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

  1. If only someone could have predicted this.
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  2. I thought the courts said that Brexit was the problem, not the protocol?
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  3. Of course all of this could have been avoided if the UK had taken the time to come up with a coherent plan to leave the EU. Instead its Ireland's fault if it does not sacrifice itself at the altar of Brexit.
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  4. Scotland's long term best interests are best served by being free of English Tory dominated Westminster. They should apply to join the EU as soon as possible thereafter.
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  5. Naomi Long is right.
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  6. For Brexit to work the UK needs the Irish to sacrifice their own well-being, and the Irish are refusing to do it. They just assumed the Irish would do this without question, it appears.
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  7.  @lukec7493  And they have brought feed to farms in the Mourne Mountains during bad snow...
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  8. I don't think I will ever get used to British royalty laying wreaths in remembrance of those to died fighting the Crown.
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  9. Forgotten? They don't care.
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  10. @ Damian Speak for yourself Damian, yours is not the majority opinion in Ireland.
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  11. He once said that 'NI is as British as Somerset'. I knew then he was a buck eejit.
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  12. Incoherence is one of the characteristics of Brexit.
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  13.  @compedious591  He's talking about Erasmus.
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  14. @5888max The UK cannot agree its position. The UK government is being dictated to in part by the DUP who do not represent the majority in NI who wish to Remain, and an even larger majority that support the backstop. In this context, it is not politically possible for the Irish government to come to your rescue. At every opportunity, the Tory government has put the Tory party before its own country, and it cares not a jot for Ireland. Brexit is British policy. Britain must take responsibility for what happens next. In Ireland, Ireland comes first, not Britain.
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  15.  @Gambit771  Funny innit. Americans are more proud and emotional about their Irish ancestry than their English ancestry.
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  16. When Ireland became a republic, India was one of the first countries to receive and Irish Ambassador.
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  17. For a non-Brit and a non-Spaniard, the comments below are absolutely hysterical.
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  18. Except for Ulster Unionists.
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  19. The German state has already apologied for what their ancestors did in WW2 AND they went further and apologies for their imperial behaviour in their African colonies long before that. They have a established a museum to their imperial past to teach modern Germans about the nature of European Imperialism. The British have made no such acknowledgement to their past and have yet to come to terms with the true nature of British imperialism. An acknowledgement can be as powerful as an apology.
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  20.  @noodlyappendage6729  In relation to NI, it cannot.
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  21. @Boby Crush The border in the Irish Sea is causing the problems...the UK should have stayed in the Single Market and the Customs Union.
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  22. Varadkar stood up for the Irish people with Brexiters for a start.
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  23.  @misterlimey6408  The UK is already in the process of breaking up, and has been since 1998, it is just that the English have yet to grow a pair, stand on their own two feet and leave the right union. There will be no armed conflict, but there will be civil unrest in the UK in due course.
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  24. Ireland was part of the UK from 1801 to 1921...the trouble is, the Irish weren't made to feel like they were the same as the English, Scots and the Welsh as we can see by the UK Governments response to the Famine.
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  25.  @anthonyfoster2605  Blind ignorance will sink the UK.
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  26. He went to NI to help solve a problem and then returned to Dublin a few hours later to bury his mother.
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  27. Ireland is a democracy, unlike your own country. In Ireland, an important aspect of democracy is having the right to change your mind. Ireland has had three referenda on abortion, two on divorce, and two each on the Nice and Lisbon treaties in the last 40 years. Contrary to claims from the ignoramus class that rule your country, Ireland was never 'made to vote again' as this is not allowed under the Irish constitution. It voted on different treaties or legislation each time, until the legislators got it right and the Irish people accepted it.
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  28. I think it is because most normal people know that the EU is much bigger than the UK and has a much bigger foot.
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  29.  @paulgibbons2320  If Brexit goes well, Brexiters were right. If Brexit goes badly, it is somebody else's fault. Brexiters are blameless, only responsible for sunny uplands. Everybody knows that.
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  30. @Boby Crush 'The EU is causing the problem, using NI as a political football and they just did the dirty on Ireland by shutting the border.' First of all, no border has been closed in Ireland. The problem has been caused by the UK, changing the status quo by leaving the Single Market and the Customs Union. The decision to this occurred after the referendum at the Tory Party Conference in October 2016 - after the referendum. Nobody in Ireland voted to have customs border in Ireland. 'If the EU don't budge then the Protocol will have to go.' The EU may budge, it will not be enough for Brexiters, it never is, they always want more. It will be interesting to see what happens next.
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  31.  @catchagrip.9468  The people of Northern Ireland did not vote for Brexit. Nationalists are on the cusp of being the majority in Northern Ireland and did not want any customs posts on the border (or away from it). Johnson's solution was to put the border in the Irish Sea - that was a British suggestion, not an Irish or EU one. This is going to bring the issue of Irish unity to a head much sooner and rather than it coming about naturally through changes in relationships over decades, it will be in response to alien values in England. The Unionists are having the rug pulled out from under them by Brexit. Brexit is a bad idea and can only work if others are prepared to accept their role as collateral damage.
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  32. The trade tension relate to Brexit and the border in the Irish Sea, which the UK agreed too but can cope with.
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  33. I know. They remember the 'blitz' and WW2 - even though none of them experienced it, but have a blind spot when it comes to the Troubles which only ended 20 years ago. Brexit is utterly incoherent.
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  34.  @noodlyappendage6729  That is not necessary as that is what the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference is for, but the UK PM needs to start attending.
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  35. Sorry, no can do.
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  36. So far, the British have made it very difficult. For themselves, of course.
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  37. Brexit means Brexit, but all the problems it is causing are the EUs fault.
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  38.  @argus0ia  Brexiters are driven mad by Ireland's influential position in the world, Irish self-confidence as a nation and Ireland's cheek in having won its sovereignty and knowing how to use it.
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  39.  @timlinator  I think the Brexiters are unaware of the Suez Crisis and how the US put manners on them then. This whole charade will end in humiliation for the UK, and I don't think that is a good thing either. Britain is ripe for a fascist take over.
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  40. Indeed, there was no vote in favour of taking 'a hit'. It was supposed to be all sunny uplands. Secondly, any discussion on taking 'a hit' is dismissed as project fear. Thirdly, the 'oppression' Brexiters claim to feel as part of the EU is a product of their imagination. Your comment points to the incoherence of Brexit.
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  41. The trouble is, while Republicans served a 100,000 years for their crimes, and Loyalists 60,000 years for theirs, only 3 British soldiers were ever convicted for unlawful killings. They served only 17 years and were returned to their units after their release and often promoted. That is an injustice by the state, the very state that nationalists need to have confidence in if they were to become comfortable with being in the UK. In the case of Bloody Sunday, the names of the victims were sullied in order to exonerate the soldiers. The IRA were terrorists, as were the UVF et al. Police, soldiers and the judiciary are always held to a higher standard, otherwise the state has no legitimacy.
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  42. Right. So Irish sovereignty does not count, am I correct?
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  43. Furthermore, their own courts told them there was nothing wrong with the Protocol. This means the problem is Brexit, not the Protocol.
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  44. If there is a no deal there will be a hard border. Ireland requires the backstop to ensure there is a no border. The Irish government don't trust the UK government dominated as it is by the will of hardline Brexiters in the Tory Party. If there is a hard border, then Brexit becomes Ireland's problem - a hard border is political suicide for every Irish party, and will force unification onto the agenda in a very divisive way.. Ireland wishes to remain in the EU, therefore Ireland leaving, which may have been an assumption of Brexiters, is not an option. Brexit is British policy, not an Irish one.
