The screw is being turned on the DUP

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Except for Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia:rolleyes:
And we have vast areas which are virtually uninhabitable (the midlands, Kerry, most of Cork and just about everything west or the Shannon) our population density per livable square meter must not be far behind Holland.
 
Hmmmm. I think the comments yesterday and today have worried the Government. Coveney issued a very defensive statement saying all eyes are on how Ireland are treated by the EU as a small nation. To be honest, I have not seen anything from the French and Germans that hasn't been said before. Come up with an alternative solution or the backstop stays. That was always the position so no idea why the UK think this is some sort of victory.

I then see Borris saying they will never put checks of any sort on the border. I thought one of the main ideas of Brexit was to get control of your borders. What now is there to stop all those dastardly Eastern Europeans from entering the Uk through the North. We won't stop them as they are entitled to be here. So where will the checks be?? Oh yes the airports and ports between the North and the rest of the UK. So again the North is having a border imposed by London and the DUP are silent. I really don't get it.
 
I thought one of the main ideas of Brexit was to get control of your borders

Exactly. Brexit Britain is becoming increasingly separate from Brexit NI.
The DUP argue they cant be treated separately, but they are on record for supporting open border, CTA (presumably EU citizens and frictionless trade between UK/EU in Ireland).
Brexit Britain is all about border controls, end of FoM and making their own rules for trade.

Another profound factor is that Brexiteers want to end jurisdiction of ECJ.
This will simply be unacceptable to Nationalist communities of the north (and those of us in south who pre-disposed to ending British rule in Ireland once and for all) and will herald an absolute collapse of GFA.
A no deal Brexit, or a hard Brexit, will once again, confirm that in the interests of Ireland are a distant second to the interests of Britain in the 'United' Kingdom.
 

In the press conference, the link of which was helpfully provided by the Wolf, at no time whatsoever did Macron specifically say that the backstop could be tweaked! As Sunny correctly points out, there was absolutely nothing new in what Macron said. Nothing, nada, zilch, meme rien...…….

I know your sources are typically unimpeachable (E. Harris & Co.) but I'm not sure if we can trust verbatim everything from poundsterlinglive.com!
 
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In the press conference, the link of which was helpfully provided by the Wolf, at no time whatsoever did Macron specifically say that the backstop could be tweaked! As Sunny correctly points out, there was absolutely nothing new in what Macron said. Nothing, nada, zilch, meme rien...…….

I know your sources are typically unimpeachable (E. Harris & Co.) but I'm not sure if we can trust verbatim everything from poundsterlinglive.com!
The money boys haven’t a political principle in their bodies. Their motives are beneath all suspicion. They have only one goal - £$¥€. So when a large movement takes place in a currency it truly reflects their assessment. Their assessment may be wrong but we know it is not influenced by anything resembling a political motivation.
 
What now is there to stop all those dastardly Eastern Europeans from entering the Uk through the North. We won't stop them as they are entitled to be here. So where will the checks be?? Oh yes the airports and ports between the North and the rest of the UK. So again the North is having a border imposed by London and the DUP are silent. I really don't get it.
There is a big misunderstanding of the Common Travel Area. It was there long before the EEC/EU. It allows paddies and limeys to more or less treat the British Isles as their home, same access to jobs, social welfare, voting rights etc. Britain had immigration controls in those days but it did not affect the CTA. There is a huge difference between the right to be treated as a citizen of a country and the possibility to illegally enter that country. Ireland has always been a means for illegal entry into the UK under CTA.
 
The money boys haven’t a political principle in their bodies. Their motives are beneath all suspicion. They have only one goal - £$¥€. So when a large movement takes place in a currency it truly reflects their assessment. Their assessment may be wrong but we know it is not influenced by anything resembling a political motivation.

The money boys are gamblers - they win some, they lose some. There will be many fluctuations of sterling before this is finished. Don't read too much into any one move. What is the trend over recent months?

