DUP turn the screw

[Suff]

Northern Ireland wants to remain part of the EU and UK both - so which is the most important?

Not really. They want the Good Friday accord to be lived up to. i.e. no hard border. The UK see that as something which is possible with technology. The EU see that as a lever to get the UK to bow down to demands.

About time the EU lived up to their commitment to the Good Friday accord and agreed a way to keep the NI border soft without trying to break up the UK. Which, by the way, is also against the Good Friday accord without a specific referendum to approve NI being removed from the UK.

Major? He's a grade A class 1 pillock who drove me to vote SNP. I have no interest in listening to One Single Word he has to say. I haven't forgotten!

I do, however, hope that May hangs on for another 2 months. By then I'll have a vote on her replacement.

[Workingman]

The GFA has nothing to do with the EU except that two of its member states are signatories to it.

It is a bilateral agreement between the UK and the Republic of Ireland and also a tri-partite agreement between the British Government, Irish Government and the Political parties of Northern Ireland - it is our problem.

The EU has said time and again that it wants a soft border on the Island of Ireland in order for the GFA to remain, but it has no means to enforce anything.

It is for the UK and Republic of Ireland to sort out the border and GFA. That it has become a sticking point between the UK and EU re Brexit should have been thought about long ago.

[Suff]

The GFA has nothing to do with the EU except that two of its member states are signatories to it.

Actually the EU has put the GFA front and centre in the deal to complete Brexit. They did it, not us. The volume of trade over that border is tiny in comparison to the amount of cross EU trade from the UK that will be going over the channel.

The EU tried to use the NI border as a gambling chip in the Brexit stakes. They failed. Now they are going to have to pay the price, one way or another.

[Workingman]

The volume of trade over that border is tiny in comparison to the amount of cross EU trade from the UK that will be going over the channel.

But without some sort of solution.......

Goods can enter the UK from the RoW, be shipped to NI, cross the non-border and then enter the EU unchecked; and vice versa. Getting a solution to stop all that, and keep to the GFA, is the problem. It is an EU / UK problem, but as are are the ones leaving of our own free will the greater onus is on us, the UK, to try to solve it.

[Suff]

Goods can enter the UK from the RoW, be shipped to NI, cross the non-border and then enter the EU unchecked.

Ireland does not share a land border with the EU anywhere except the UK. When the UK leaves the EU, any goods shipped from Ireland has to enter International land, waters or air before again touching the EU. At which point it can be checked. If there is no border with NI then it must be checked.

Not having a border with NI could be excessively destructive to Ireland in the case of Hard Brexit, but will not be a major problem to the UK or NI. Having a hard border at NI will be a very minor barrier to trade but will breach the GFA.

Here is the real issue. If the NI border remains soft and there is no agreement with the EU, Ireland is the loser.

Perhaps Ireland will be comforted by the fact that, once the UK has left the EU, 52% of Irish trade will be done with RoW and only 48% with the EU? Only inconveniencing 48% of their trade instead of the 64% that they do with the EU today.

It is nice to know where the issues are coming from and just how much the tip of the tail is dragging the dog round in circles.