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  45. Northern Ireland is still part of the UK...it just also has access to the EUs Single Market. There is no majority in Northern Ireland to change that situation.
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  46. Ireland will have to put a border up with the EU. A hard border in Ireland is politically unacceptable, but a customs border is necessary somewhere because of the fundamentals of international trade demand it. Once it was clear to Irish that they were being held to ransom by the UK in order to gain leverage over the EU. The Irish sided with the EU because Brexit is nothing to do with Ireland. With the DUP on board, the Irish government has had to fight hard to protect the GFA from being torn up by extremists in the UK. The consequences of Brexit will be the fault of the UK.
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  47. That was not on the ballot paper.
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  48. The British came up with the idea of the backstop, the Irish only agreed to it.
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  49. Not as funny as signing an agreement with the EU without reading it.
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  50. I think its cute that Brexiters think orherwise.
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  51. I agree. Brexiters seem to think that No Deal will damage everybody else except themselves. Utterly delusional.
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  52. If the UK government had spent more time giving attention to the Irish government much of the humiliation around Brexit could have been avoided. Furthermore, one of the strands in the GFA is the relationship between London and Dublin. There should be plenty of time made for meetings between both sides.
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  53. Why would Ireland leave the EU??
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  54.  @traoresfan208isback8  Ireland was united until 1920.
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  55.  @OnlyGrafting  European identity is not a sham for me. It is a very visceral thing I share hundreds of millions of others, regardless or their social, cultural, ethnic, religious of political background. It is based on shared values and perhaps on a shared heritage also. The rest of your comment is incoherent nonsense.
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  56.  @bevroe5354  Ireland needs the EU. It does not need England. That is just a matter of fact.
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  57. The IRA are in retirement.
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  58. I believe it. Trump has f*cked the country.
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  59. I think Ireland is looking at its next Taoiseach.
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  60. When did the Irish Republic bomb the UK?
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  61. Why?
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  62. Ireland has chosen the EU AND the GFA.
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  63. So Northern Ireland needs to say out loud to the world - and particularly to London - they they are Part of the United Kingdom and still in the EU Single Market and that the NI Courts have stated that the Protocol is not the problem, Brexit is. Indeed, they need to state that while the EU does not insist on a border for customs, the fundamentals of international trade do. Cheers.
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  64. That's because Sky News is not in denial about reality while Brexiters require it.
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  65. What is a 'prostate country'?
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  66. Its not a fact, actually. Only 10% of Irish exports go to the UK, while well over 40% goes to the rest of the EU. 'FACT', indeed.
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  67. 'The EU literally forgot the Irish government exists, that's how much they care.' Just like Brexiters....
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  68.  Jo Sm  Leo is quite tall actually.
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  69. 'Southern Ireland is now used as a pawn by the eu, because they did not want to be part of the UK.' Ireland has not been part of the UK for a century. Far from being used as a pawn, it was the Irish who got the EU to make the border it central issue, because it is the single most important issue for the Irish. The EU stood by the Irish because the Irish are EU members and the UK are leaving. 'The eu insisted that the 16th amendment was illegal if used by UK but they were prepared to use it their selves.' Obviously this was a mistake.
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  70.  @lilbrit1019  The Scots don't need England. This need to believe that others cannot survive without the English is truly pathetic.
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  71.  @bevroe5354  I'm afraid there is no majority in NI that supports that view. But who cares about that, right?
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  72.  @eckyx9019  Brexit means Brexit.
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  73.  Leroy Jenkins Alpha  The point of being part of the EU is the use of hard won sovereignty to to improve living standards and opportunities for its citizens. The English could be independent, if only they would grow a pair and leave the right union.
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  74. Relations between the UK and the ROI will be repaired quite quickly and it is an essential relationship for both countries. I understand that Brexiters can be very spiteful people, but I don't expect Ireland will receive any retribution for acting like the sovereign state that it actually is.
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  75. Puny Ireland got its border in the Irish Sea and tariff and quota free trade with the UK. That's the power of astute diplomacy and EU membership.
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  76. Ireland has 26 other countries behind it and has used its influence with Brussels better than the UK. It also has the ear of Washington. Ireland is no superpower, but Irish success is a measure of just how much Brexit has weakened the UK on the world stage.
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  77.  @1bluetoe  These are not circumstance under which Ireland should be united.
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  78. The point is, after all the foot -dragging by the UK, it is now believed across the EU that the UK has no intention of implementing the deal it signed. Therefore Article 16 will see the EU shelve the deal and sanction the UK.
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  79. I don't think he expected what he is getting now, though.
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  80. What international laws do the EU break? I can't think of any.
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  81. These are the rules of the EU. The EU negotiates as a bloc so the UK must leave first.
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  82. Ireland and the EU cannot negotiate with a UK that is still negotiating with itself.
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  83. I would recommend the Former United Kingdom of England and Wales or the F.U.K.E.W.
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  84. She will be proven right when there is a hard border, others will regret people not listening to her words.
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  85. Brexit is a cover up - to conceal decades of mismanagement of the UK by successive UK governments of all hues: blame the EU for the inequality and democratic deficit at the heart of the UK society and polity. 40 years of grooming by certain right-wing media outlets prepared the ground. Recruiting the British people in their own oppression has been standard operating procedure for the English-dominated elites of the UK since at least Victorian times. Hence Brexit is a False Flag operation by the UKs elite, many of whom are unelected and some are oligarchs. Brexit will make them rich at your expense.
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  86. The bailout was in 2010, and was from the IMF and ECB. The national debt of Ireland as a percentage of GDP is now considerably lower than that of the UK. This is because the Irish economy grows faster than the UK economy. Irish culture has never been so healthy and strong. Its literature and music has a wider global audience now than ever in its history; Irish sports remain extremely popular and immigrants are being integrated into Irish society because of the inclusiveness of Irish culture. The Irish economy is the second most global on the planet, after Singapore. Dublin is perfectly recognisable, but it is also the home for people from 200 other countries; there is no 'repopulation', whatever that means.
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  87. I agree, but your moral equivalence between the army and IRA is vacuous. As it happens, both the IRA and the British government opposed a Truth and Reconciliation process which would could have avoided the prosecution of soldiers in this case, but would have meant both the IRA and British Government would have had wash their dirty linen in public.
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  88. They seem like nice people. I actually feel sorry for them, being born into such a constrained public life.
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  89. What an articulate man.
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  90. I agree. I don't want my countrymen and women going over to that basket case of a country.
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  91. Ireland's debt to GDP ratio is lower than the UKs.
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  92. They would not be able to import medical supplies made in the EU if they walk away from the arrangements they made with the EU. Only the UK is intending to do that.
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  93.  @noodlyappendage6729  There is no irredentist claim on northern Ireland; there is however a legitimate aspiration to unite the people of the island.
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  94. Nope. Its a murder-suicide at the hands of the UK.
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  95. So Brexiters keep telling themselves. So far they have been wrong about everything.
