The Brexit Thread

[Mahoney]

I'm pretty strong remain but I have to say queuing through passport control is not high up my list of irritations.

[Biffer]

The Govester finally identified a Brexit benefit !

The Tories can now quite openly funnel tax payers money to their mates, & donors.

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has said the Queen’s speech will allow the government to “take advantage” of Brexit opportunities.

“There are more than 20 Bills which we hope will become law,” Mr Gove said, adding: “There are also measures in there which ensure that in the long-term we can take advantage of some of the freedoms and flexibilities that being outside of the EU give us.

“In order for example to use some of the money the government spends on industry to support some of the small and medium sized businesses which are the engine room of the economy.”

Supporting SMEs is a necessary thing and good for the economy - these aren't generally rich folks, it's companies with less the 50 employees (small) or 250 (medium). Helping to de risk investment in capital infrastructure, or activities for growth of companies is important, it's a way that jobs can be created. Doesn't work in every case but you don't need it to work every time, just a decent percentage.

Problem is I suslpect the schemes they're going to push through will be dogshit.

[Biffer]

I'm pretty strong remain but I have to say queuing through passport control is not high up my list of irritations.

Same here. Was pissed off when I flew back to Edinburgh at 1.30 in the morning last week and the e-gates weren't working though. Two planes full of people and four staff to check the passports. They got through it relatively quick (I was about 20 minutes but I would have been through in 5 if the gates were turned on). But obviously that's not Brexit, that's just shitty organisation in our own country.

[Mahoney]

Well a Professor of European Politics and Borders at Queen's University Belfast no less thinks that the UK may "solve" the Protocol issue by... invading and conquering Ireland.

That ought to hole your credibility beneath the waterline, really. Fantastically insane idea.

https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2022/0511 ... perialism/

[fishfoodie]

The Govester finally identified a Brexit benefit !

The Tories can now quite openly funnel tax payers money to their mates, & donors.

Levelling up secretary Michael Gove has said the Queen’s speech will allow the government to “take advantage” of Brexit opportunities.

“There are more than 20 Bills which we hope will become law,” Mr Gove said, adding: “There are also measures in there which ensure that in the long-term we can take advantage of some of the freedoms and flexibilities that being outside of the EU give us.

“In order for example to use some of the money the government spends on industry to support some of the small and medium sized businesses which are the engine room of the economy.”

Supporting SMEs is a necessary thing and good for the economy - these aren't generally rich folks, it's companies with less the 50 employees (small) or 250 (medium). Helping to de risk investment in capital infrastructure, or activities for growth of companies is important, it's a way that jobs can be created. Doesn't work in every case but you don't need it to work every time, just a decent percentage.

Problem is I suslpect the schemes they're going to push through will be dogshit.

That's exactly what'll happen; it won't go to the most deserving; it'll go to friends, or just to businesses in the constituencies the Tories involved; just like the PPE money, just like the Levelling Up money

[Biffer]

The Govester finally identified a Brexit benefit !

The Tories can now quite openly funnel tax payers money to their mates, & donors.

Supporting SMEs is a necessary thing and good for the economy - these aren't generally rich folks, it's companies with less the 50 employees (small) or 250 (medium). Helping to de risk investment in capital infrastructure, or activities for growth of companies is important, it's a way that jobs can be created. Doesn't work in every case but you don't need it to work every time, just a decent percentage.

Problem is I suslpect the schemes they're going to push through will be dogshit.

That's exactly what'll happen; it won't go to the most deserving; it'll go to friends, or just to businesses in the constituencies the Tories involved; just like the PPE money, just like the Levelling Up money

To be honest, from my experience of these things it's more just shit schemes, rather than corruption. The ones administered by Scottish Govt aren't a lot better than the ones done by Westminster. But there is also a big-business-has-the-ear-of-the-minister vibe sometimes as well.

One to watch for corruption / incompetence in the next year is ARIA (Advanced Research and Invention Agency) which should be starting up in the next year.

[ASMO]

Poll taken yesterday by Yougov

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/s ... stion_2

Post that in the other place and await Bimbo and his minions to attack.

