Quote:
Originally Posted by Sephiroth
For all your eloquence, Jon I'm not sure what you mean in your first paragraph - "get access". Andrew was idealistically saying that we need to have a better relationship with the EU. He went no further than that other than to curse the current negotiators.
On your second paragraph, the result of what we signed is a tight implementation of the NI Protocol by the EU. I don't think for one moment the nation doesn't want to protect peace in NI; but clearly the EU's implementation of the Protocol is disrupting the peace. Something has to be done about that and the price that the EU wants to exact is to call the shots elsewhere in the name of "better relations".
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By access, I mean access for trade, protection of mutual interests,
etc. We don't necessarily need good relations with our neighbours to get a warm fuzzy feeling, we want and need good relations for our own benefit.
Remember Charles De Gaulle - 'No nation has friends only interests' (yes I know he's French...)
On the Northern Ireland thing, The EUs job was to represent Irelands place in the Peace Process, not the UKs. Ireland stance is that the border should remain open and the NI Protocol does that. What happens with Unionists in the North is the UKs issue. If the border is to stay open, the UK has to either anger Northern Irish Unionists by keeping the Irish Sea 'border' or Conservative back benchers (and most of the people on this forum) by aligning more closely with the EU. Based on that, Boris Johnson is throwing Unionists under the bus in a heartbeat