Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, left, arrives at Stormont House in Belfast this morning
UPDATE:
Via The Guardian:
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sent his most senior EU adviser and Brexit negotiator to Brussels to deliver in person his message that the UK will leave without a deal unless the bloc abolishes the backstop.
David Frost, a former British ambassador to Denmark who was also an adviser to Johnson when he was foreign secretary, is to hold talks with EU officials over the next 48 hours.
Earlier…
This morning a Sinn Féin delegation met with the British PM Boris Johnson. We made it clear to the British PM that the ongoing indulgence of the DUP and rejectionist unionism must end. We also assured him that the Irish people will not be bullied by his bluster over Brexit. pic.twitter.com/GIxTBetRtV
— Michelle O’Neill (@moneillsf) July 31, 2019
Harland and Wolff workers joined forces with Irish language group @dreamdearg for a bi-lingual protest at Stormont as Boris Johnson arrived pic.twitter.com/Hwrpa3ZJkI
— BBC News NI (@BBCNewsNI) July 31, 2019
Boris Johnson has left Stormont House before lunch having annoyed almost everyone for having dinner with the DUP last night pic.twitter.com/52qMET0emT
— Hugh O’Connell (@oconnellhugh) July 31, 2019
Ah.
Boris Johnson in Northern Ireland for talks over power-sharing deadlock (BBC)
Earlier: Disorder, Disorder
Pic: Getty
The Primed Minister.
Sinn Féin protesting outside buildings again; imagine how effective they could be if they actually went inside and took their seats in the parliaments that they have been elected to…
nevermind that nonsense @Rob_G
when MaryLou wheels around the country 5 years from now trying to convince you to vote Y for 32…what’s your answer gonna be?
It’s time SF cut a deal with Corbyn to take the oath and support a no confidence motion before October 31st thereby forcing an election and an extension. Sometime late September.. peak BJ madness..
But their supporters vote for SF because they know they won’t take their seat in the UK parliament. It’s their whole thing.
Their supporters in NI vote SF because they’re Catholics.
I would probably ask her where she proposed to find the £10bn per year to fund N.I. that the Brits are stumping up currently.
I don’t think bank robberies will cover it somehow.
Firstly- that subvention figure varies from source to source so until there is independent audits done- no one really knows what the actual amount is and more importantly, where it is being spent.
Secondly- there is no account taken of the cost savings of an integrated all island economy which may take some years to even knit together.
Irony is, just like the SDLP after the GFA- SF may lose a lot of support then because their job will be perceived as being done.
“Firstly- that subvention figure varies from source to source so until there is independent audits done- no one really knows what the actual amount is and more importantly, where it is being spent.”
It’s normally somewhere between £9bn and £11bn per annum – so, the cost of a new bank bailout every 5 years ad infinitum.
“Secondly- there is no account taken of the cost savings of an integrated all island economy which may take some years to even knit together.”
In order to make these savings, it would require massive public service redundancies in either Dublin, or Belfast or both – I wonder what effect that would have on integration in our fledgling united Ireland…
30 years on from reunification, west Germany is still paying for east Germany – while a united Ireland sounds nice, I would not be prepared to pay loads of extra taxes for the rest of my working life to achieve it.
+your working life
+your children’s working lives
+your grandchildren’s working lives
there’s an attempt on here to get us to talk ourselves into a 32
a sneaky poker play is afoot, just wait & see
Does it work both ways?
Like, if we were to give[1] them, say, Donegal and Fermanagh, would we get €16bn off the national debt?
[1] okay, sell
The Brits have Fermanagh already……..
Interesting idea @Cian liking your idea!
but we could be more ambitious…
what about if we drew a neat straight line east to west across the country (like where the average Brit already thinks the border is)
just south of Drogheda over to Castlebar
€10 per m2 (plus the vat)
@ Rob_G
I repeat, there are NO independent figures- just government spin- you can accept that if you want- but I don’t. Let’s see what the real figures are before jumping to conclusions please.
As for public services- you assume two things- that all will remain as is in ROI and that GB will not require the then outsourced skill sets. Ignore the nationalism up there for a moment, if you can, and you will see that there are some very bright, educated, and resourceful people who at present cannot get out from under the dark shadow of waved flags.
As for Germany- reunification is not a spreadsheet and the country has gone from strength to strength- it is now the powerhouse of Europe. Run a country wide census on rebuilding the wall then let us know the results eh?
@martco
I’ll see your idea and raise you.
Start, as you say at Drogheda, but go *south* to Wexford…
@SOQ
€8Bil, €12Bil, €6.3Bil per annum…whatever you think yourself
I’m not paying nor are my children nor my grandchildren if I have anything to do with it. I won’t be taking the 200 year view, thanks but no thanks, I’m a selfish ladypart, whatever. Victorian Britain v2.0 get to keep their failed plantation experiment in my book.
my sympathies to the bright, educated & resourceful up there, tough tits. I’m not taking a massive 3x generation deep hit, you can keep that Padraig Pearce schtick thanks. what they could do is go the route of an independent EU country, what about that as a runner? Let them make that work.
and regards Germany, they have indigenous industry, always have had, they were always the powerhouse of Europe, E/W reunification certainly didn’t cause that.
a vote on 32 is a pass the parcel (suspect device) exercise. you know it, I know it & those trough dicks in Leinster House & HP know it, time she started talking beef here instead of nonsense.