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  96. In my opinion Bruton's analysis is simplistic.  There is no certainty that a united 32 county republic could have been achieved had the Rising not happened.  Ulster Unionists have never willingly conceded anything ever. The President's response makes more sense to me - that the Rising should be seen in the context of the nature of Imperialism and that it was the British response to it that turned Ireland from a country awaiting Home Rule to one seeking Independence.  Because of the Imperial context, it is significant (in my opinion) that armed groups that claim a legacy to the ideals of 1916 have failed to change the hearts and minds of Irish people and if anything have re-enforced partition.  I doubt their day will ever come at this stage.
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  97. Brexiters and their predictions.
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  98. Well, the UK certainly has a track record in creating division...
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  99.  @honestdave9855  Despise democracy? The UK despises democracy - it is one of the least democratic states in Europe.
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  100.  @dsuse3949  Typical unionist, acting as if nationalists don't exist.
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  101. They announced it on the news this morning. However, it was not yet official. No conspiracy theory here.
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  102. I wish!
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  103. It will be well over 50% in Britain, probably is already. It will be too late for them by then.
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  104. It is about the bad faith of the UK, which keeps finding new problems for every EU consession, the latest being the ECJ. It is obvious they have no intention of implementing the NIP.
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  105.  @lilbrit1019  The 'hole world' supports the EU in this matter, and the EU is the only party willing to make any concessions. However, the UK is not a country that will take YES for an answer.
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  106.  @lilbrit1019  Yeah. The very existence of the Republic of Ireland suggests otherwise. Nobody NEEDS England.
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  107.  @lilbrit1019  Scotland's quality of life is dropping anyway because of Brexit...
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  108.  Tommy Stone  Yes, there is no armed conflict. There is no support for it.
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  109. Polls don't indicate that at all
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  110. in the UK and Ireland it only gathered 3,000 viewers a day. Nobody watched it.
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  111. Why? Is an agreement with the UK not worth the paper it is written on?
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  112.  @MoebiusUK  Its all Brexiters have got...
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  113.  @diegolove173  Well said.
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  114. Only the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland can decide that. Brexit is the wrong context for such a divisive discussion.
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  115. John Hume and Gerry Adams both have English names, but nobody would assume they were Northern Irish unionists.
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  116. Brexiters will not take any responsibility for this chaos. They will just blame others: immigrants, remainers, the Irish, Brussels.
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  117. Its not her opinion, regardless of who is in charge, the position will be the same.
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  118. Ireland would be breaking international law by having an FTA with the UK while a member of the EU. The GFA has nothing to with it, only the UK is changing the status quo and Ireland will not be leaving the EU. The reason the Irish don't fall for this Brexit bullshit is because it knows precisely when it is being played - and by whom.
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  119. That's the plan. Wait until the UK leaves and when faced with the realities of Brexit, the EU will place the WA in front of the UK, along with a pen and receipt for 30+ billion. Has the WTO signed off on the UKs schedule yet?
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  120. Its not just Luxembourg.
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  121. Because Brexit died at birth, in June 2016, when it encountered reality.
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  122. Actually, the UK will be hurt more than anyone. The Irish will be hurt second worst. But at least they will still have access to EU markets and trade deals while the UK will have a deal with Japan that is less than it had with the EU.
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  123. The Irish are not going to leave the EU.
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  124. His father is from India and his mother is from Ireland. Half of his heritage is Indian. An Irish-Indian drives many English people mental. 🙂 This makes many Irish people and many Indian people happy. 🙂
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  125. The UK will collapse because the democratic deficit within the UK regarding the EU, not because of the EU.
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  126.  @simonshiels1  Westminster.
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  127.  @timlinator  Indeed, it may. It will not come to that though. The UKs prestige and reputation would never recover from such an attack on a sovereign nation and not even Brexiters are that stupid.
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  128.  @timlinator  It is hard to know - genuinely, it is. The Brexit leadership are not bright people, and were stunned when they discovered that Brussels would put the interests of a member state (Ireland) over that of a very important third country (the UK). Much of their antics can be explained by simply not understanding how the EU actually works and what its interests are, and instead they believed their own narrative that the EU is simply run by Germany and France for Germany and France. The reality is that that EU is made up of small nations, half of them smaller than Ireland, and they will not allow the EU to turn its back on Ireland because none of those countries on the eastern border of the EU want Putin to think the EU will give up its members to meet the requirements of a third country. Anyway, these pantomime dames believe that the UK has a 'special relationship' with the United States and that this will trump any sentimental feelings the Irish-Americans have for Ireland. What they don't understand is that Irish-Americans know that they are American today because of a previous time the British shafted the Irish - their ancestors. They will not stand by and be party to facilitating that again. Besides, the US does not need the UK but the UK sure does need the US. On the other hand, perhaps they do understand the limitations of their position and are simply playing chicken with the EU. who are trying to find consensus with a UK that sees concessions as a sign of weakness.
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  129. Why not?
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  130.  @petardos2684  As far as I know, most pubs are closing too.
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  131. If there is a wall, the sale of ladders in Northern Ireland and the Republic will soar.
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  132. Nothing. It would be all over in hours.
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  133. The problem with the British is that they happily engage in Tansplaning to Irish about their own country, blissfully unaware that they are engaging in the Dunning-Kruger effect. Your post exemplifies this perfectly. Ireland does not 'triangulate' regarding a united Ireland, the GFA has taken care of all of that. Key to the GFA is the principle of consent, and the Irish governments main criticisms of Brexit has been how it pivots NI towards unity BEFORE any reconciliation has taken place. Varadkar's Fine Gael party is traditionally the most pro-British on the Irish political landscape and only last week Varadkar rebuffed any suggestion of even discussing Irish unity in the Republic, much to the chagrin of Sinn Féin. Not that you'd know anything about that, of course...
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  134. I was struck by that also. Articulate, intelligent, competent and female.
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  135. Ireland is taking in tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, and sending humanitarian aid. It is also using its seat on the UN Security Council to speak up for Ukraine and its membership of the EU to fast track Ukraine's application for membership. Ireland is militarily non-aligned but is not morally neutral.
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  136. I give the UK about 5-10 years. The EU will be fine.
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  137.  @noodlyappendage6729  There most certainly is not. The Irredentist claim was removed from the Irish constitution in 1998 and replaced with the aspiration to united the people of the island. The trouble for loyalists is that the direction of travel is towards unity, perhaps in another 20 years or so. Then a new state will be formed, with a new anthem, probably a new flag and so on.
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  138. @ Alan Edwards Exactly. That's why the Irish would never believe that going to WTO would be better than staying in the EU. I also worry about Irish trucks transiting the UK after the food rationing kicks in post Brexit.
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  139. Well, that confident prediction was made before the WA was passed and it proved not to be the case. The fact is, the EU and its industry will not undermine itself to get a trade deal with the UK. Unlike in the UK, there is political consensus in relation to Brexit across all EU member states so far, but it will be politicians and not industry that will be voting on the final trade deal. Go to WTO and experience life with the US dictating a trade deal. Brexiters will soon be brought down to earth when confronted with reality. An EU trade deal might look much sweeter for the UK by 2025.
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  140. The Irish and the French did not vote for Brexit, sorry.
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  141.  POPPY SEED  27 new cases in the Republic today. This thing is going to explode over the next week or so.
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  142. Only about 10,000 out of 3.5 million voters in the last General Election, I'm afraid.
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  143. How?
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  144. So who then?
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  145. There will be checks away from the border, but border will remain open until the UK diverges from EU regulations.
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  146. The Irish President is very small. Varadkar is very tall.
