IF I understand the “Great” Northern Irish Backstop replacement deal victory correctly, it means that any product engineered in Northern Ireland using UK and/or non-EU components, then exported to the EU, will have to include the cost of EU tariffs.
Put simply, it suggests that manufacturing activities may well locate/relocate just to the south of the existing border to be within the EU, utilising the agreed free movement of non-EU labour from Northern Ireland, but using EU components.
READ MORE: Kirsty Hughes: A Brexit deal has been done ... but what’s in it?
Mr A Johnson, in his efforts to be recognised as a “great” Prime Minister of the UK, has simply thrown the people of Northern Ireland and DUP under the proverbial Brexit bus, as mere collateral damage.
The EU, for its part, has quietly and really quite chillingly ensured that the people of Northern Ireland can have as many protections of the EU as possible whilst remaining in the UK for as long as they wish, until they are ready to become a full part of Ireland and fully within the EU.
The Tory membership have already signalled that Scotland and its people can also be thrown under the bus in the pursuit of a Tory/Ukip/Brexit Party Brexit. There is little doubt that Mr A Johnson, having effectively lost Northern Ireland, will have no hesitation of doing the same to Scotland, if it’s in his own self-interest.
59 SNP MPs would be a good start to protecting the EU’s interests at Westminster, adding to the SNP MEPs standing in the EU Parliament. More SNP MSPs would be good in protecting EU ideals and citizens, and closer alignments to the EU norms.
Be in no doubt, YES2 now means picking sides, and for the avoidance of doubt, the choice is between the demanded direct governance by the UK, or the ceded indirect governance by the EU.
Stephen Tingle
Greater Glasgow
WHAT a laugh!! The EU really wanted rid of Perfidious Albion at last, and tweaking Johnson’s two-border Northern Ireland plan was the pathway to that final act. The DUP were left isolated, of course, as Johnson cares only for his image and one should never trust his assurances.
The DUPPERs, a new by-word now surely for duffers in their abject humble adherence to the Union, have been sidelined by their British Tory masters in Westminster.
It is but a generational shift away in Northern Ireland (and Scotland as well, with Wales following on) and there will be reunification in Ireland to the delight and relief of England as its Irish Question will have been settled.
The sun will set on the remainder of the Union as it did on the empire and the English can “get on with” coming to terms with the English Question alone.
The old Tory party and Liberal party empire loyalists of yore swore never to give up the empire. As Uncle Sam and the former 13 colonies invade and strike up new mega-deals, Global England reverts to its splendid isolation wrapped up in a quaint Ruritania where Black Rod et al will act out the past.
Irony abounds.
John Edgar
Kilmaurs
IT is an insult to democracy that the DUP, who voted against the Belfast Agreement which has brought years of peace to the country, can nevertheless ignore the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland who voted by a majority to remain in the EU and still decide the future of the whole of the UK.
Add to this fiasco Tory MPs elected in Scotland and England choosing to ignore the will of the Scottish people, and it adds up to Scotland’s membership of the United Kingdom being a total waste of time.
It should be ended as soon as possible. Return to the European Union will give us a voice at the top table of Europe, respect in the wider world and access to well over 100 ready-made trade deals.
Mike Underwood
Linlithgow
THE National’s National Conversation pages have been great. They have allowed the readers to debate different opinions regarding our journey for independence. Unlike the SNP conference, where I felt to disregard fellow SNP members’ passion and right to argue their point of few was wrong.
Arguing your corner does not mean you are a divided party and does not mean you are supplying fodder to your political opponents and the partisan right-wing media.
Like it or not, I think the conference should have included a debate regarding a Plan B. Who knows – we may yet have to consider a Plan C!
And then I read in the your Yes DIY section of the radical independence conference happening next week. So may I boldly suggest that all is not lost for Messrs McEleny and Fisher. Contact the organisers and join the star-studded line-up of speakers at the conference, which on paper would appear to be the most exciting and the most eagerly anticipated yet!
Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus
RECENTLY we saw the Tories in the Commons noisily leaving the chamber en masse, closely followed by Jo Swinson and her entourage on her usual high-horse huff, when the SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford was invited to speak by speaker John Bercow.
It has, unfortunately, been typical of the behaviour of some in the house, especially those on the Tory benches who make as much noise as possible and cough continually in “that place” when an SNP MP tries to make a point.
If that is the recognised behaviour of the “Mother of Parliaments”, then I pity the children ... of all of us.
Drew Hannah
Fife
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