[GogLais]

Given UK citizens are now 3rd country we need to have our passports stamped in and out of EU. Even if this only takes an extra 30 secs per person this will lead to queues at busy times. There will continue to be delays and queueing at many airports and ports when they are busy. Some EU entry points will have put in extra staff but many won't and some will also be suffering the same issues as the likes of Manchester airport with staffing. There will continue to be queues for non EU entry for some time to come at busy times. The interesting bit of the article was the reaction of Brits having to queue whilst EU citizens just walked through their gates with no waiting time, to see this as 'preferential treatment' is in a way correct, its one of the (many) benefits of being a member of the club that the UK decided it would leave in return for 'sovrenty, init'. We just need to move on and accept the queues, one thing that we are good at as Brits!

I take the point re being miffed about having to wait but I’m sure the ones mostly put out would have been Remainers anyway. I think the critical factor in all this is what resources airports put into dealing with arrivals, not what system they use.

That's a pile of pish for a start! I am confident that whether they voted remain or leave all the Brits will be pissed off about having to queue and both will be equally vocal about their disappointment. I am sure all these rabid Farage supporting Leave UK/UKIP voters will be delighted to queue quietly whilst waiting to get into Malaga airport for their 2 weeks of getting blootered in the sun whilst those with Irish passport stroll through without a wait!

In any country I have visited which required a passport check the queue for '3rd country' visitors has always been much much longer than for nationals and associated countries. Getting into the US can be difficult at times and I have often had to wait some time to get through passport control. It is just a fact of life that as a 3rd country we will probably have to queue at busy times to get through EU passport controls and that the country we visit will make sure their deploy staff to avoid their own citizens having to queue first.

Also in most countries it is not the airports that decide on resources for Passport Control but their Governments' equivalent of our very own 'Border Agency/Home Office' who do this.

Badly worded, I meant Remainers have more right to be pissed off. It’ll vary from country to country of course but I’d be very surprised of Spain didn’t go to great lengths to minimise delays. As I say we sailed through Malaga, admittedly not in high season.

[SaintK]

Poll taken yesterday by Yougov

https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/s ... stion_2

Post that in the other place and await Bimbo and his minions to attack.

It's already there and they haven't as yet!

[dpedin]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61417798

Good god! However I see on Twatter that almost all trade lawyers are saying our AG is talking shite ... again!

I see the monthly threat to trigger Article 16 is escalating - the EU must be shaking in their boots now! It must be getting more difficult for UK Gov to justify this when the majority of folk in NI voted for parties that support the protocol and recent publications today show that both that NI is doing better than UK economically because of being in both UK and EU markets and that food is cheaper there.

[fishfoodie]

Not mincing any words, & making it very clear that the AGs "opinion", is just yet more BS.

[dpedin]

Not mincing any words, & making it very clear that the AGs "opinion", is just yet more BS.

Big boys enter the fray!

[fishfoodie]

Surprise, Surprise, the Government are refusing to publish the advice they say gives them the right to break International Law.

[derriz]

Read it at lunnchtime.
Post it on PR. I'm sure that one or two posters there could give you a very reasoned argument that those numbers are not correct

I did 2 or 3 weeks ago - which will have been my last post ever to PR I think. You can guess the response and from whom.

To be fair, there's a lot of statistical noise in the monthly numbers and I qualified the numbers accordingly and there has been a change in how the numbers are calculated. Even so, the trend is certainly not looking positive. The ONS will release February's numbers in 3 days time and then we'll see if things are as bad as they look from January's number.

The big problem for the UK is the simple but brutal arithmetic of trade and investment balance. The UK has been able to run a trade deficit for years/decades because there were queues of foreigners willing to make up the difference by investing in the UK - this includes everything from buying property, building factories or purchasing bonds - effectively lending. Unless there is a corresponding increase in inward investment of this type, it can only mean that the UK population on aggregate will have to survive with less foreign goods.

But it's hard to see the pre-Brexit levels of inward investment maintained, never mind increasing, given the way Brexit has cut the UK off from a market of 400m people. In the past, a foreign company given a choice of building a car factory in the UK or Germany, for example, I can well imagine that the UK could tick more boxes. But now these choices are not equivalent - the UK can't compete for FDI earmarked for the EU the way they could in the past - and it used to compete very successfully I might add.

Quite!!
Very well put.

