Comments by "Taint ABird" (@taintabird23) on "euronews" channel.

  1. The Irish care, Brussels cares, the other EU 27 care and Washington cares. Who cares about the UKs position? Its poor and doesn't know its small.
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  2. The taoiseach was born in Ireland, how can be be foreign?
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  3. Brexit Britain chose to walk away, thinking that it could have all the benefits of membership and non-membership at the same time.
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  4. Huh? His mother is Irish. You don't have any idea what you are talking about, do you....
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  5. At least Ireland has a leader.
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  6.  @Andrew-is7rs  You do nothing to dispel the myth that Brexiters are fuckwits. Taxation is a competence of individual members states. The EU has no jurisdiction over it, but it is common mistake made by Brexiters given they are generally so badly informed. You blamed the EU for a Tampon Tax your government placed on feminine hygiene products. How much longer is the UK going to continue to blame the EU for the incompetence of its own government? You're only fooling yourselves. Ireland volunteered to increase its payments into the EU in 2018 Andrew, in order to show leadership and increase it capital across the bloc. But go ahead, believe what you need to believe. It is important that you see that Brexit is the right thing for you, because otherwise...well...maybe Brexit is stupid. Enjoy the booze cruises, I know we will.
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  7. @ Gavin Another fuckwit who has no idea about Ireland's Lisbon referenda...like Farage.
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  8. I know. Pathetic really.
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  9. The EU is Ireland's biggest export market (40%); the USA is second (30%); the UK is third at 10%. Ireland exports less to the UK than the UK exports to Ireland. Indeed Ireland takes more British exports than China. Typical Brexit, thick as two short planks.
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  10. lol!
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  11. What on earth are you talking about? It was May who came up with the Irish backstop solution which was agreed with the EU as it satisfied Irish concerns - it solved the problem from the Irish and the EU side. It is the UK that is breaking the deal as it has no confidence it can negotiate trade deal with the EU that will render the backstop unnecessary. The House of Commons rejection of the deal indicates the necessity of the Backstop from an EU perspective.
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  12. He bottled it.
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  13. If Ireland was smart, eh? I'd say you could write what you know about Ireland on the back of a postage stamp.
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  14. 'If a backstop is intended as a temporary measure, then there's no reason for it to be to infinity and beyond.' Its not. The backstop is for the Withdrawal Agreement and will be replaced when new a trade deal - which apparently the EU needs more than the UK - is negotiated. The fact that the UK flip-flops over what it wants and Brexit is championed by low-grade politicians that lie freely to their own people, this makes the backstop all the more necessary. Perhaps if you understood the impact of Brexit on border communities in Ireland, and the sense of betrayal Irish nationalists in NI feel, you would understand that this is the actual motive. Your lack of knowledge of the real issue has caused you to look elsewhere for reasons behind it. The consequences of Brexit will be entirely the fault of the liars you believed - it will be nobody else's, though I understand that leavers need others to take the blame. It kind of comes with the whole Brexit package. I understand that it is no longer part of the narrative now, but Brexiters before the referendum claimed that leaving the EU did not mean leaving the CU and SM. Remember? The backstop is necessary until a new arrangement is agreed between the EU and the UK, and the UK is responsible for the mess.
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  15. The Irish have been net contributors to the EU since 2013, its just that you only heard about it a few months ago. What is more, Ireland volunteered to increase its payments in order to show leadership in the EU, back in 2018. This provides Ireland with access to the Single Market, freedom of labour of Irish industry, an ability to shape the development of the EU, and amplifies Irish diplomatic clout as you discovered during the Brexit negotiations. Brexit now means the end of any further psychological deference to the UK. If you think Ireland was hard to figure out since 2016, it will get harder for you going forward. Enjoy!
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  16. The closer Ireland is to the UK, the poorer Irish people are. Sorry, no thanks.
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  17.  @trobuk99  There is a huge number British people living and working in Ireland and have no intention of returning either. In fact the British make up about 25% of all immigrants to Ireland.
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  18. Well, Ireland is a net contributor and is France and the Netherlands. All three countries are eligible for funds to deal with the problem caused by Brexit.
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  19. Yes, customs and excise duties. You need to buy from the German or French Amazon to avoid it.
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  20.  Leroy Jenkins 2.0  The border is in Ireland, dumbass. The open border came about due to a democratic decision of the Irish people North and South in 1998 and the Belfast Agreement makes Ireland a co-guarantor of that agreement. Once PM May allied herself with the DUP, a party that did not represent the desires of the people of NI in relation to Brexit, the Irish government were required to speak up for the people of Northern Ireland. They have that right because of the Belfast Agreement. Ireland used its diplomatic clout in Brussels and Washington, as sovereign nations tend to do, better than Brexiters did. Your government has behaved like a pantomime dame by comparison. The UK is not the only sovereign state involved in the Brexit farce, and Ireland has no intention of mimicking the crazy contortions of its former imperial master by being 'with' you. You lot are on your own.
