DUP turn the screw

[cromwell]

Maybe if they had realised that licenced firearms are restricted to those with relevant licences; and knives and corrosives available to anyone from hardware stores and supermarkets are two different things, there would be no mess.

One bill for firearms: One bill for offensive weapons inc knives and corrosives. Simple

Yes Frank, but that is you being straightforward and honest and unfortunately most of our politicians and civil servants are neither.

[Workingman]

Gimme a break......

The Nordic passport area is similar to those countries as the CTA is between Eire and the countries of the UK. It is for people, human beings. Its members are also in Schengen - another people thing. It is not for goods and services.

Its members are also in the EEA for trade with each other and access to the EU's CU and SM for goods and services.

When the UK leaves the EU it will become a third country for goods and services as well as people. However, the peoples of the island of Ireland have cross border travel due to the GFA. There will have to be a border round the whole of the UK for goods and services; and that border will not just be for the EU but also for the EEA and RoW.

ATM there is no indication that the UK / Eire CTA will have to change.

[Workingman]

Cromwell, don't they do any shopping?

A while back I bought a litre of drain unblocker (caustic soda) and a set of very sharp titanium kitchen knives from Home Bargains - you do not need a Zombie knife to stab someone.

Unless some thought goes into the law then anyone buying such things could be breaking the law just taking them home. Maybe a dispensation of one journey on the day of purchase backed up by a receipt.

[cromwell]

I think they know very well that there is very little they can do to stop someone getting a knife or acid, but saying that is politically unacceptable. So they have to be seen to be "doing something", even if that something isn't going to work.
And no, they probably don't do much shopping!

[Osc]

That being said, they are British citizens and entitled to the protection and succour of the British crown. This means that until they decide to leave they are entitled to stay.

Just some points I would like to make on reading this thread. First of all, the Irish are not British citizens, the people of Northern Ireland are (and a lot of them wish they weren't).

Ireland is not called Eire except by people speaking or writing in Irish.

Southern Ireland is not a place. On the island of Ireland, there is the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

The issue is not simply about a hard border or not, there is the Good Friday Agreement to be adhered to. Arlene Foster and her DUP cohorts refused to agree to it, they want a hard border because the worst thing in the world for them would be that anyone might think they are Irish. The British government and very many people in the UK do not and never have cared about NI. Nobody in the government nor many Leavers bothered to do any meaningful research on what Brexit might mean, focussing on immigration, blue passports and some nebulous concept of "taking back our country". What you are left with is a godawful mess, an incompetent prime minister who has aligned herself with a nasty, bigoted NI party, all in the quest for power on both sides of the deal.

Can you imagine if you lived in one half of two semi detached houses. Your adjoining neighbour decides to knock theirs down with no particular plan for rebuilding, but also no plan to shore up your house either. They don't care if the electricity, plumbing, telephone, have been intertwined for over 40 years, they gave no thought to how they might be separated. Similar with Brexit, did anyone consider the tangled web of interconnections built up over all those years, and how they might be disentangled? No of course not, because blue passports..........

To be honest, I am sick of this whole Brexit thing and stand square behind our Taoiseach and the EU in protecting Ireland and its interests.

[Suff]

Just some points I would like to make on reading this thread. First of all, the Irish are not British citizens, the people of Northern Ireland are (and a lot of them wish they weren't).

I see that my generic "We should never have taken over" was applied to "They are British citizens". I did, of course mean that the citizens of NI were British Citizens. I would never have suggested otherwise. I do understand the difference.

I'm also well aware that whilst a very large chunk of NI citizens wish they were not British citizens; not all Catholics in NI are of that view.

As for Eire instead of Ireland? There are a lot of republics but, as far as I know, there is only one Eire. As half a Scot I far prefer to use words from a Goidelic language than some generic The Republic, when being specific about differentiating NI from the rest of the Island. Although I've met quite a few Irish who are rather rabid about the use of "The Republic". Having said that though my half Irish, half Scot, nephew's father is most certainly not.

[Workingman]

Apologies, Osc. Mum and her side of the family were from near Ashbourne in Cty Meath and I heard Eire more than any other description for the Republic. To use it is in the blood, so to speak.

The border. Nobody thought about it till it became a problem; it now looks to be an impossible one to solve. If only there had been wise heads....

[Osc]

If only there had been wise heads....

If only there were wise heads even now

[Workingman]

Tonight we learn that EU leaders have dropped the plan for an extraordinary Brexit summit in November. Roll on December.

It is all going ever so well, or not, and still the deluded woman thinks her Chequers plan is workable.

[cromwell]

And we also learn that Theresa May is "considering" whether to stay in the EU for another year, because the whole thing is just so complicated.

In other words, kick the can down the road - yet again. It's the only thing he seem capable of.

A long time ago I said on here that one of the remainers options was to delay brexit until after the next election, say that the election result has now superseded the referendum and so we are now staying in.

She wants sacking. Because if she sells out brexit and goes to the next ge as Tory leader the conservatives will get annihilated.