I skipped following-up when the February numbers came out and waited for the March to get a better picture of the trend. Well, the numbers are out and are a disaster. The Feb numbers were a slight improvement over January - but were still the 2nd worst on record - which is since 1997 when monthly numbers started being reported. But the March numbers give up those gains and are back to over 11B deficit per month. Taken as a whole, the first quarter of 2022 is also the worst quarter on record. There's surprisingly reporting on this in the popular media - even though it paints a very bleak picture for the future welfare of the average UK citizen.

With trade in the sh*t, you couldn't pick a worse time to threaten taking unilateral action regarding the NI protocol which would likely trigger some form of trade war with the EU. But it seems, these Brexiteer c*nts are willing to sacrifice everything in order to achieve what they hope would be a permanent poisoning of relations with the EU.

[Mahoney]

The deceit levels over the NI protocol are extraordinary.

It was always the case that you had to pick two of an independent trade policy, no border on the island of Ireland and no border between NI & GB. They lied and said we could get all 3.

When they couldn't, they signed an agreement that put a border between NI & GB & claimed it was a great deal.

When the reality of the border became inescapable they lied that they had not understood the agreement they had negotiated and signed.

And now they are lying that there is somehow a magical way to get all 3 again if they only piss everyone off enough.

In a sane world they would pay a really heavy price for it in an election, but I'm not sure we live in a sane world any more.

[GogLais]

The deceit levels over the NI protocol are extraordinary.

It was always the case that you had to pick two of an independent trade policy, no border on the island of Ireland and no border between NI & GB. They lied and said we could get all 3.

When they couldn't, they signed an agreement that put a border between NI & GB & claimed it was a great deal.

When the reality of the border became inescapable they lied that they had not understood the agreement they had negotiated and signed.

And now they are lying that there is somehow a magical way to get all 3 again if they only piss everyone off enough.

In a sane world they would pay a really heavy price for it in an election, but I'm not sure we live in a sane world any more.

Very fair summary.

[Camroc2]

The real question is are they mad enough to actually unilaterally pass legislation that breaks the NIP ?

Because this time, imo, the EU will simply reciprocate. Not only will this mean a hard border in Ireland, with NI farmers facing near immediate bankruptcy, and with sme's not far behind; it will also mean chaos in the channel ports, all sorts of red tape before UK registered 'planes are allowed fly through EU airspace etc. etc. And that's before the US gets involved.

Are the UK govt. idiots ? Do they actually believe their own stupidity? Can they even smell their own jalopy?

With what's happening in Ukraine, Neither the EU nor US will look kindly at this sort of fúckwittery.

[Line6 HXFX]

Can the UK split up now please?

This was never going to end well,but the least they can do is end it quickly.

A tory unionist was arguing on tele the other day and the only thing he could come up with to defend the Union was he would miss the flag.


Awesome stuff. Go team.

[media] [/media]

[fishfoodie]

The real question is are they mad enough to actually unilaterally pass legislation that breaks the NIP ?

Because this time, imo, the EU will simply reciprocate. Not only will this mean a hard border in Ireland, with NI farmers facing near immediate bankruptcy, and with sme's not far behind; it will also mean chaos in the channel ports, all sorts of red tape before UK registered 'planes are allowed fly through EU airspace etc. etc. And that's before the US gets involved.

Are the UK govt. idiots ? Do they actually believe their own stupidity? Can they even smell their own jalopy?

With what's happening in Ukraine, Neither the EU nor US will look kindly at this sort of fúckwittery.

Operation Save Big Dog !

Whoever is behind Truss is also indulging in some Machiavellian shit too, because this looks a lot like her demonstrating she's left her Remainer past behind her, & is playing to the same cunts in the ERG, & the party organisation, as the Bumblecunt did to get the gig !

She knows he'll get the bullet if he does this; but if that happens, she's in the pound seats for replacing him.

[Line6 HXFX]

We (as in the UK) are not going back in the EU.
Why..so Farage can restart his group in the EU and the British people can return a mass of crazy UKIPPERS in the very first election.
The UK doesn't care about the EU elections, so they will just be an entry point for the maniacs, into Politics.
The UK barely turned out in the local elections, in local politics that affect them directly.

So there is no way back for England or the UK..as a whole.
It is over.
Unless of course we split up the UK.

So we, as Sir Kier Starmer said.. have to make Brexit work.
How?
By ignoring all the bad shit basically.