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  21.  Leroy Jenkins 2.0  Really? Where is my delusion? You do know the British Demos is in terminal decline, right? Of course NI is part of the UK, nobody is disputing that - but it is contest territory, with half of the population tolerating its constitutional position within the UK for now. The majority of Scots appear to identify as Scottish rather than British. We know that because of the rise of the SNP and the prevalence of Scottish identity even among many Scottish Labour voters. The 2011 census tells us that there are vast areas of England that identify as English rather than British, and polls since then have shown that English identity is on the increase in England. There is a direct co-relation between the areas that voted for Brexit in 2016 and those areas that identified as English in 2011. Wales voted to leave. But again that 2011 census tells us that 12% of the population of Wales identifies as English, not Welsh. With most of these English voters in Wales being retirees and fitting the most pro-Brexit demographic, it is fair to say these people brought their politics with them. When you consider that of 17 + million people who voted to leave the EU, 15.1 million of them were English, and add that to the diminishing overarching Britishness across the union, and then the delusion is that the UK voted to leave 'as one country'. If fact, English insecurities dragged the rest of them out. The constitutional arrangement is clearly unfit for purpose, and there is a yawning democratic deficit that has no parallel in western democracy that I can think of. The delusion is on your side, I'm afraid. Leaving the EU is England's wrong answer to the wrong question.
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  22. @ Walloper And all of this could have been avoided if the UK had bothered to plan for Brexit rather than trying to leave it as a problem for the rest of the EU to solve. The UK position ignores the fact there is no majority in NI for a departure from the EU, and that even most unionists support and understand the notion of the backstop and remaining in the CU and SM. The UK deals with the border issue and the GFA by simply dismissing Irish anxieties, despite the abysmal record of Westminster in Irish affairs over the centuries. There will be a hard border and this will destabilise NI. In the next 3-5 years the UK will be back to the EU seeking a deal when the reality of trading only on WTO rules is apparent. You will be in a much weaker position at that stage and the 2021 census may well indicate that Nationalist will be a majority in NI, leading to a border poll. It will be clear then the extent to which you will over played your hand.
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  23. Oh please. Placing a time limit on the backstop is about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike. It will no longer deserve the name 'backstop', because it will not be a backstop. There will be no deal now as the EU values the CU and SM more than it values any deal with the UK - what part of that do you not understand? - and Ireland will not throw NI nationalists under bus for selfish economic reasons. Had the UK stuck with the WA, Ireland would have become its champion in the EU, seeking the widest, most comprehensive trade deal. Instead PM May is trotting off to Brussels again to renegotiate a deal she has already been told is non-negotiable. For remainer, you sure do a good impression of a Brexiter.
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  24. No. You the prisoners of your own incompetence. Who in their right minds would leave the EU without a plan? Even somebody opening a corner shop would be expected to have a business plan, ffs.
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  25. The UK is a rogue state. An agreement with the UK is not worth the paper it is written on.
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  26.  @sotlad  Since 2013, Ireland has been a net contributor. Ireland is happy to provide a helping hand to those countries coming behind us.
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  27. The majority of the people in the Republic support EU membership for their country and the majority of people in Northern Ireland voted to remain, with an even higher number now wishing at least to remain in the CU and SM. That's your problem in a nutshell.
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  28.  Jo Sm  There are six ferries at Rosslare tonight, ready to start shipping from Rosslare to Dunkirk, while the Cherbourg route has had its capacity doubled. This is because of delays at Dover due to the increase in red tape. making the landbridge is less economically viable. This may change in the future, but we shall see.
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  29.  Leroy Jenkins 2.0  Treacherous? In that comment you dismiss Irish sovereignty as meaning nothing. Irish unity is a matter for the Irish people and nothing to do with the British.
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  30. There is no pain for Ireland. The direct route saves time on the UK landbridge post-Brexit, it creates jobs at Rosslare Harbour and it protects Ireland's strategic interests.
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  31.  @malahammer  Leave them. They're trying to make a silk purse out of a pigs ear. It is an unwelcome reminder of their diminishing importance to their neighbours and they can't handle it.
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  32. ToonBBfan - He meets perfectly the definition of a proper Paddy as defined by us Irish ourselves. The Irish are secure in their identity and culture, don't judge the Irish by your primitive British criteria.
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  33. The problem is for you, you can't feed yourselves. Ireland already sells most of its produce to the EU, the UK has been declining as a market while its value has increased over the last 48 years.