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  147.  @lilbrit1019  The English never bailed out out 'the Irish government'. They borrowed money and gave it to the Irish government to bail out the banks, to protect British banks from their exposure to Irish banking crisis. And to prop up the UKs 5th most important export market. Just as the Irish contributed, how ever small, to the IMF bail out of the UK in 1976. Ireland was just as dependent on the rest of Britain in 1921 as Scotland is today and had none of Scotlands advantages. Scotland will be a successful independent country once the deadweight of England is lifted from it.
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  148.  @lilbrit1019  The UK is making itself a hostage...because of its inability to make any consessions from the ideology of Brexit. Brexiters have failed their country.
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  149.  @lilbrit1019  Brexiters don't like the facts when they are presented to. Sure, they even elected a liar as PM to make sure of it.
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  150. That's what the voters thought too.
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  151. 99%?
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  152. And 2018 Darwin Award goes to.....*drum roll*.... the DUP!
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  153. The UK is already splitting up.
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  154. I thought the Germans were suppose to throw the Irish under a bus, or something? And where's the German car industry? Its not like the Germans to be late.
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  155. Spoken like a true Brexit ignoramus. The citizen of a country that has never known oppression or had foreign boots on their soil but who thinks he is OPPRESSED by the EU, a bloc of nations he can actually vote to leave, posts a brain fart on the internet. If we can agree that the Irish actually know what oppression looks like, why it is not something of a red flag for Brexiters that the Irish don't find anything oppressive about the EU, is a great mystery here. I put it down to denial and a lack of testicular fortitude. If the English were true to themselves, they would copy Ireland by leaving the right union and learn to stand on their own two feet as an independent nation. The have yet to grow a pair in order to do that. 'Bloody cowards', indeed.
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  156. Best description of the UK I have read in quite a while.
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  157. There is no majority in Ireland for leaving the EU, on either side of the border. Leaving the EU is response to English insecurities, and has nothing to do with Ireland.
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  158.  @markdoherty8161  I think it is silly to claim Ireland is ruled by Brussels. It shows a remarkable ignorance.
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  159.  @IslaSkye123  We do. We have a special affinity for those of Irish heritage and they are acknowledge in Article 2 of the Irish constitution which describes 'The Nation'. Got any Irish in ya?
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  160. No, its not.
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  161.  @e3498-v7l  Actually, Brexit is the problem - the Protocol is the solution. There is nothing ''hostile' about the EUs interpretation of it, what is hostile is the UK governments attitude to it, signing a deal they never intended to keep.
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  162.  @G94-u4c  We're doing okay.
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  163.  @bevroe5354  It won't be the EU that will trigger it, it will the UK. They will give a month's notice next week. The EU will respond after that.
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  164. The backstop was May's idea. Under the GFA, the people of NI can be Irish or British united under a common EU citizenship and identity. Any change from the status quo because of Brexit is a divergence from the agreement. How can Irish citizens retain EU citizenship and rights if they are outside the EU? Under the GFA, it is understood that any changes in NI will be done by consent. Northern Ireland voted to remain and did not give its consent. How does Brexit account for this need for consent in NI?
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  165. Poll after poll indicates that most people in the south would like to see a united Ireland, just not yet.
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  166. The US would hammer the UK also.
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  167. @ Diana Mitford Why is a move to Ireland a 'step down for a Briton'? Serious question.
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  168. 'When I last checked 98.9 percent voted to remain in the UK' Was this the referendum that nationalists ignored?
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  169. Yesterday Russian TV simulated the explosion of a 100 megaton bomb off the coast of Ireland, annihilating neutral Ireland in an attack on the UK.
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  170. Ireland has strong values, they're probably just not yours.
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  171. The only valuable sentence in your post is the last one. It explains all that went before it.
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  172.  @hardrockuk_com  Why on earth would the Irish rejoin the UK? We're in the middle of commemorating the centenary of our departure from it. Even the suggestion demonstrates how little English people think of Irish sovereignty.
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  173. 'The Alternative is Independence' Independence? NI can't even govern itself under devolution, and its economy is a basketcase. The problem is Brexit.
    2
  174.  @andrewdouglas1963  Unionists would not tolerate a nationalist majority in Stormont, and we know how the Unionists would behave when they half the power from history. In such circumstances, how could independence Northern Ireland work politically? It would last a week. Power sharing is the only way for now. When it becomes a normal society it can be a normal democracy with a functioning, constructive opposition regardless of who is in power.
    2
  175.  @hardrockuk_com  The UK is a dead weight. Ireland is fine, thanks.
    2
  176.  @Nickle314  Ireland obeys all international treaties. Ireland is not required to have an FTA with the UK under the Belfast Agreement, it was assumed both states would remain in the EU. If an FTA was required, it would be said that the UK vote to leave the EU and the Tory parties decision to leave the SM and CU in 2016 would be considered and illegal act. It is not. It is considered a lie to the British people instead. The UK faces no deal with the EU, no deal with the US and pariah state on the international stage. Nice one.
    2
  177. That is a matter for the American's and the EU, but in any case, Ireland has still managed to successfully trade with the Americans.
    2
  178. Ireland does not have hospital ships or hospital planes.
    2
  179.  @songsmith31a  Yes, the Irish lived happily ever after, and that is all that matters. Democracy does indeed take many forms, none of includes what passes for it in your country in 2022.
    2
  180. It's 'survivable'! Is this better or worse than JRM's assertion that a no-deal Brexit is 'not the end of the world'?
    2
  181. Well, there's the 48%...
    2
  182. Ireland is not a British Isle.
    2
  183. What name does this person got by?
    2
  184. What doubts? It is certain that the UK will become a satellite of the European Union post-Brexit.
    2
  185. I can't wait to see a Brit putting an American President 'in his place', especially when they need a trade deal with the US.
    2
  186. Sorry, the Good Friday/Belfast Agreement says otherwise. Cheers.
    2
  187. Well, the EU has been waiting for the UK. The British have been discussing Brexit with itself for over three years...
    2
  188. How were the Irish people 'bullied into a dictatorship'? Ireland did not return to the UK.
    2
  189. Excellent. The UK will be much weaker then.
    2
  190. The Shinners are really well coached by PR people. Their interviews are always easy though, they are constantly asked the same questions.
    2
  191. The republic has a higher standard of living than the Northern Ireland.
    2
  192.  @Typhin That's a good question. Higher average salaries, higher old age pension, higher minimum wage...but the biggest difference is that the living standard in NI is inflated by large annual transfers from Westminster. In the republic, it is generated by economic activity. In a united Ireland, investment in the economy - which is higher in the republic - would offset the subsidized NI economy over time.
    2
  193. What is wrong with her?
    2
  194.  @thequietman7817  The will of the English people...
    2
  195.  @thequietman7817  On the contrary - that is precisely what they will do. They will take their independence and pool their sovereignty with the other small nations of Europe. It is just a matter of time...
    2
  196. Because the British keep finding new problems, every time the EU comes up with a solution. This indicates the UK is negotiating in bad faith.
    2
  197. Who is Padrig Pierce? How is the EU a 'Commy Dictatorship'?
    2
  198. Yes, they hold Westminster in contempt.
    2
  199.  @SidFredrickson  What part of Irish culture is not being preserved? Irish culture and identity has never been more confident.