[fishfoodie]

another fucking fantasist

A delegation of influential US congress representatives will fly to London within days amid growing concern in the White House about spiralling tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol, the Guardian can reveal.

With the UK government poised to table legislation next week which could revoke parts of the protocol, arrangements are being made for at least half a dozen representatives from the US Congress to fly to Europe for a series of meetings in Brussels, Dublin, London and Belfast.

The delegation will be headed by the influential chair of the ways and means committee, Richie Neal, which has significant power over future trade deals.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has previously said the US intends to appoint its own envoy to Northern Ireland.

Neal, whose interest in Northern Ireland stretches over three decades, said earlier this year that a trade deal was “desirable” but that it would not progress if there was “any jeopardy” to the Good Friday agreement.

The delegation is likely to underline President Biden’s commitment to defending the Good Friday agreement and the US’s role as a guarantor. He has repeatedly emphasised how integral the protocol is to maintaining peace and stability.

“The best path forward is a pragmatic one that requires courage, co-operation and leadership,” a White House spokesman said of the UK’s dispute with the EU.

It comes as the former Brexit minister Lord Frost says Biden, who invested much energy in the peace process, should stay out of Britain’s affairs.

‘It is our country that faced terrorism, faced the Troubles. I am old enough to remember having to check under my car every morning, as a diplomat, before I went to work,” he told an audience in America.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... d-protocol

Where exactly was he checking under his car ?

Because he never served in NI, he was a junior official in Greece when the Good Friday agreement was signed, & I doubt the IRA would have been targeting a minor official whose day to day work revolved around getting drunken yobs legal representation.

[tabascoboy]

And WRT above, well this will go down well with a government that we still can't persuade to conclusively negotiate a FTA since a year ago.

One of Boris Johnson's former ministers told Joe Biden to butt out of the Northern Ireland Brexit row today, saying the UK didn't need 'lectures' from outsiders.

Lord Frost used an appearance at a conservative think tank in Washington DC to attack the US president for intervening in Britain's ongoing stand-off with Brussels.

[dpedin]

another fucking fantasist

A delegation of influential US congress representatives will fly to London within days amid growing concern in the White House about spiralling tensions over the Northern Ireland protocol, the Guardian can reveal.

With the UK government poised to table legislation next week which could revoke parts of the protocol, arrangements are being made for at least half a dozen representatives from the US Congress to fly to Europe for a series of meetings in Brussels, Dublin, London and Belfast.

The delegation will be headed by the influential chair of the ways and means committee, Richie Neal, which has significant power over future trade deals.

Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has previously said the US intends to appoint its own envoy to Northern Ireland.

Neal, whose interest in Northern Ireland stretches over three decades, said earlier this year that a trade deal was “desirable” but that it would not progress if there was “any jeopardy” to the Good Friday agreement.

The delegation is likely to underline President Biden’s commitment to defending the Good Friday agreement and the US’s role as a guarantor. He has repeatedly emphasised how integral the protocol is to maintaining peace and stability.

“The best path forward is a pragmatic one that requires courage, co-operation and leadership,” a White House spokesman said of the UK’s dispute with the EU.

It comes as the former Brexit minister Lord Frost says Biden, who invested much energy in the peace process, should stay out of Britain’s affairs.

‘It is our country that faced terrorism, faced the Troubles. I am old enough to remember having to check under my car every morning, as a diplomat, before I went to work,” he told an audience in America.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... d-protocol

Where exactly was he checking under his car ?

Because he never served in NI, he was a junior official in Greece when the Good Friday agreement was signed, & I doubt the IRA would have been targeting a minor official whose day to day work revolved around getting drunken yobs legal representation.

Let's not forget that Frost, as well as being a lier, is an unelected bureaucrat who has never been voted into any office of Government. He was basically the compliant rotweiller hired privately by the Blonde Bumblecunt to do as he was told. Why he still gets any airtime is beyond me, he spouts forth utter tosh!

[_Os_]

Frost is a moron. This is the same guy who thought he was being very clever referencing Edmund Burke who he claimed to revere as a great Englishman or some bullshit, Burke was Irish.

He's the sort of specimen who has been pushed up the hierarchy by Brexit and Johnson. Truss is another, they're everywhere now. All deeply mediocre, often just incompetent. Their big qualities are being able to lie and having no grasp of the details or even basic reality, which makes the lying easier because they have no clue what they're talking about.