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  34.  @tonyking2680  All that wishful thinking Tom! You've burned your house down and the only satisfaction you can find in it is the possibility that you might burn somebody else's house down too! Ireland and France are allies in the EU in relation to agriculture. Ireland does not compete with the French, we produce different agricultural products. Only 10% of Irish products goes to the UK. Of these about 38% are agricultural products. Of the agricultural products about 50% of Irish beef goes to the UK and 80% of Irish cheddar. Ireland is already diversifying its markets away from the UK because of Brexit and producing new products more appropriate to European tastes. This makes sense, because there is no paperwork for Irish products in the EU, and the gravity for trade has been increasingly towards the Eurozone in any case. So perhaps the the 15 ships a a weeks will have to be increased...
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  35. There is no communism Mike, just democracy and a rejection of English nationalist values.
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  36. In 1169 the King of Leinster sought help against his enemies from the Anglo-Norman Earl of Pembroke, promising him his kingdom and his daughters hand in marriage in return. Henry II, worried that one of his vassals might be setting up a rival kingdom, arrived in Ireland a couple of years later and claimed the whole island for himself. And thus began the sorry shared history of Britain and Ireland. No Englishman showed up in Ireland to protect anybody from the Normans. You are factually incorrect.
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  37.  @leafbone1  Another unintended consequence of Brexit...shortage of vets.
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  38. Haven't you heard? The MERCOSUR deal is parked indefinitely because the Brazilians are burning down their rainforest. Furthermore, the beef deal with the EU is not quota and tariff free. Finally, it offers Irish trade and service opportunities to Irish businesses in South America for the very first time, so it had its upsides.
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  39. Well, we know that it is important to Brexiters to be seen to shrug their shoulders every time they discover they are not as important as they thought they were. Ireland can afford to.
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  40.  @theq-1  Actually, Ireland has been a net contributor since 2013, so there is another thing you have wrong.
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  41. The 80% of Irish produce transiting he UK is mostly going to the EU. All exports to the UK will continue to decline over time as the UK is outside of the eurozone and has additional paperwork, adding to the cost of transport. Ireland is much better than the UK at diversifying its markets, so over time Ireland should be fine. It is a silver lining for both countries.
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  42. @ Veronica The fundamentals of international trade dictate that there must be customs checks at the border of two customs unions. Despite the current narrative, Brexiteers campaigned on the promise that they would not leave the customs union. They lied. If the Irish government puts up a border the Irish people on both sides of that border will take it down. If the Irish government does not put up a border, the rest of the EU will put customs checks on Irish goods. Remember - the Irish people never voted for any of this. This is the UKs 'Brexit present' to Ireland. In 1998 the Irish people voted for an open border in a binding referendum, now so casually cast aside by Brexiters on another island. There will be trouble, the question is with whom and how bad will it be.
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  43. You need to stop trusting yourselves, that's where all the problems sprang from.
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  44. Irish hauliers have been paying UK road tax since 2014.
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  45. If you think the EU is bad, wait until you to to WTO.
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  46. But the UK is trying to strike a withdrawal deal with the EU. As Lithuania is in the EU, you literally made leaving the EU the business of every Lithuanian - indeed, every citizen in the EU. Go back to sleep Dave, we will wake you up when you are an official vassal of the European Union.
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  47. No, the used the UK landbridge because it was quicker. With modern ferries, winter gales are less of a problem than they used to be.
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  48. Who cares what the Catholic Church thinks? An Irish Taoiseach is democratically elected, and this one was elected in the first country in the world to change the law on gay marriage in a referendum by people of all religions and none - indeed many of the Yes voters were practicing Catholics. More primitive thinking from you, I'm afraid...
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  49. Nigel Johnson 'Only very recently Varadkar rejected any notion of reunification with NI.' No he didn't. He said now is not the time for the discussion as Brexit is the issue at hand, and that any united Ireland will be a new agreed state... At no point has any Irish government nor has the EU said anything about the political and financial liability.
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  50. @ Marty Smith Under the Belfast Agreement of 1998, which the people of Ireland voted for in overwhelming numbers, Ireland can only be united with the consent of the people of Northern Ireland. It may happen that post-Brexit, the people of NI will indeed vote to unite the island politically. London cannot dump NI. In a united Ireland, the people of the Ireland will be entitled to multiple identities. They will be allowed to identify as Irish, British, Irish and British...all will be able to identify as European. Our constitution reflects that. While the Republic of Ireland is a secular, socially liberal state, many in NI are religious and socially conservative. It was hoped that the people of NI would gradually come around to the idea of unity over a number of decades. Brexit is forcing their hand for economic and other reasons to consider their future in a united Ireland before reconciliation has taken place. Nobody wants that.
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