    2
  200. Could be worse. They could have had Boris Johnson, he was even born in America.
    2
  201. The great reset?
    2
  202. Pollocks to that.
    2
  203. A coup! lol! That would put the tin hat on it alright! Goodbye British democracy, hello banana republic.
    2
  204. The protocol is going nowhere. The British government have accepted it long ago - indeed it was their suggestion - all that remains is for the British government to iron out some issues in relation to it with the EU. If the protocol was to be scrapped, there will need to be a hard border in Ireland - the EU will not agree to that, and neither will the US. This is why the UK will not walk away from their obligations. What is required for unionism is for the whole of the UK to return to the Single Market. Brexit is the problem.
    2
  205. The far right may well rise in the UK, but across the EU? I think Brexit will have the opposite result.
    2
  206. The is no majority for leaving the EU on either side of the border in Ireland.
    2
  207. The ECB/IMF provided a loan of €65 Billion in 2010, the UK a mere €3 billion, which has been paid back. Ireland never asked anybody for a loan - it was bounced into the bailout to protect the Euro and the British economy.
    2
  208. A lot of us do care Kevin, especially as events on the other island may bring it forward for us to have to deal with whether we would like it, or not sooner rather than later.
    2
  209. The Irish don't use voting machines.
    2
  210.  @JohnSmith-mk4nf  Ideologues.
    2
  211. Might need to bring in Proportional Representation to help with that.
    2
  212. Well then it is in your interests to get a trade deal with the EU, lest they rot in the back of a truck while some truck driver somewhere is trying to find out what form to fill in, assuming his licence to driving in the EU is recognised and he has insurance.
    2
  213.  @applesandpairs5460  If I were I'd dismiss him too, but on the grounds of his accent? I suppose it is better than dealing with the shame.
    2
  214. War with who? Brussels, who upheld the argreement with the UK, or London, who suggested a border in the Irish Sea, negotiated it, agreed to it, signed it and then adopted it only to renege on it.
    2
  215. Ah yes, Sean of Iran. The Persians could not pronounce his first name and it became 'Shah'. His people were the O'Iran's of Muckanaghederdauhaulia, County Galway. He gave his name his name to country. Not a lot of people know that.
    2
  216. Who cares what 1.5 million Irish think? 400 million Europeans.
    2
  217. What is a 'Lepricorn'?
    2
  218.  @SidFredrickson  Obviously.
    2
  219.  @SidFredrickson  A misspelling based on a mispronunciation.
    2
  220. Somebody has to be the grown up when dealing with the Tories.
    2
  221. 'I was just following orders' was discredited as a defense at Nuremberg. Nobody told Phil.
    2
  222. So would the British.
    2
  223. The UK is planning to diverge from EU regulations, so, no thanks from this Irishman.
    2
  224. In Ireland, evidence was required in order to jail IRA men - and hundreds were indeed jailed. Stop telling lies.
    2
  225. It doesn't come close to replacing the market the UK has just lost in Ireland.
    2
  226. Brexiters actually want to be lied too. They like it.
    2
  227. The UK is the only union under threat from Brexit. Ireland is faced with political, economic and social instability on its doorstep for years to come.
    2
  228. @ Pat McDonald Its the fundamentals of international trade that determines a hard border is required.
    2
  229. It depends on what you are getting in return.
    2
  230. Yes. And smuggling is usually carried out by paramilitary organisations historically in Ireland.
    2
  231.  @johnhobbes2268  That is the fault of successive UK governments, not the EU.
    2
  232. In my opinion Bruton's analysis is simplistic.  There is no certainty that a united 32 county republic could have been achieved had the Rising not happened.  Ulster Unionists have never willingly conceded anything ever. The President's response makes more sense to me - that the Rising should be seen in the context of the nature of Imperialism and that it was the British response to it that turned Ireland from a country awaiting Home Rule to one seeking Independence.  Because of the Imperial context it is significant (in my opinion) that armed groups that claim a legacy to the ideals of 1916 have failed to change the hearts and minds of Irish people and if anything have re-enforced partition.  I doubt their day will ever come.
    1
  233.  @SidFredrickson  Unelected by whom? The British?
    1
  234.  @SidFredrickson  When was a British Prime Minister ever elected by the general public?
    1
  235. No, the Irish will be responsible for border controls.
    1
  236. The people who live on the border did that, clown.
    1
  237. The UK put the border in Ireland in the first place, creating Northern Ireland and the subsequent problem.
    1
  238.  @kaba_me  The French attitude reminds me of Britain's attitude to Ireland.
    1
  239.  @eM-ed5pz  The Danes? The Moors?
    1
  240. 1500 hundred years? The country was only partitioned in 1920.
    1
  241.  @eM-ed5pz  The Danes never controlled Ireland, their political power never extended before the cities of Dublin, Limerick and Waterford and were eventually defeated in 1014. The English on the other hand, had a different experience...
    1
  242. In other news: Davis is 'working against the EU'.
    1
  243. it is part of a negotiation, give and take. The UK does not have much to offer, but it does have fish.
    1
  244. lol!
    1
  245. Stupid comment.
    1
  246. How is the EU trying to destroy the NI economy? This is a consequence of Brexit, suggested by London and supported by the DUP.
    1
  247. It only became common knowledge in Ireland since 1995, following research by historians marking the 150 anniversary of the start of the Great Famine.
    1
  248. Why would anyone try to 'starve Northern Ireland into a united Ireland'? The GFA has settled matters. Priti Patel is the only person to have mentioned starving anyone, and that was in relation to the Republic of Ireland.
    1
  249.  @thet1375  It's is certainly not a fact. It is a conspiracy theory.
    1
  250.  @thet1375  I think your the lad who is under his bed, not me.
    1
  251. Well, the WTO rules require checks...not necessarily a hard border.
    1
  252. Sinn Féin is a left-wing party.
    1
  253. Farmers in the UK are having their livelihoods destroyed the need for Brexit 'wins' in the form of bad trade deals with Australia and New Zealand. Irish farmers need to cull their herds as having a country the size of Ireland as the 6th largest beef exporters in the world is not justifiable. Doing so will substantially reduce Irish carbon emissions. Investment in The City is utterly meaningless for 99% of people struggling to make ends meet in the UK. The fact is, the poorest 20% in the UK are worse off than the poorest 20% in Poland.
    1
  254. The evidence suggests the opposite, does it not?
    1
  255. Is this a joke?
    1
  256. Other EU members are watching to see how it stands by a smaller country that is being bullied by a larger soon-to-be-external country. Most members of the EU are smaller than Ireland or not much bigger than Ireland.
    1
  257.  @johnburman966  Yeah? There is a message?
    1
  258. I think your post is funny.
    1
  259. Good job the UK never signed up for such an arrangement or worse, gave the chief negotiator a seat in the House of Lords as reward for negotiating it. That would have been embarrassing.
    1
  260. The article records two named individuals. It also harbours inaccuracies: it was not an Irish soldier who told the Choctaw of the suffering in Ireland as the mass migration of Irish had yet to begin at that stage. It was Quakers who ministered to the Choctaw and who were also helping the Irish with their soup kitchens during the famine, who were behind it. It was also the Quakers who had the network to get it through to Ireland.
    1
  261. Indeed. It seems to vacillate between whinging victimhood and pompous self-regard. It will end in humiliation, sadly.
    1
  262.  @jackdeegan3617  Not only that, but the attitudes of all the small nations of the EU - and over half of them are smaller than Ireland - would change towards the bloc. One of the purposes of the EU is to protect smaller countries from larger countries with notions about themselves.