I can't see any movement in substance from Johnson's meeting with Merkel and Macron. They have confirmed the backstop and the sanctity of the Single Market (ie no free access to the EU for British exports through the Irish border short of the backstop or, in the longer term, equivalent alignment). They have told Johnson that he must come up with something that would be equivalent to the backstop if he wants it to be considered, while knowing that nothing has been produced in the past 3 years. In effect they are saying "we are all ears but if (as we believe) you can't produce the goods then it is the Withdrawal Agreement as is (plus a reworked Political Declaration), or its No Deal - and the latter won't be our fault mate. We gave you every chance".
 
The money boys haven’t a political principle in their bodies.....

Unlike, Faithful to a Fault Boris, I suppose?!

Anyway, I shall take your diversion as an admission that Macron did not dit what you claimed he dit….

[You need to be careful, dear chap...….didn't poor oul Boris get fired from The Times for saying someone had said things he hadn't?]
 
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Britain had immigration controls in those days but it did not affect the CTA.

And long may it continue.
Difference between then and now was back then, Ireland was an economic basket case.
Today its economy, and society, is fundamentally changed. With 16% of those who reside here not having been born here.

Illegal immigration isnt the issue, there has always been illegal immigrants. Mostly African, Asian and South American. Now the UK will be able to add Europeans, like French people, to that list.
Although listening to Boris fawning over the historical, cultural and economic ties between UK and France that simply does not seem realistic - to paraphrase Johnson "London is France's biggest city outside UK"

Reading between the lines, I do get the impression that the longer Boris spends in the splendid surronds of the Élysée Palace the drum-beating from the Northeast of Ireland becomes more muted.

As you correctly pointed out, the moneymen have no political principles. So it might be worth considering that the pound strengthening occurred during Boris's trips to Paris and Berlin and not Belfast.

Is Boris really going to splinter the economic ties between UK, France and Germany (and Ireland for that matter) in favor of the economic ties between NI and GB?
If you were a money man, which way would you bet?
 
So where will the checks be?? Oh yes the airports and ports between the North and the rest of the UK. So again the North is having a border imposed by London and the DUP are silent. I really don't get it.

I think this may be the direction things are moving.

Simon Jenkins in the Guardian is certainly recommending it. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/22/brexit-northern-ireland-border

And though now past his best Simon used to be both the measure and the influencer of middle Britain England.
 

Interesting choice of words from Macron.

"I consider that Irish peace is European peace. We must not allow it to be threatened by a political and institutional crisis in Britain.”

Mr Macron also said Irish reunification and integration of the entire island in the EU “would solve all the problems, but it is not up to France”.
 
Eoghan Harris this morning;

'I believe the British government when it pledged last week it would "not put in place infrastructure, checks, or controls at the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland".'

Im curious, if there is no need for infrastructure, checks, or controls at the border between UK/EU in Ireland, is there any need for infrastructure, checks or controls at borders between UK/EU in Britain?

The rest of his piece is a typical diatribe of nationalists being "inflammatory" by pursuing legitimate political aspirations through democratic means.

Harris has reduced the backstop issue to an Ireland v Britain issue, and Ireland being the mouse, should back off. He is devoid of the other prominent, more significant factor - France, Germany and rest of EU.

He has literally ignored their input in all of this. As if mere bystanders, they have no stake in all of this, ignoring two years of negotiations with UK that arrived at the WA.

He overplays the dissident threat also. The border wont ignite the flames anymore than it ignites them today, but it is a step toward igniting those flames. First a border, then a SF split, then an end to power-sharing (permanent), then an end to ECJ, then an end to the policing board, then an end to the GFA itself.
That is the walk into the hands of dissidents.

Im beginning to learn what the GFA being registered in the UN means. It means international support for an agreement that determines it is for the people of Ireland alone, to determine their future constitutional status. Without external impediment.
As Macron said, a British constitutional crisis should not be allowed to impact that.
Ireland and EU are playing by the rules. It is the British that are trying to railroad their way through those rules.

Martina Devlin has a more succinct piece in the Sindo.
 
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