Why is Frost angry about the US getting involved? It's because the original understanding of Brexit within the Tory party, was purely as something to settle an internal Tory feud. People like Frost and Truss were very minor supporters of Remain, because they decided that side of the feud would win and give them maximum career progression, when it lost they adopted the hardest Leave position possible because they still wanted the career progression. Remain or Leave were and are irrelevant to them, for them it's a game. Their understanding of Brexit is still that it's something which doesn't concern Ireland/EU/US, in their thinking Truss can end the NI protocol and nothing happens in the real world (that's how Brexit was sold after all, that little would change), there's only an enhanced position for Truss to replace Johnson as leader of the hard Brexit faction with a stronger chance of becoming PM.

Frost's anger, is the anger of a pompous moron being confronted with reality. If this is still happening 6 years after the referendum (it is), then as long as the Tories are in power the US is going to have to keep reminding them how to run their own country. I mean, they should be embarrassed not angry, but they're morons.

[fishfoodie]

A long, but typically excellent article from Tony Connelly

https://www.rte.ie/news/analysis-and-co ... -analysis/

On 5 February 2018, a senior Northern Ireland civil servant took a phone call at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam.
....
What Andrew McCormick, the lead Northern Ireland official on Brexit, had to kill was a paper he had been encouraged to write by the UK government about having green and red channels at Northern Ireland ports (green for goods only going to Northern Ireland, and red for goods going on to the south).

....

However, it was London’s view of the consent clause, which was, to the fury of the DUP, based on a simple majority rather than the cross-community mechanism, that starkly undermines this week’s rhetoric about the Protocol threatening peace.

"UK government officials were very clear that [the consent clause] was not in contradiction with the Good Friday Agreement, and did not, in law, require cross-community support," says McCormick.

"The rationale was as stated publicly, namely, that as it was an international agreement, the arrangements for voting on devolved matters did not apply – specifically that the issue of cross-community consent and voting only applied to devolved matters."

Of course, the UK has argued, at least until its rhetoric hardened this week, that it is the way the European Commission is implementing the Protocol that is the problem.

Again, McCormick is categorical. "For the UK government to say…that they didn’t expect the Commission to enforce it this way is manifestly wrong. UK government officials knew precisely what was going to happen."

The UK government’s own impact assessment actually had spelled this out.

[fishfoodie]

The FT has uncovered the source of the, "Legal Opinion"; if I say, they made sure the got, "the very best people", will that give it away ?

Yep, a fucking shitgibbon lawyer !

The FT revealed in November that the government was looking for fresh legal advice — described by Whitehall insiders as “opinion shopping” — to support its case for legislation to “switch off” parts of the protocol in UK law.

Three people with knowledge of the process said ministers had engaged Thomas D. Grant, an international lawyer based at Cambridge university who was a political appointee to the Trump administration state department and worked on the US national security strategy.

Grant, who has been on a leave of absence from Cambridge since taking up his appointment in Washington DC, lists “sovereignty” and “state immunity” among his legal interests on the website of Wolfson College, Cambridge. Grant did not respond to a request for comment.

At the height of the debate over Brexit in June 2019, Grant also co-authored a pamphlet for the Politeia think-tank with the leading Brexiter lawyer Martin Howe QC, arguing that the UK should opt for a “no deal” Brexit over a deal that left Northern Ireland with legal ties to the EU.

Among the arguments advanced in the pamphlet, according to Politeia, was that there was “no insuperable problem” about the Irish border, given that it was already a border for VAT and excise purposes.

Braverman’s new legal advice, first reported in The Times, argues that the UK government has the legal right to act to defend the Good Friday Agreement, which the advice says has “primordial significance”, in effect trumping the protocol.

The advice has caused disquiet in some corners of Whitehall. Insiders said it was being described as “stooge opinion” to mollify pro-Brexit Conservative backbenchers and justify the Johnson administration’s determination to confront Brussels over the protocol.

https://www.ft.com/content/06d00c1a-aee ... 5fd844deed

[fishfoodie]

All the steaming pile of shite Frost has succeeded in doing, is to poison the atmosphere in DC, for any attempts by the UK, to defend the indefensible.