    1
  263. How has it held back Ireland?
    1
  264.  @johnkeating4221  Yes, the mother and baby homes indicate the level of morality when we were poor. Let's bring them back too. Its a shame history has been downgraded as a subject on the school curriculum.
    1
  265. Sadly, what happened in living memory still matters. The trauma is still there on all sides.
    1
  266. Cry me a river.
    1
  267. Because they are a nation of immigrants.
    1
  268. Is English your first language, Steve?
    1
  269. Yes, Ireland should know its place. Despite the fact that Ireland was never mentioned prior to the referendum and of course nobody bothered with a plan, if there is a hard border in Ireland it will be Ireland's fault. Makes sense.
    1
  270.  @RM-hf2hs  Predicted 'Significant Disruption'.
    1
  271.  @corneliusantonius3108  The UK needs 100,000...
    1
  272.  @graveperil2169  It is implementing an aspect of it, yes.
    1
  273.  @lilbrit1019  Sorry, but the experience of Ireland contradicts your assertion on every level. Being part of UK holds back its constituent regions, and that includes England. Every revolves around London.
    1
  274.  @oscarosullivan4513  Yes. The Clearances.
    1
  275. @UCG_lPFXu37gANPoEodqUjMg It is true that there were class divisions, but your analysis is simplistic. Ireland was the only country in Europe where the majority were ruled by a minority who spoke a different language, practiced a different religion, customs, and culture while at the same time, having sole access to the law and the means to implement it. Irish Catholics had no political representation until 1829. The division was ethnic, linguistic, social, political, sectarian and economic. Ireland's experience under British rule was that of the colonised. The Irish Revolution of the 1920s was one of the most conservative anywhere, and is well documented as such. While there were socialist republicans among the ranks and leadership, they were few and far between, with most seeking to simply remove the British from political scene to allow the Irish people to chose their own destiny. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, socialists were marginalised by the new political elite and distrusted by the dominant Catholic church. The idea that the Irish were an inferior race probably dates back to the Romano-Britons - St Patrick himself had little time for the Irish despite dedicating his life to the conversion of Irish people. The Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland was justified in the writings of Geraldus Cambrensis (Gerald of Wales) who accompanied the invaders and wrote disparagingly of Gaelic Irish society of the time, so British attitudes to towards the Irish were well formed before the early modern period. It seems to me that the racism necessary to underpin the British empire was well defined too, by the 19th century.
    1
  276. The EU does not trust the UK either. The UK is behaving like a banana republic.
    1
  277. Why would it want to rejoin the UK?
    1
  278. How are they permitted restrictions?
    1
  279.  @colincolin13  My understanding is that they are all to be closed from 26th December?
    1
  280.  @colincolin13  well, we do have to feed ourselves, right?
    1
  281. I can't see the DUP and the Alliance agreeing on very much.
    1
  282.  Mark Gable  What??
    1
  283. I think I need to clarify what I meant by my comment. Given the history between the two countries, it is still astonishing to me to see members of the British royal family laying wreaths in remembrance of those who fought against those who served what these royals represent. The Irish freedom fighters were considered to be committing treason against 'the Crown'. I welcome that things have changed. It is a sign that relations have matured and I hope they continue to do so.
    1
  284.  @eckyx9019  Well, it could mean Brexit but without the actual consequences of Brexit.
    1
  285. The Loyalist community trusts nobody - they think everybody is going to sell them out. Like the Tories have done.
    1
  286. No, Ronald Regan was in Ireland in 1984.
    1
  287. We know from the Nordic countries that Socialism does work. Which country is the UK more like? Norway or Venezuela?
    1
  288. There aren't any.
    1
  289. They are just asking the question that the Brexiteer viewers would like asked. They're not the brightest people in Britain, many of them.
    1
  290. Actually, it is mainly the English people who have spoken. Its just that everybody else in the UK has to follow the decisions of an English voting bloc that is happy with democratic deficits when it suits them.
    1
  291. Stupid comment.
    1
  292.  @Redondo9  Or go out of business.
    1
  293. President Putin cowers in the Kremlin, in fear of catching Covid while President Zelenskyy is on the frontline, fighting for his country. One is a coward, the other is a true leader of his people.
    1
  294. The proportional representation system of voting requires a great deal of counting, as it is a list system and every vote counts. It is the most democratic system for elections in multi-party states as it gives a voice to minority parties (essential in Northern Ireland). Sinn Féin are popular among Catholics, but their Protestants never stop attacking them, which is why comments are turned off on their channels. Sinn Féin supporters are just as abusive.
    1
  295. Scotland only trades more with the rest of the UK because it is part of the UK; once it is free of reduce its dependence on the UK market, just like Ireland did, increasing prosperity and raising living standards.
    1
  296. Ireland IS pushing for a deal.
    1
  297. It might be because it is irrelevant.
    1
  298. That's because English nationalist are also racist. They don't have to be.
    1
  299.  @2804Freedom  Trump has no friends, he has victims.
    1
  300.  @2804Freedom  His victims are the American people, and anybody the US does a trade deal with under Trump...or even Biden.
    1
  301. The EU will not give the UK the benefits of membership of the EU, while it is not a member. Otherwise, what would be point of the EU in the first place?
    1
  302. Bridgen is a moron. He claimed he was entitled to an Irish passport on the grounds of being English in a radio interview. Now he thinks sentiment is at the heart of trade deals. He is in for a rude awakening, methinks.
    1
  303.  @markdoherty8161  Because it is not 'ruled by Brussels'.
    1
  304. I care.
    1
  305. Nationalists do not want a border poll - those in NI are just as suspicious of Dublin as Unionists are, while in the south Nationalists like the idea of unity in principle but not now and not before they know what it will look like. People on both sides of the border are more interested in bread and butter issues and not having the DUP trying to pull a fast one on the GFA. Unionism has totally fractured and the DUP have played into the hands of Sinn Feiners, allowing it to grow slowly north of the border; in the Republic people are tired of the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and the Shinners only needed to move more towards the centre in order to pick up votes. It is likely the will be in power in Dublin after the next general election. At that point the Shinners will start working on unity, but nothing will alienate many of their new voters faster than if it becomes a distraction from bread and butter issues. Changing expectations, the decline of unionism and the volatile and changing political landscape in Britain makes the break up of the union and a Irish unity inevitable. Its just not imminent.
    1
  306. About 40 million do.
    1
  307.  @icdgyixify  The position will be the same, Irish interests first. From Monday next, Ireland will be more relevant to the UK than at any time in our shared history. Irish influence over your relationship with both Ireland and the EU will be balanced against a UK that has voted to be weaker in relation to its neighbours.
    1
  308. How are the elites 'subverting democracy'? Varadkar is leader because of democracy!
    1
  309. England and Wales will form a new country: Former United Kingdom of England and Wales. FUKEW for short.
    1
  310. Where are the airports with no planes and motorways with no cars?
    1
  311. Any evidence how much EU money was used for the building of the airport if any? I've been Spanish motorways, they didn't look almost free of traffic to me. Perhaps the UK needs to invest in its infrastructure?
    1
  312. The UK does want and need a deal with the largest trading bloc located on its doorstep.
    1
  313. The German car industry has stated publicly that it supports the EU position. All its growth markets are outside the EU - the UK is a declining market - and it understands that maintaining the SM and CU is best for their industry. The UK will have no problem getting trade deals post Brexit. Its just that they will the third rate, with the UK as the rule taker rather than the rule maker with bigger nations as it will have no deal with the EU to fall back on.
