A much bigger driver of the unity chatter is, of course, Brexit and the out-workings of the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol, in particular the Irish sea border that Secretary of State Brandon Lewis denies exists.
It's been five years since the UK voted to leave the EU. The vote appalled those who saw it as economic self-sabotage. But those in favor of leaving were not swayed by economic arguments — and likely still aren't today.
An expected snap election in Northern Ireland would become a mini-poll on post-Brexit trade arrangements.
Boris Johnson & the Rise of Make-Believe
17/06/2021
It is no good offering people a ‘story to believe in’ if it ends in harm – but the Prime Minister does not know any other way, observes Jonathan Lis.
From the same people who brought you the 'watertight' plan to rescue Owen Paterson, their latest proposal will reignite the Brexit debate.
Brexit Chickens Come Home to Roost
07/06/2022
While the picture’s hardly pretty and certainly not what advocates of Brexit envisioned, none of it surprises economists. As a former Bank of England official observed: “You run a trade war against yourself, bad things happen.”
Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney warns about the ongoing border disputes, but he stresses that violence is unlikely.
Brexit Is Still a Hot Mess - Time
23/10/2021
One thing that hasn’t? Brexit, Britain’s exit from the European Union, is still a hot mess. / The latest chapter in the saga has the British government threatening to go “nuclear” and invoke Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol—not good for already tense U.K.-E.U. relations.
Brexit May Spoil Johnson’s G-7 Party
09/06/2021
The Brexit bills are starting to fall due for Boris Johnson just as the U.K. prime minister seeks to cast himself as a global statesman leading the Group of Seven’s fight to defeat Covid-19.
The former prime minister’s hollow catchphrase captured a fundamental truth—just not the one she thought it did.
No matter that they negotiated and signed up to the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) less than a year ago, it is increasingly clear that they did so with little or no intention to honour what they agreed with the EU.
Brexit: is it sustainable?
08/07/2021
In January 2020, as Britain was about to exit the EU, a post appeared on the London School of Economics (LSE) blog musing about the mechanism and conditions that might apply if Britain ever wanted to re-join.
Brexit’s harvest
27/10/2022
Brexit-induced labour shortages are going to be a limiting factor in the pursuit of growth, growth, growth
Ministers are portraying themselves as victims of a deal they created for Northern Ireland. A classic blame-shifting strategy.
UK PM Boris Johnson had been wildly happy about his new EU exit deal; then he introduced a law undermining both it, and the last round of trade negotiations. Speaking with two former permanent secretaries of the UK’s EU exit department, Matt Ross asks whether Johnson is applying firm leverage – or deliberately sabotaging the trade talks.
Watching Jeffrey Donaldson turn the DUP back towards accepting the protocol is an absurd and impressive spectacle.
For those suffering the damaging after-effects, it is Brexit that's providing the nightmares.
That vote -- five years ago Wednesday -- was supposed to settle the United Kingdom's perennial neurosis over its relationship with Europe once and for all. It did nothing of the sort.
Try and find an instance of the market reacting to tax cuts anywhere else on Earth the way it reacted to the UK’s mere mention of such a simple policy. The market usually loves tax cuts. Not this time. Why?
What should we call a project that poleaxes the economy, destroys our global reputation and threatens political stability in Northern Ireland? If we had known what would come to pass, how would we have voted on it six years ago?
No hint of contrition or constructiveness in article by Lord Frost and Brandon Lewis... just menace.
Liz Truss becoming Prime Minister is the end of what little hope remained that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill would be scrapped.
With a potential trade war looming, Conservatives are stuck in an ever-more destructive disagreement over what Britain should look like outside the EU.
ONCE again, we in Europe have found ourselves in a position where the UK Government is threatening to violate international law regarding the Northern Ireland Protocol.