David Frost does Britain no favours in its US charm offensive on Brexit

UK government has been lobbying intensively in Washington with little to show for it

he British were insisting in Washington this week that no decision had been taken as yet to override unilaterally the provisions of the Northern Ireland protocol.

However, they certainly seemed to be preparing the ground for any such eventuality.

The British know overriding the protocol would be hugely controversial not just in Dublin and Brussels but also among some key players in the United States where the Good Friday Agreement is one of the few issues to have genuine bi-partisan support. The accord is seen as representing a significant success story in US foreign policy and politicians on all sides want to support it.

Ahead of whatever decisions may be taken, there was a significant British political presence in Washington this week.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson had sent Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns as his personal representative to the United States on the the protocol issue

Two other British cabinet members and a former minister also had Washington engagements. The UK ministers for transport and defence had other things to deal with on their visits. However, David Frost, the former UK negotiator in the talks with the EU, was speaking to the rightwing conservative Heritage Foundation on the topic of “Britain after Brexit” which gave him ample opportunity to set out his views on the protocol.
....
Burns did the rounds on Capitol Hill and met some of the main players.

However, in some cases he had to make do with talking to the political staff of politicians rather than the politicians themselves.

Backlash

And from the outset there was a backlash from several Irish American political figures.

On Tuesday, congressman Bill Keating, chairman of the foreign affairs subcommittee on Europe, and congressman Brendan Boyle, co-chair of the congressional EU Caucus in the House of Representatives sent a strongly worded letter to the British foreign secretary Liz Truss.

They warned that any unilateral move by the British government to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol would “squarely threaten the Good Friday agreement”.
...

Enter Frost who told the Heritage Foundation event on Thursday that talks had effectively reached the end of the road with the EU and now the UK government had to act.

He contended the Biden the administration did not fully grasp Northern Ireland and the impact of the protocol.

He suggested that American politicians should stay out of Britain’s affairs in relation to Northern Ireland.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland ... -1.4878015

That's particularly offensive, considering that there are people in the Biden administration, that have spent more time in NI, than any member of the UK Cabinet, since the Brexit vote, & made considerable efforts to speak to people, to understand the issues; & I mean people, not just Politicians.

[dpedin]

All the steaming pile of shite Frost has succeeded in doing, is to poison the atmosphere in DC, for any attempts by the UK, to defend the indefensible.

David Frost does Britain no favours in its US charm offensive on Brexit

UK government has been lobbying intensively in Washington with little to show for it

he British were insisting in Washington this week that no decision had been taken as yet to override unilaterally the provisions of the Northern Ireland protocol.

However, they certainly seemed to be preparing the ground for any such eventuality.

The British know overriding the protocol would be hugely controversial not just in Dublin and Brussels but also among some key players in the United States where the Good Friday Agreement is one of the few issues to have genuine bi-partisan support. The accord is seen as representing a significant success story in US foreign policy and politicians on all sides want to support it.

Ahead of whatever decisions may be taken, there was a significant British political presence in Washington this week.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson had sent Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns as his personal representative to the United States on the the protocol issue

Two other British cabinet members and a former minister also had Washington engagements. The UK ministers for transport and defence had other things to deal with on their visits. However, David Frost, the former UK negotiator in the talks with the EU, was speaking to the rightwing conservative Heritage Foundation on the topic of “Britain after Brexit” which gave him ample opportunity to set out his views on the protocol.
....
Burns did the rounds on Capitol Hill and met some of the main players.

However, in some cases he had to make do with talking to the political staff of politicians rather than the politicians themselves.

Backlash

And from the outset there was a backlash from several Irish American political figures.

On Tuesday, congressman Bill Keating, chairman of the foreign affairs subcommittee on Europe, and congressman Brendan Boyle, co-chair of the congressional EU Caucus in the House of Representatives sent a strongly worded letter to the British foreign secretary Liz Truss.

They warned that any unilateral move by the British government to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol would “squarely threaten the Good Friday agreement”.
...

Enter Frost who told the Heritage Foundation event on Thursday that talks had effectively reached the end of the road with the EU and now the UK government had to act.

He contended the Biden the administration did not fully grasp Northern Ireland and the impact of the protocol.