    1
  314. No. One of his ancestors left Ireland in 1800s and he is proud of his Irish heritage. The UK has made a lot of claims in relation to NI and all of it was laughable. The Irish government, Northern Ireland nationalists, the EU and the US think those claims are a joke also
    1
  315.  @noodlyappendage6729  Pathetic.
    1
  316.  Ainsley Govan  Not according to many who voted for Sinn Féin.
    1
  317.  Ainsley Govan  It seems to be both. The only people bleating on about unity in these recent elections were the DUP...
    1
  318. The people of the UK voted in the referendum, but the people of Scotland voted to remain. Having to leave the EU is one of the reasons the people of Scotland voted not to go independent in 2014...now circumstances have changed.
    1
  319.  @michaelsteele4433  The results of the latest census will tell a different story.
    1
  320. I'm curious to know who would make a good Taoiseach in the eyes of the commentators below.
    1
  321. Why did they walk out in 2017?
    1
  322. Can't send troops, it will result in a world war. We can, however, put serious pressure on the Russian economy and continue to support the Ukrainians with arms and intelligence.
    1
  323. What polls reflect additional millions who want to leave because politicians have betrayed them?
    1
  324. Well, only the potato failed...
    1
  325. I'd say God is busy trying to save the UK. How many Taoiseach's have the British had since 2016?
    1
  326. A condition of any deal with the EU is the requirement that the UK produce a solution to the fact that the UK leaving the Customs Union and Single Market will mean a hard border in Ireland. Brexit must not change the open border which came about through the peace agreement democratically voted for by the people of Ireland.
    1
  327. Don't worry, the actual Irish have their own constitutional definition of the Nation which covers all that. Ireland's national identity has never been stronger.
    1
  328.  @ballshippin3809  We'll be fine, we survived the British.
    1
  329.  @ballshippin3809  Nope, sorry, it wont happen in Ireland. In Ireland we're quite good at integration, unlike the UK.
    1
  330. Your English is excellent.
    1
  331. Ukraine is not in NATO.
    1
  332. I would have said the opposite.
    1
  333. And that will make Russia a barbaric country, a pariah state.
    1
  334. How's controlling your borders working out?
    1
  335.  Original Ripper  His heritage is Irish, his nationality is American.
    1
  336.  Original Ripper  We are all mongrels.
    1
  337.  @SaoirsenahÉireann1  Name a Taoiseach elected by the public. Just one. Cheers.
    1
  338. His constituents voted him into the Dáil. The Dáil elected him Taoiseach, in a coalition pact with the Fianna Fáil party.
    1
  339.  @tjh_lfc8326  Is your house a nation in union with England?
    1
  340.  @tjh_lfc8326  Oh, what happened to 'Its a big world out there'? It is most likely that the Scots would be fast tracked into the EU, especially as the UK is likely to stick closely EU rules and regs.
    1
  341.  @tjh_lfc8326  I'm unaware of the EU putting accession dates on countries that have never applied for membership because they are not even independent yet.
    1
  342. Its too hard to read all that without punctuation.
    1
  343. I don't think so.
    1
  344.  @martinmcmullen5161  ?? The UK is one leaving the EU, the EU is the not leaving the UK...the UK is the one putting up barriers!
    1
  345.  @janosik150  Ukrainians were attacking Russian fomented, Russian backed rebels inside Ukraine, as they are entitled to do as a sovereign independent country.
    1
  346.  @janosik150  No, Russian people are not rebels, but the Russian government fomented, funded and controlled an uprising in the Russian speaking areas in order to undermine the sovereign state of Ukraine. They did this, contrary to an agreement with Ukraine from 1994 not to do so. They augmented those rebels with regular Russian troops dressed as rebels to ensure the Ukrainians could not defeat them. Today Russia has invaded Donbass, but the Russian speaking people are resisting them. They don't want war. They like democracy, freedom and prosperity. The only claims that the ethnic Russians in Ukraine are being badly treated are the Russian government. And the Russian government tells lies about everything. The whole world is against Putin. Putin will soon be defeated. He cannot win.
    1
  347. I think we can be sure they will not make the mistake they made in last general election again.
    1
  348. Who needs experts, right?
    1
  349.  @Typhin  I cant speak to the cost of living in NI, though I agree that Dublin is a problem. The republic is too centralused. In any new Ireland federalisstion might help to shift that balance sway from Dublin and out into the rest of the country. It would also allow NI to retrain its identity.
    1
  350.  @peterwilliamallen1063  I haven't seen any evidence that Brexit has been a success. All the news seems to be bad. What does a successful Brexit look like anyway?
    1
  351.  @peterwilliamallen1063  Why was the UK unable to trade with the rest of the world as a member of the EU? Other members are....
    1
  352.  @peterwilliamallen1063  Great. So who does Brussels dictate to EU members that it cannot trade with? If the UK wants to trade without ties, why did it sign a TCA with the EU?
    1
  353.  @peterwilliamallen1063  How come Germany, Ireland and other countries trade quite freely with countries outside the EU? The French are selling Rafale jet fighters to the Indians - how did that happen? The Swedes are selling Saab Gripen fighters to Brazil - no trade deal here either. Why does Germany sell more stuff to China as a member than the UK does outside the EU? How does Ireland sell more stuff to the US per head of population than the UK when the EU has no trade deal with the US?
    1
  354. The bloc existed before the UK ever joined, it will survive without it.
    1
  355. And the evidence for that is...
    1
  356. @Pan-Britannic Syndicalist Socialist That is not an experience of him I recognise...
    1
  357. What action that?
    1
  358. 'Europe has known about Brexit for more then 3 yrs now, so it will have to be no deal then simple as that.' The UK has been unavailable to negotiate a trade deal up to now, as it spent 3 years negotiating with itself. 'Ireland are saying that Europe may gang up on the UK on what they want...' Ireland is not saying that, at all. '...how dare they I mean all the things that the United Kingdom has has done for Europe & this is how they treat us just because we wanted our country back' Why are Brexiters so full of self-pity? What did the UK do for EU?
    1
  359. Control for what purpose?
    1
  360.  @cyro-hogmanyt3903  I don't understand what that means.
    1
  361. By listening to their PM? Kind of drives a coach and four through the Brexiter notion that the EU is a 'dictatorship'.
    1
  362. Famous last words... The collapse/dissolution/break up has already begun.
    1
  363. The break up of the UK began in the late 90s with the devolution for Scotland and in NI the Belfast Agreement. The Scots are gradually moving away from Westminster while NI can vote to leave the UK at any time and unite with the UK. Brexit has shown the extent to which English ambitions and world view differs from the others. Brexit has brought the EU together. Eurosceptics in the EU are seeking to reform the EU from within rather than try to leave it. There isn't a cigarette paper between any of the countries in the EU regarding moving on the WA, the border, the Four Freedoms... British Eurosceptics have been predicting the end of the European project since 1958.
    1
  364. It actually began with the Treaty of Rome.
    1
  365. The people of Northern Ireland could not agree on what that new state would look like.
    1
  366. It won't need to. The NIP is a unique opportunity for Northern Ireland to attract foreign direct investment which will transform the Northern Ireland's economy vastly reducing the cost the rest of Ireland. It will take about 10 to 15 years for the Northern Ireland economy to catch up with the south.