@ SOQ
– while one could argue about the details, everyone agrees that the subvention to N.I is in the billions, each and every year
– I’m not sure why it would it in Britain’s interest to continue to be shackled with the financial burden of supporting N.I post-independence; also, it would probably be a hard sell to the the British electorate
– West Germany was already the powerhouse of Europe pre-unification. And the difference being is that Germany was divided for a relatively short period of time, and pretty much every German wanted reunification in one guise or other; N. Ireland has has two distinct communities for a long, long time, one of which definitely does not want to be “reunified” with their brothers in the south.
you & me both
we’re all getting tied up in this theoretical tripe when we should be focused on the end game (funnily the brits are correct in that roundabout way)
it’s inevitable & I think it’s part of their plan
I can’t wait to see how it’s gonna get (mis)sold to us all
I like your passion and cynical imagination, martco; however, you seem more John Milton than Norman Rockwell at the moment – keep hoping because hope dies last!
Thanks martco for presenting an interesting viewpoint. I’d be more of the opinion that all those kinds of problems can be solved with money – lots of it. I don’t think Northern Ireland is the Middle East
diesel laundering?
The leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party of the United Kingdom has dinner with some Unionist MPs.
Well I never.
and then pledges impartiality?
When has he ever pledged this(?)
The DUP are his coalition partners, of course he is going to cosy up to them*
*for as long as needs to
from the guardian live news feed at 9.30am:
Johnson claimed that the UK government will be bound by “complete impartiality” as it oversees talks designed to get the power-sharing executive in Northern Ireland up and running again. The DUP is propping up the Conservative government at Westminster through the confidence and supply arrangement, and last night Johnson had a private dinner with DUP leaders. But the government is also supposed to be neutral as it mediates between DUP and Sinn Féin on restoring power-sharing. Asked how impartial he would be in the light of the dinner with the DUP last night, Johnson said as he arrived at Stormont this morning:
It’s all there in the Good Friday agreement. We believe in complete impartiality and that’s what we are going to observe.
Bless.
The GFA “affirm[s] that whatever choice is freely exercised by a majority of the people of Northern Ireland, the power of the sovereign government with jurisdiction there shall be exercised with rigorous impartiality on behalf of all the people in the diversity of their identities and traditions and shall be founded on the principles of full respect for, and equality of, civil, political, social and cultural rights, of freedom from discrimination for all citizens, and of parity of esteem and of just and equal treatment for the identity, ethos, and aspirations of both communities..”
This opens the C&UP DUP confidence and supply arrangement up to question and to have a new British Taoiseach sit down to dinner with the DUP before meeting with all the parties is a blatant disregard for the GFA.
Boris insists he’s an impartial honest broker to get the SF and DUP back into government in northern Ireland, just hours after he had a secretive dinner with the DUP who are propping him up in government in Westminster with a confidence and supply agreement. It’s Trumpian. Get used to it, Britain.
SF honest ?
Its current leader still insists that GerryAdams was never in the IRA.
Despite all evidence to the contrary.
https://twitter.com/Sage_Opinion/status/1156292285157564416
Really? Evidence? Quick, bring that evidence to the police. There’ll be a place in history for you.
Never mind that thing, look at this thing.
sounds exactly like the type of thing Varadkar and the Oscar nominated Martin for his role as best supporting actor
A bit like this pair:
https://66.media.tumblr.com/5b8e975bc56bc92e78e08a77202d4afe/tumblr_p46tttmMiy1ugqunqo1_400.gif?fbclid=IwAR1oqiGLjDRHsoBlyBBDK9B0oXSLOSmfumNP6vWBH_lPB6uLMuA6A13ynhw
Given that there is no Assembly, it’s everyone’s right to know what dialogue was exchanged in those meetings.
Anyhow, always good to see Boris go back to his own country. He’s even more untamed when he’s on tour.
Everywhere this guy goes there have been protests- he certainly is a divisive character. How that translates at the ballot box is another story- and also, depending on who is around to oppose him of course.
It never ceases to amaze me how the impotent Irish are so fascinated with the circus in Britain considering the absolute farce they are responsible for over here. Maybe of people took half as much interest in the faeces show on their doorstop things might get done in this country.
Anyhow, it is what it is. Johnson isn’t for turning on the backstop. The EU will use Ireland to slap the British, for a while, before we start to see a softening of the language around the backstop and suddenly it’s negotiable
Meanwhile back in Sugar Candy Mountain in Kildare Street, Varadkar, Coveny and the other slack eyed daw jawed incompetents are so busy singing from the EU prepared script that they haven’t even tried to think about what an Irish plan could look like in the face of no deal.
The backstop will be compromised. Leopards don’t change their spots and at every pivotal opportunity this country has had, the EU have shafted Ireland. They will do it again and it will be done so quick that all you supposed ‘smart’ people out there will be left with your impotent tails between your legs.
Leo will ride of into a European role for playing his part for Germany and France. And it will be the Joe Soap Irish men and women that get shafted yet again.
There will be a return to troubles in Northern Ireland, mark my words, and it’s all because we have assembled the greatest team of inept, incompetent, inexperienced buffoons in Varadkar and Coveney and co. Talk about putting your winning team on the pitch. It’s patethic
Still waiting for this. It will not happen.
Well done the shinners. Have Irish slogans so an inept Brit politician can understand them. What world do you live in?
Keep the recovery going
There was a good chat on joe Duffy about Beech yesterday – you should listen back
They had a former rent boy on who said that former MPs were among his clients and that at the time because the clients were so well connected Irish lads were afraid of being framed for terrorist acts a la the Guildford 4, hence would be afraid to speak out.
The worst thing about the Beech case he said is that it would discourage other people from coming forward. He explained that the cops were under pressure to investigate in the light of the Jimmy Saville case and this why they were willing to believe anything Beech said
If Beech was telling lies, why the need to withhold evidence by the prosecution, why the denial of cross examination of Proctor by the judge, why the lies under oath by Lord Brammel?