He suggested that American politicians should stay out of Britain’s affairs in relation to Northern Ireland.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland ... -1.4878015

That's particularly offensive, considering that there are people in the Biden administration, that have spent more time in NI, than any member of the UK Cabinet, since the Brexit vote, & made considerable efforts to speak to people, to understand the issues; & I mean people, not just Politicians.

Frost ... the twat that just keeps on giving! However I can't imagine he is on a solo crusade on all of this and must still be happy to play the useful idiot for the Blonde Bumblecunt? I can't believe he is doing all this damage off his own bat, perhaps his job is to set the bar so low that anything else seems like the UK is giving something when pressed? On the other hand he is a complete ignorant duplicitous ego driven numptie ....

[SaintK]

All the steaming pile of shite Frost has succeeded in doing, is to poison the atmosphere in DC, for any attempts by the UK, to defend the indefensible.

David Frost does Britain no favours in its US charm offensive on Brexit

UK government has been lobbying intensively in Washington with little to show for it

he British were insisting in Washington this week that no decision had been taken as yet to override unilaterally the provisions of the Northern Ireland protocol.

However, they certainly seemed to be preparing the ground for any such eventuality.

The British know overriding the protocol would be hugely controversial not just in Dublin and Brussels but also among some key players in the United States where the Good Friday Agreement is one of the few issues to have genuine bi-partisan support. The accord is seen as representing a significant success story in US foreign policy and politicians on all sides want to support it.

Ahead of whatever decisions may be taken, there was a significant British political presence in Washington this week.

UK prime minister Boris Johnson had sent Northern Ireland minister Conor Burns as his personal representative to the United States on the the protocol issue

Two other British cabinet members and a former minister also had Washington engagements. The UK ministers for transport and defence had other things to deal with on their visits. However, David Frost, the former UK negotiator in the talks with the EU, was speaking to the rightwing conservative Heritage Foundation on the topic of “Britain after Brexit” which gave him ample opportunity to set out his views on the protocol.
....
Burns did the rounds on Capitol Hill and met some of the main players.

However, in some cases he had to make do with talking to the political staff of politicians rather than the politicians themselves.

Backlash

And from the outset there was a backlash from several Irish American political figures.

On Tuesday, congressman Bill Keating, chairman of the foreign affairs subcommittee on Europe, and congressman Brendan Boyle, co-chair of the congressional EU Caucus in the House of Representatives sent a strongly worded letter to the British foreign secretary Liz Truss.

They warned that any unilateral move by the British government to override parts of the Northern Ireland protocol would “squarely threaten the Good Friday agreement”.
...

Enter Frost who told the Heritage Foundation event on Thursday that talks had effectively reached the end of the road with the EU and now the UK government had to act.

He contended the Biden the administration did not fully grasp Northern Ireland and the impact of the protocol.

He suggested that American politicians should stay out of Britain’s affairs in relation to Northern Ireland.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland ... -1.4878015

That's particularly offensive, considering that there are people in the Biden administration, that have spent more time in NI, than any member of the UK Cabinet, since the Brexit vote, & made considerable efforts to speak to people, to understand the issues; & I mean people, not just Politicians.

Frost ... the twat that just keeps on giving! However I can't imagine he is on a solo crusade on all of this and must still be happy to play the useful idiot for the Blonde Bumblecunt? I can't believe he is doing all this damage off his own bat, perhaps his job is to set the bar so low that anything else seems like the UK is giving something when pressed? On the other hand he is a complete ignorant duplicitous ego driven numptie ....

...........an unelected one at that!!

[fishfoodie]

This is clearly true, as Jeffery is as reliable, & honest a Politician as the Bumblecunt

DUP says Johnson not taking sides in Northern Ireland talks

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2022/0 ... -protocol/

The Bumblecunt isn't taking, "sides", is taking a, "side"; his own, & because it overlaps his, the DUPs, side

[petej]

This is clearly true, as Jeffery is as reliable, & honest a Politician as the Bumblecunt

DUP says Johnson not taking sides in Northern Ireland talks

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2022/0 ... -protocol/

The Bumblecunt isn't taking, "sides", is taking a, "side"; his own, & because it overlaps his, the DUPs, side

Johnson is very much a prisoner to his own bullshit and fantasies.

[fishfoodie]

I rarely agree with the floppy haired one, but he's spot on here.

