on live radio. So we just end up hearing people insist that they can’t/won’t move and the other side will have to.
VB
They’re doing what they’re told? The producer, Sarah Sands, and her false-equivalence / shit-stirring-trumps-reporting ethos lies behind a wider problem with the show / Beeb.
Turning Humphreys into glue and slapping Nick Robinson a wee bit wouldn’t alone get the Farage / Nigel Lawson / Derringpole types out of the interview chair
About sums it up. I did hear a couple of Irish politicians the other day say that they would have to work with the UK in the event of a no deal in order to keep the border open.
It would appear that there is more than one way to skin a cat, who’d a thunk it.
Why should the EU or anyone else help the UK with a problem of their own making?
You fucked it up, you fix it.
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If you instigate a divorce the jilted other is unlikely to want to come over and clean your house / make your life easy / want to play your games. Particularly if they are in a stronger position.
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In this case the divorce has a child involved and I don’t think either Eire nor the UK want to close the border. I understand that the aim is to remove the backstop (a de-facto customs union) over the next couple of years as part of the forthcoming trade negotiations.
The cynic in me would say both parties have kicked the can down the road, but the optimist would say that both parties recognise that an equitable solution could be found.
Under a no deal scenario the border closes until a negotiation concludes, unless both parties agree to an exception, which I rather suspect they will.
To stop a hard border appearing. Because if they don’t help, that’s what they stand a good chance of getting. It’ll be shit for us. But it’ll be shit for them too. In fact it’ll probably be shit for them (the Irish, at least) sooner. Wailing " … but, but, it’s all your fault …" isn’t going to stop that.
VB
That’s not the point though. It’s the expectation that someone else should clean up because you got drunk and shat the bed. It’s the fucking arrogance that beggars belief. This cuntry is fucked with that attitude.
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You know that’s a poor analogy. The mechanism for leaving the EU is written into that community’s rules. We chose, democratically (if wrongly IMHO) to invoke it. It was always going to be the case that both sides would then have to negotiate a new relationship. Both sides have spent two years working on that but they haven’t yet finished. If they don’t manage to then both sides will get hurt. The two-year deadline is an EU rule, not a UK one. The hard EU border in Ireland is an EU rule, not a UK one.
VB
Not such a bad analogy IMV.
We knew the EU rules beforehand. And we have put in place a treaty that demands an open border.
I think what Pete is saying, correctly, is that the UK has upset the apple cart here not the EU.
The EU have negotiated and agreed to a solution, as outlined in May’s deal. That it doesn’t suit some foaming at the mouth brexitards is frankly tough shit.
If I were the EU, then my position would be: You don’t need to leave, but if you really want to, then the reality is you’re going to have to suck it up. They’re in a much better position to deal with the fallout if the UK throws it’s toys out of the pram.
Brexit is a fucking stupid idea, as should be abundantly clear to anyone with more than a couple of brain cells to rub together. I fucking despair.
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Surely it is May’s red lines that demand the ability to independently pescribe regulations and tarrifs. This requires a territory, which requires a border. While the EU has a legitimate requirement to secure its external border, this is at odds wth the EU’s desire, to date, to support .ie and the GFA.
While neither Ireland nor the UK have a ‘WTO requirement’ to police the border they have an immediate problem regarding Most Favoured Nation rules: while there’s no WTO rule which demands the UK will have to set up border controls, However, the non-discrimination rules may force it to.
Ergo, the EU isn’t really the issue: other nations - any of whom who could complain about being discremiinated against - could be the ones who cause trouble.
Luckily, we have nothing but the best-intentioned friends around the world who bare us no grudge.
Oh.
This. This. And more this. ^^^^^^