Donald Tusk's "special place in hell" remark

For me Tusk's comments are bang on the money but saying it out loud at this time is like throwing petrol on a fire. The British political system is in near meltdown and any comments are seized upon by one side or the other. Commence is in poor supply at the moment.:(
 
So Leo remembers the customs posts and the soldiers at the border, and does not want to see them return. I'll drink to that. But I have a somewhat longer memory than Leo. There was a time when I traveled up and down from Belfast to Dublin every week. The journey from Belfast to Dublin was a special place in hell. Long queues at the customs on the southern side of the border to protect the basket case economy. And then there were the potholes and the crawl through Dundalk and Drogheda.
The EU changed all that. Customs posts are gone and the M1 now puts the 60s style northern road in the shade. How did the southern economy manage this? Well they were more than compensated by EU handouts and they were also pretty deft at "alternative arrangements" like VRT on cars.
And of course I remember the soldiers, long after the customs posts had gone. They weren't there to implement a hard customs border but to offer some protection against the safe haven for the Provisional IRA which southern border counties had become.
Did a word search of the GFA. There is one half reference to the border along the lines of "to promote cross-border trade...". More relevant is Article 4 which requires all signatories not to use threats of violence from others to promote any political objective. Seems to me that Simon Varadkar and the pan-nationalist front* are doing just that. They have even cited the recent bombing in Derry to support their case.

* I exonerate MM here. He is part of the PNF but I read between the lines that he would be open to reasonable compromise.
 
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When I hear terms like the 'Pan Nationalist Front" I know it's another who would love to turn the clock back to 1901 and Kingstown again.
 
I'm not sure what is ment by, pan nationalist front, but if calling out the irresponsible and quite idiotic position the British government puts forward as a plan then I must be part of it. I too remember Northern Ireland's old days and with time most of the old fanatics like Sammy Wilson and co will just retire and die and that's a good thing because there has being a change going on in the north and it has being leaving these cretins behind.
 
I was delighted with what Tusk said .... not that I am saying I'm delighted with everything that he says etc.

It's long past time that this fiasco with BREXIT was called out for exactly what it is, with those who have caused it help to account etc.


Must admit, I got a further laugh when someone sent me a link to an article in the Waterford Whisp....... where they had apparently interviewed Old Nick and (s)he'd said that even hell had standards, so they weren't getting in there either :D


So far I heard the following from UK politicians:
  • We can use food shortages as leverage to get Ireland to drop the backstop
  • Well I haven't read the Good Friday Agreement. It is 35 pages after all (Dominic Rabb)
  • There was never a hard border in Ireland (Arlene Foster)
  • I didn't know that Nationalists and Unionists didn't vote for each other. (Karen Brady (NORTHERN IRELAND SECRETARY)
  • English people are entitled to an Irish Passport and Irish people are entitled to an British passport (Andrew Bridgen Tory MP)
Given the above, does any reasonable person not see why Ireland is so reluctant to trust the UK position that everything will be ok on the night with regard to the Good Friday Agreement. An agreement that they designed, co-signed and are obligated to protect. And we still have a Northern Ireland secretary who didn't know Unionists and Nationalists didn't vote for each other or a politician who thinks Ireland can be united anytime the people in the South decide it. I love England and I have English family and friends but Brexit has brought out the worst in the very many little Englanders who are free to spout their ill-informed, xenophobic, racist views under the Brexit banner. Tusk is right about the people who have been plotting Brexit and peddling lies for years.

I couldn't have put it better if I tried !

If only you were writing Leo's speeches these days :)
 
I'm not sure what is ment by, pan nationalist front, but if calling out the irresponsible and quite idiotic position the British government puts forward as a plan then I must be part of it. I too remember Northern Ireland's old days and with time most of the old fanatics like Sammy Wilson and co will just retire and die and that's a good thing because there has being a change going on in the north and it has being leaving these cretins behind.

Every time I see Sammy Wilson on tv I think thank God he’s fully clothed!
 
Please disregard - posted in the wrong thread in error.
 
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So far I heard the following from UK politicians:
  • We can use food shortages as leverage to get Ireland to drop the backstop
  • Well I haven't read the Good Friday Agreement. It is 35 pages after all (Dominic Rabb)
  • There was never a hard border in Ireland (Arlene Foster)
  • I didn't know that Nationalists and Unionists didn't vote for each other. (Karen Brady (NORTHERN IRELAND SECRETARY)
  • English people are entitled to an Irish Passport and Irish people are entitled to an British passport (Andrew Bridgen Tory MP)
But it is not just on Ireland they are pig ignorant, on Switzerland I have heard:
- Switzerland is not in the EU and does fine. Ignoring the fact that we have a bilateral agreement that gives us access
- There are no passport checks on Swiss borders - true, but why would there be since we are a member of Schengen and accept FMOP
- There are no customs checks on Swiss borders - just plain wrong
- Switzerland does not pay for access- wrong, we do, we contribute to the EU structural funds
And so on.
 
question on what leo above said "
MP Priti Patel suggested they could prevent the use of the UK as a landbridge for food supplies to Ireland, and should use that threat in negotiations."
some stuff is coming into uk from europe then from uk to us ,so why won't we get it direct from europe instead ,what am i missing here?
 
question on what leo above said "
MP Priti Patel suggested they could prevent the use of the UK as a landbridge for food supplies to Ireland, and should use that threat in negotiations."
some stuff is coming into uk from europe then from uk to us ,so why won't we get it direct from europe instead ,what am i missing here?
It's a few hours quicker to use the landbridge, especially if heading towards mid-Europe.
I think it also works better for the driver's tacograph recordings from what I've heard
 
It's a few hours quicker to use the landbridge, especially if heading towards mid-Europe.
I think it also works better for the driver's tacograph recordings from what I've heard
Yes it would take nearly an extra day to not use the landbridge due to a combination of tacograph and capacity issues at rosslare.
 
some stuff is coming into uk from europe then from uk to us ,so why won't we get it direct from europe instead ,what am i missing here?

This could also be a very serious issue for radioisotopes used in medical imaging here. All our supplies come via the UK, and due to the short half-life, any further delays could mean problems.
 
This could also be a very serious issue for radioisotopes used in medical imaging here. All our supplies come via the UK, and due to the short half-life, any further delays could mean problems.
I though that most of the UK's supply came from the mainland, particularly Holland and Belgium.
 
I though that most of the UK's supply came from the mainland, particularly Holland and Belgium.

It all does as far as I know, they're reportedly looking at chartering special flights to transport these over so they are still usable by the time they are delivered.
 
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