[iarmhí]

They are confident the Democrats are bunched and Trump is on his way back. They are probably right. Johnson is a lucky SOB

I've been thinking about this. Yes congress could fall to GOP in November but Biden/Harris have another 2 years to go and any issue relating to Northern Ireland GFA will be tackled by Biden's administration and not Congress. The president still all the executive power when it comes to foreign policy.

Biden has the power of Executive Orders which can be removed by next president but that's two years away.

Also UK elections are in 2 years, and I don't think the Tories will win. I think you'll see pacts with labour and Lib Dems to get him out to ensure the anti Tory vote isn't split

[Rhubarb & Custard]

This is clearly true, as Jeffery is as reliable, & honest a Politician as the Bumblecunt

DUP says Johnson not taking sides in Northern Ireland talks

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2022/0 ... -protocol/

The Bumblecunt isn't taking, "sides", is taking a, "side"; his own, & because it overlaps his, the DUPs, side

There is it's a little endearing the DUP yet again have a sense of optimism that Boris gives a crap about them and their ambitions. In this the DUP are Charlie Brown repeatedly convinced by Lucy (Boris) that this time the ball will not be yanked away

[petej]

This is clearly true, as Jeffery is as reliable, & honest a Politician as the Bumblecunt

DUP says Johnson not taking sides in Northern Ireland talks

https://www.rte.ie/news/politics/2022/0 ... -protocol/

The Bumblecunt isn't taking, "sides", is taking a, "side"; his own, & because it overlaps his, the DUPs, side

There is it's a little endearing the DUP yet again have a sense of optimism that Boris gives a crap about them and their ambitions. In this the DUP are Charlie Brown repeatedly convinced by Lucy (Boris) that this time the ball will not be yanked away

Like some sad burn spurned ex lover left holding the baby (NIP).

[lemonhead]

Frost is a moron. This is the same guy who thought he was being very clever referencing Edmund Burke who he claimed to revere as a great Englishman or some bullshit, Burke was Irish.

He's the sort of specimen who has been pushed up the hierarchy by Brexit and Johnson. Truss is another, they're everywhere now. All deeply mediocre, often just incompetent. Their big qualities are being able to lie and having no grasp of the details or even basic reality, which makes the lying easier because they have no clue what they're talking about.

Why is Frost angry about the US getting involved? It's because the original understanding of Brexit within the Tory party, was purely as something to settle an internal Tory feud. People like Frost and Truss were very minor supporters of Remain, because they decided that side of the feud would win and give them maximum career progression, when it lost they adopted the hardest Leave position possible because they still wanted the career progression. Remain or Leave were and are irrelevant to them, for them it's a game. Their understanding of Brexit is still that it's something which doesn't concern Ireland/EU/US, in their thinking Truss can end the NI protocol and nothing happens in the real world (that's how Brexit was sold after all, that little would change), there's only an enhanced position for Truss to replace Johnson as leader of the hard Brexit faction with a stronger chance of becoming PM.

Frost's anger, is the anger of a pompous moron being confronted with reality. If this is still happening 6 years after the referendum (it is), then as long as the Tories are in power the US is going to have to keep reminding them how to run their own country. I mean, they should be embarrassed not angry, but they're morons.

Thought so post referendum and f*ck all to change my mind since, this shite won't go away.

No one paid much attention to specifics, no one really cares and there will always, ALWAYS be someone else to blame.

[tabascoboy]

Can't wait to see what batshit genius proposal they will come up with, but you never know - it might actually be something workable that wins over a concensus

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is expected to make a statement to MPs at 12:35 BST after the Cabinet signs off on the plan

[fishfoodie]

Can't wait to see what batshit genius proposal they will come up with, but you never know - it might actually be something workable that wins over a concensus

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is expected to make a statement to MPs at 12:35 BST after the Cabinet signs off on the plan

I'll take that bet

[Paddington Bear]

Without trying to get involved in a PR style Frost described Burke as British, which outside of the world of attempting to own people on the internet is an entirely legitimate way of describing him

[JM2K6]

Without trying to get involved in a PR style Frost described Burke as British, which outside of the world of attempting to own people on the internet is an entirely legitimate way of describing him

Nah. Ireland wasn't part of Great Britain. Burke was born in Dublin to Irish parents. And this is what Frost called Burke:

one of my country’s great political philosophers