Anti-Brexit scaremongering ....

[Drummond]

May confirms that there will be no vote in parliament this week, but that one will happen by the 12th March...a whole two weeks before Brexit...

Indeed.

Just goes to show how thoroughly unreasonable the EU is being. If they'd been willing to give Mrs May anything of what she needed to get a deal through Parliament, she'd be rushing back, saying 'Look, this is the progress we've been seeking .. so, now, support the deal !'.

Instead ... just more of the same obstinacy must be governing events. The EU is absolutely determined to push through their stitch-up of a deal. Those disgusting control freaks are showing implacable determination to force us to bend to them.

This, in itself, proves why they're unfit to have us as continuing members. They've no interest in being helpful ... in reaching a compromise we can work with ... otherwise, we'd have seen it emerge by now. To them, it's just an 'obey us or else' imperative.

Come a hard Brexit .. Southern Ireland can enjoy a taste of EU tyranny, when they see border controls forced on them, whether they like it or not. Let them properly 'appreciate' their lack of freedom in the matter.

[Noir]

Come a hard Brexit .. Southern Ireland can enjoy a taste of EU tyranny, when they see border controls forced on them, whether they like it or not. Let them properly 'appreciate' their lack of freedom in the matter.

and as for Northern Ireland?

[Drummond]

and as for Northern Ireland?

Seems to me that you should be asking the EU that question. Nobody on the British side (i.e our negotiators) is, or has been, in favour of a hard border .. we've wanted a continuation of the status quo. However, EU obstinacy has put us in a position of offering just one deal, one they refuse to replace or amend, which we cannot ratify.

The EU will have to blink, will have to change its stance, if progress is to be made. This is the one and only means by which a result that could serve everyone's interests can be reached.

[Noir]

Seems to me that you should be asking the EU that question. Nobody on the British side (i.e our negotiators) is, or has been, in favour of a hard border .. we've wanted a continuation of the status quo. However, EU obstinacy has put us in a position of offering just one deal, one they refuse to replace or amend, which we cannot ratify.

The EU will have to blink, will have to change its stance, if progress is to be made. This is the one and only means by which a result that could serve everyone's interests can be reached.

The status quo...i.e. the free movement of people and goods between the U.K. and the E.U?

[Drummond]

The status quo...i.e. the free movement of people and goods between the U.K. and the E.U?

Pedantry, much ?

My meaning is clear to you. I'm talking about a frictionless border.

Northern Ireland wants that.

Southern Ireland wants that.

The British Government has long taken the stance that this is what they want.

However ... the EU has failed to facilitate any such outcome, saddling us with a 'deal' which is effectively useless. There's far too much resistance in the House of Commons to allow its ratification, and without ratification, it can't be implemented.

The EU's answer, until now, has been to do NOTHING to solve any of this. They won't offer alternatives. They won't give an inch. Their position seems to be that, however intractable the difficulties, WE must bend to THEM.

Trouble is, the more bending we'd do, the more meaningless the whole Brexit 'process' would really be.

So, here we are. With a stupid mess, being fueled by EU control-freaking obstinacy, driven by characters apparently incapable of believing that anyone should defy them, ever ...

[Noir]

Pedantry, much ?

My meaning is clear to you. I'm talking about a frictionless border.

Northern Ireland wants that.

Southern Ireland wants that.

The British Government has long taken the stance that this is what they want.

However ... the EU has failed to facilitate any such outcome, saddling us with a 'deal' which is effectively useless. There's far too much resistance in the House of Commons to allow its ratification, and without ratification, it can't be implemented.

The EU's answer, until now, has been to do NOTHING to solve any of this. They won't offer alternatives. They won't give an inch. Their position seems to be that, however intractable the difficulties, WE must bend to THEM.

Trouble is, the more bending we'd do, the more meaningless the whole Brexit 'process' would really be.

So, here we are. With a stupid mess, being fueled by EU control-freaking obstinacy, driven by characters apparently incapable of believing that anyone should defy them, ever ...

You can’t have a frictionless border if you also want to have customs controls.

[Drummond]

You can’t have a frictionless border if you also want to have customs controls.

... and therein lies the problem.

The EU, in the case of a crash-out Brexit, will insist upon those controls .. and then Southern Ireland can get a taste of what the reality, for them, of being a puppet EU Member State really entails.

I hope they enjoy their little epiphany. Maybe it'll teach them a thing or two .. who knows.

Of course, the EU could've avoided this mess by coming up with a deal which we COULD ratify. Everyone close to this issue .. Northern Ireland, Southern Ireland, the UK -- can all live with a frictionless border, and effectively have, for a very considerable time. It works well.

It's only the obstinate control freaks in the EU who insist that nothing short of a hard border will suffice. That 'THEIR' territory, as such, holds an inviolable status. Southern Ireland can get used to a little bit of dictatorship from the EU for real.

Or ... they could, themselves, quit the EU .... and, why not ?? Ireland thinks of itself as being its own country, not of being a territory owned by foreign powers. But in this, they're deluding themselves. THEY ARE NOT. The one and only way they can maintain a belief in themselves of being an autonomous country, caring about and determining their own fate, is to shake themselves free of the overriding power that the EU insists upon subjecting them to.