    1
  367.  @petercutting6126  The FDI is likely to come from the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand...not to mentioned investment from Britisg companies seeking a base in the Single Market. NI has an educated workforce that normally moves to Britain for work. They can be now be enticed to stay, once the companies set up.
    1
  368.  @5888max  The HSE costs about 15 billion.
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  369.  @maxdavis7722  Ireland exercises no claim over Northern Ireland. However, partition is artificial and has never worked anywhere it has been tried. In Northern Ireland's case, it is a physical expression of social, cultural, sectarian and economic divisions within Northern Ireland. These divisions need to be removed in order for there to be unity within Northern Ireland. NI is contested territory because of its colonial experience. As these divisions wain, unity with the south will quite naturally come about leading to the creation of a new state.
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  370.  @maxdavis7722  The border was only ever meant to be temporary when it was brought in. It was intended that unionists and nationalists would work our their differences and unite, but the Unionists had no intention of doing so. The border itself is not natural.
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  371.  @maxdavis7722  I disagree. The border is purely artificial and designed to create an artificial Protestant majority. That is diminishing over time and in further time the gravity of economics, social relationships, and constitutional changes in Britain will result in a transition towards unity. Thus a 'natural' unity. The train has already left the station.
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  372. I think the problem is that Brexit means Brexit but the UK has failed to deal with it.
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  373. How can the British make Great Britain great again, when the Scots voted by 2:1 to remain? And what about Northern Ireland?
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  374. The are welcome to leave, they just can't set the terms of their departure.
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  375. From the outside looking in, it appears the UK is in throes of a collective mental breakdown.
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  376. I think your caps lock key is stuck.
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  377. Yes. The only problem the English have with the EU is that they can't control it.
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  378. It is probably the last referendum they will ever have in the UK. They don't know how to conduct them.
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  379. Brexit IS the false flag!
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  380. There is no majority in Northern Ireland in favour of Brexit, and no majority in favour of unilateral action on the protocol in Northern Ireland by the British government. Brexit and DUP duplicity are responsible for the Brexit tensions, along with the civil war inside the Tory party.
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  381. It's from his mother's side.
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  382. The UK can only provide 60% of its own food needs.
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  383. Is it because JFK never even mentioned Northern Ireland when he visited in 1963?
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  384. 'A border and check should have been erected immediately and hasten the process of dismantling Brexit in its tracks.' Where?
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  385.  @tomipresley6246  The whole point of the protocol is to maintain the status quo, not create a new border on the island of Ireland that nobody voted for!
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  386. Evidence: https://www.independent.ie/business/brexit/border-checks-after-nodeal-brexit-will-only-be-a-temporary-arrangement-coveney-38491650.html
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  387. Yes, for the first time in my life, I think a united Ireland is a very real possibility now.
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  388.  @thedin3467  How? Through a border poll held in both parts of the island, of course.
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  389.  MsMissy  Yeah, but the others were.
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  390. They can't. The Good Friday Agreement won't let them.
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  391. How has this government 'destroyed Ireland'?
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  392. What is the WEF? He was no disaster for Ireland when it came to stand up to Brexit Britain.
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  393. No. The EU does not ask anybody to give up their citizenship - it asks them to add an EU citizenship to their national citizenship. Unionists in Northern Ireland who feel oppressed by Brexit and possess and Irish passport, are both British and EU citizens. This entitles them, for example, to have freedom of movement in Britain and across the EU.
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  394. He's the President of Ukraine, democratically elected by the people of Ukraine.
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  395.  @achintya3061  No, of course not. He is a remarkable president.
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  396. Build more houses, problem solved.
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  397.  @lucastaylor2321  Correct.
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  398. All of those products together represent a total of 4% of all Irish exports. http://www.worldstopexports.com/irelands-top-10-exports/ The UK is Ireland third largest market, representing 11% of Ireland's entire exports. And it works both ways - Ireland is the UKs fifth largest export market and the only country, a part from the United States, with which it has a surplus: Ireland buys more from the UK than the UK buys from Ireland...and Ireland buys some stuff that UK does not export elsewhere.
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  399. The problem with the EU is that because requires the will of the people, any trade deal must be ratified by the 27. The UK is not even burdened with having to get support of the Northern Ireland assembly, Scottish or Welsh Parliaments for the WA... Nobody accepts that the UK was not an independent country before Brexit...
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  400.  @stevekildare4053  I'm sure they will, that's what they always do. Won't changing anything though.
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  401. The DUP, the Right-wing creationists from Northern Ireland that are keeping the Tories in power, are against this solution.
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  402. The Tories don't like the risk. If May had not called the election in 2017 the UK would be out by now, with NI left in the Customs Union. People in NI would be happy with that.
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  403. Looks like the UK is going to fudge something.
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  404. @ Geth Creator We want to make sure there is no result in favour that resembles the result of Brexit. There would need to be a substantial number unionists backing the idea of Irish unity before the Irish government would support such a notion. Brexit and the impending Catholic majority in NI indicates that it is just of 'when' not 'if'.
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  405. Yeah? Why?
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  406.  @paulywhit2783  The Irish got what they wanted inserted into the Lisbon Treaty, fool. But Brexit is not based on facts is it? It all about imagined oppression and 'plucky English character'.
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  407. Yes.
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  408. It will be even easier from 1st January....
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  409.  @zzz22214  Excellent analysis.
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  410. I voted No in the two referenda. Like most people, it was because the wording was meaningless, not because of any anti-work, agenda, Varadkar or anything else. Leo will be remembered as the Taoiseach who failed to solve the housing crisis, but who was the right man in the right place when it came to dealing the his Tory counterparts in England and their bullshit Brexit. He put them in their place.
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  411. Matters relating to the Belfast Agreement are bi-lateral between the UK and Ireland.
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  412. Who was the last US President to attend a coronation?
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  413. 'They always talk about NI joining SI and staying in the EU, but what about SI joining the United Kingdom' Finally, we have reached peak Brexit...
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  414. Delighted. He drives Brexiters mental.
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  415.  @oculent8979  It was in the FT.
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  416. Your sovereign Parliament is the enemy?
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  417. 'The people' aren't sovereign, and your parliament is dominated by remainers who were democratically elected post-referendum.
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  418. The Nationalist Party and the Freedom Party - how many elected representatives do they have Paul?
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  419. She will be the next Irish Taoiseach...
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  420. He was elected. And he is only half-Indian.
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  421. On the contrary, everybody else in the first world cares about Ireland. Everybody except the British. But they're not for the first world for much longer.
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  422. Yes, but common sense prevailed in that instance and the authorities realised the stupidity of the name. The overruled it and named the boat David Attenborrough. It begs the question why can the same not be done to with Brexit - even through a second referendum!
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  423. That's the problem with the English, 2 World Wars and what do they have to show for it? Brexit is the politics of self-pity.
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  424. I've seen that quotation before. What was the context?
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  425. Ireland has been independent for a century.
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  426. A lack of strategic vision.
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  427. Dr Peter Collet is a psychologist.
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  428. What?
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  429. For what?
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  430. I don't think the Commonwealth sees it that way.
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  431. The UK tried that an the EU said 'No'. Your assertion is delusional and three years out of date.
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  432.  @countofdownable  The millionaires did not.
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  433.  POPPY SEED  It was announced a short time ago.
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